Dame nita barrow governor general awards

November 15, 1916
December 19, 1995

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The sister of one Barbados' national heroes, the cousin of a second, and the niece of a third, Ruth Nita Barrow was born at Nestfield, Saint Lucy, Barbados, the second child and first daughter of the five children born to Reginald and Ruth O'Neale Barrow.

Her father, an Anglican clergyman, worked in several Caribbean territories.

In 1928 she was among the first seventy-nine entrants at St. Michael's Girls' School, the first secondary school for black girls in Barbados, graduating in 1934 with a grade one senior school certificate.

Against the wishes of her relatives, in 1935 Barrow enrolled as a student nurse at the Barbados General Hospital, and in midwifery training in Trinidad and Tobago five years later.

Following social unrest in many of the islands in the 1930s, the British government allocated greater resources to public health and provided greater employment opportunities for British Caribbean women, particularly in th