In 1920, Charles Wilton Wood Greenidge who had come from Barbados to serve as a magistrate tried again. A young man of 31, he must have found St. Kitts a quiet place with lots of potential for enterprise. Soon after his arrival, he had acquired Brotherson’s estate and he envisioned the estate becoming the location of a second sugar factory with shipping to take place in the vicinity as well. The Bungalow at Newton Ground was to become part of that complex. It was immediately pointed out to him that a Magistrate could not promote private companies. Greenidge believed in the enterprise so much that he resigned his post.
He had not been the first to think of such a project. Long before the Basseterre Sugar Factory was built in 1912, the man who would become its first General Manager, George Moody Stuart had suggested that a factory should be built at the northern end of the island. He saw this as a way to aid the development of the area between Sandy Point and Dieppe Bay. There was support for this idea at first but at the last minute a number of estates withdrew. When the factory at Kittstoddarts was built, attempts were made to link the northern district to it by boat and then by rail. In September 1919, the New York firm of F C Lothi and Co revived the proposal but once again the scheme did not materialize as the company could not float enough capital to erect the factory.
Greenidge’s new company, The St. Kitts Capisterre Co-operative Sugar Factory, was registered in the Leeward Islands with a nominal capital of £60,000 and was to be owned by owners of estates contracting for the supply of cane. Its factory was to produce 5000 tons annually produced by a 14-roler-mill made by Mirrlees of Glasgow.
On the 15th September 1920 the company invited applications for the issue of £40,000 in debentures under the provisions of its articles of association to raise the required funds to build its factory and railway. Subscribers included Burchel Marshall, (see document) J D Cardin, Virginia Ryan, Edwin Dinzey, Stedman Moir, Marjorie Clegg, Elizabeth Dias and members of the Manchester, Branch, Dobridge, Matheson and Yearwood families. Despite the support, the company did not make it and was soon in liquidation.
Greenidge resumed his legal career and was appointed magistrate in Barbados in 1923, rising to the position of Judge of the Court of Appeal. He also served in Trinidad, Honduras and Nigeria and in 1947 he was appointed to the United Nations ' Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Slavery 1950-51. When not traveling on work related matters, he in Barbados, with a second home in Malta
