Throughout history, there have been numerous Guyanese women, receiving many accolades for outstanding achievements, having shown that greatness can come from a small country.
One such notable individual is Dame Sybil Theodora Phoenix. She was born in British Guiana and grew up in Georgetown. She and her fiancé, Joe Phoenix, moved to England in 1956 and married in June of that year. In 1972, she became the first black woman to receive an MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth II. Phoenix initially refused to accept the honour unless the council gave her a property where she could house, feed and educate homeless young girls from the Borough of Lewisham.
Phoenix is a legendary figure in her adopted home of Lewishan in South East London. In the early 1960s, she began providing foster care for unwanted children and, in 1977, founded a youth centre for teenagers. However, the centre was burned down by members of the right-wing extremist group, National Front. Phoenix vowed to rebuild. Four years later, in 1981, the Prince of Wales was present for the grand opening of the new center.
Personally experiencing the harsh effects of racism, Phoenix was motivated to actively work against every kind of discrimination people suffered solely because of their skin colour. She co-founded the Methodist and Ecumenical Leadership Racism Awareness Workshops, an organisation which offers racism awareness training programmes. She was also a leader in the New Cross Fire campaign, the post Brixton negotiations, and the famous Black Peoples Day of Action.
In 1979, Phoenix and her husband founded the Marsha Phoenix Memorial Trust, a supported housing project for single homeless young women. The trust was named in honour of her daughter who died in a car accident in 1974.
The royal family continued to recognise Phoenix’s outstanding work. In 1987, Princess Margaret asked her to be Minister without Portfolio for Guyana. She received the Medal of Service Award for her dedication to Guyanese people in and out of the country. In 1996, she was made an Honorary Freeman (mayor) of the Borough of Lewisham, and in 1998 was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. In 2008, Phoenix became an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Today, the 87-year-old is still going strong.
Then there is Claudette Izel Humprey (nee Masdammer) – the first female to represent British Guiana at the Olympic Games.
Claudette attended the St. Georges Anglican School and subsequently entered the Tutorial High School on an athletic scholarship. Her athletic ability was recognized by the Castello brothers, founders of Tutorial High school, during the annual public schools’ sports meeting.
On account of her sprinting prowess, Claudette represented British Guiana at the 1956 Olympic Summer Games held in Melbourne, Australia, while still a student at Tutorial High School. The students were promised a day off based on Claudette’s performance.
Unfortunately, Claudette failed to qualify for the finals. Nevertheless, the Tutorial student population, though disappointed that they did not receive a day off, was proud of their fellow student.
She competed in the 100 meters heats and finished in fifth place. At the ‘56 Olympic Games, no other female West Indian athlete attended/qualified for the premium sprinting events.
At the British West Indian Championship held in Guyana in 1959, Claudette was awarded a bronze medal for competing in the 100 meters and silver in the long jump.
In 1960, Claudette became a student nurse at the Georgetown Hospital. She spent approximately one year nursing before emigrating to England in 1961 to further her studies in nursing at Central Middlesex Hospital in London. There, Claudette met and married Winston Humphrey, a fellow Guyanese and Naval soldier in the British Navy in Southampton England. From that union they bore three children.
Wanting to become a midwife, she joined the St Mary’s clinic in Portsmouth, England. Her training, before she could take her finals in midwifery, required the delivery of 50 babies. Claudette fulfilled her requirements and passed her finals in 1979 as a midwife at Hyde General Hospital. Claudette became the Sister in Charge of the Maternity Unit at Hyde General Hospital and delivered hundreds of babies up until her retirement in 2002.
Sadly, she died on Nov. 13, 2013, at the age of 74, after bravely fighting an illness.
