Elsie Payne

Dame Elsie Payne (born Elsie Pilgrim, 14 May 1927 to 25 August 2004) was a Barbadian teacher who, following independence, became the first Barbadian-born principal of Queen's College in Bridgetown in 1970. She was the first Barbadian woman to receive a damehood, for her long dedication to education and the nation. After winning the Barbados Government Scholarship in 1946, the first time it had gone to a woman, she studied history at Exeter College, then part of the University of London, and went on to a doctorate at the University of Cambridge. She began teaching at Queen's College in 1952 and taught the history of slavery in the Caribbean at a time when British West Indian history was not typically part of the curriculum. In 1969 she spoke for striking teachers over pay and conditions, a dispute that led to reform of the island's educational system. She helped found the Parent-Teacher Association in 1971, chaired the Council of the University of the West Indies in 1987, and led Queen's College until she retired in 1985.