Born: 7 December 1880, Antigua and Barbuda
Died: 29 April 1972
Country most active: Antigua and Barbuda
Also known as: Georgiana Ellen Robinson
Dame Nellie Robinson, DC, MBE was a pioneer of education in Antigua who broke down class and colour barriers to help provide all children with access to education. She was the first woman to receive Antigua and Barbuda’s Order of the National Hero.
The second of eight children, when she was sent to the United States for schooling around age 10, returning to Antigua around age 14. Back home, Robinson enrolled in the Methodist school Coke Memorial College. Although Robinson was Anglican, Coke allowed students of African heritage regardless of social class, which the elite Anglican schools prohibited. Because the government only funded Anglican schools, Coke was only operational for about a decade due to the lack of funding. When Coke closed, Robinson studied independently, passing her Senior Cambridge examination and obtaining certificates in music and music theory.
Robinson was determined to improve the educational opportunities for black students and her brother Thomas suggested she found a school herself. She did so, but Thomas – for whom she named the school – did not live to see the opening, having died of typhoid fever. In 1898, when she was 18, Robinson opened the Thomas Oliver Robinson Memorial School (generally known as TOR or TOR Memorial) for children of all races, classes and faiths. In a radical move for the time, Robinson admitted illegitimate children and lobbied to change the official practice of barring these children from secondary school. Hers was also the island’s first coeducational secondary school, successfully challenging officials who tried to close her school by claiming the teachers were unqualified and the conditions were unsanitary.
At first, most of her students were mixed-race mulattos because most blacks could not afford schooling – this was only 40 years since slavery was abolished and British colonialism imposed class and race inequalities upon people of non-European backgrounds. As soon as she was financially able, Robinson began funding scholarships for poor, black children. Students were encouraged in both intellectual and artistic pursuits, and the school staged performances of musicals and operettas. As the school’s reputation grew, enrollment increased and soon Robinson’s classes represented the social spectrum of the country.
In 1912, Robinson served on the Water Preservation Committee, formed to expand access to piped water across the country. In 1915, during World War I, Robinson was the only black woman to serve on the Antiguan Mobilization Committee, recruiting men to travel to Canada or Britain to enlist, though she also lobbied for improvements in the living conditions for men being sent overseas for service. She helped establish The Girl Guides Association of Antigua and Barbuda and served as on the association’s committee. In 1935, she was given a commemorative medal at King George V’s Silver Jubilee in recognition of her contributions to education and in 1941 she was honored as a Member of Order of the British Empire.
In 1950, after having served for more than 60 years as headmistress of TOR Memorial, Robinson retired, but continued to be active, encouraging participation in cultural activities and in the 1950s supported the development of Antigua Carnival.
In 1999, a panel organized by the Professional Organization of Women in Antigua named Robinson as the Outstanding Woman of the Century. In 2006, at the celebrations for Antigua’s 25th independence anniversary, she was named a Dame Companion of the Order of the National Hero.