ELMA
NAPIER
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NAME
Elma Napier
Also known as Elma Gibbs, Elizabeth Garner (pen name)
BORN:
Elma Gordon-Cumming
23rd March, 1892
Scotland
PROFESSION
Politician, journalist, author
FAMILY
PARENTS:
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Gordon Gordon-Cumming, 4th Battalion (1848–1930) and Florence Josephine Gordon-Cumming née Garner (1870–1922)
SIBLINGS:
Major Sir Alexander Penrose, 5th Bt. (1893–1939), Roualeyn (1895–1928), Michael Willoughby (1901–82) and Cicely (1904–70)
SPOUSES:
Captain Maurice Antony Crutchley Gibbs (1888–1974), 1912–24 divorced
Lennox Pelham Napier (1891–1940), 1923–40 died
CHILDREN:
Daphne Marian (Agar née Gibbs), First Officer Ronald Gordon Vicary (Gibbs), R.A.F. (1918–1942, killed in WWII), Michael and Patricia (Honychurch)
EDUCATION
| Levana School, Wimbledon, England | |
| St. James School, West Malvern, Worcestershire, England |
CAREER
| ? | Journalist; wrote articles on Dominica and Caribbean life for the Manchester Guardian newspaper, England |
| 1940 | North Eastern District representative on the Dominica Legislative Council (1940–44) |
| 1947 | North Eastern District representative on the Dominica Legislative Council (1947–51) |
| 1951 | Nominated member (1951–54) |
WORKS
| BOOKS | |
| 1927 | Nothing so Blue: Travel Sketches, Cayme Press |
| 1936 | Duet in Discord (under pseudonym Elizabeth Garner), A.A. Knopf |
| 1938 | A Flying Fish Whispered (under pseudonym Elizabeth Garner), |
| 1948 | Youth is a Blunder (autobiography), Jonathan Cape publishers |
| 1949 | Winter is in July, Jonathan Cape publishers |
| STORIES | |
| 1951 | Carnival in Martinique |
NOTABLE
| Pioneered of village boards and self-help programmes, and along with Lionel Laville lead the campaign for the construction of a motorable Transinsular Road connecting the north to the south for the first time | |
| Contributed to 'Bim' literary magazine during the 1950s and 1960s until her death in 1973 | |
| First female representative to a Caribbean parliament | |
| First woman elected to the Dominica Legislative Council representing North Eastern District | |
| Wrote two novels set in Dominica in the 1930s and two autobiographical books in the 1940s | |
| Fought for boat landing and sea shore rights for villagers |
DIED
12th November, 1973
Pointe Baptiste, Dominica