Iris Collins
Iris Rhudella Collins-Williams (31 January 1915 – June 2001) was a Jamaican businesswoman and politician. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 1944, becoming its first female member.
Iris Collins | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the House of Representatives | |
| In office 1944–1949 | |
| Preceded by | Allan Coombs |
| Succeeded by | Allan Coombs |
| Constituency | Saint James North Western |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 31 January 1915 Cambridge, Jamaica |
| Died | June 2001 (aged 86) Canada |
Biography
Collins was born in Cambridge in January 1915, the fourth daughter of Catherine and Welham Collins, who were farmers.[1] She attended Westwood High School, graduating in 1929, after which she then studied at Business College in Kingston from 1930 to 1932.[1] She subsequently worked as a stenographer for Desnoes & Geddes from 1933 to 1936, after which she became a produce dealer in Cambridge.[1]
In 1939 she was elected to the Parochial Board of Saint James Parish, remaining an elected member until 1944. A member of the Jamaica Labour Party,[2] she contested the Saint James North Western constituency in the 1944 elections and defeated the incumbent MHA Allan Coombs,[3] becoming the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.[4] During her term in the House, she was a member of the Education, Social Welfare, Agriculture, Lands and Commerce committees.[1] She also remained on Saint James parochial board, sitting as an ex officio member.[1] She remained a member until the 1949 elections, when she was defeated by Coombs.[3]
She died in Canada in June 2001.[5]
References
- Who's who Jamaica, 1951, p125
- The milestone that charted Jamaica’s nationalism 55 years since the 1962 General Elections Jamaica Observer, 10 April 2017
- The egg is already scrambled Jamaica Obsever, 24 October 2013
- Colin A. Palmer (2014) Freedom's Children: The 1938 Labor Rebellion and the Birth of Modern Jamaica pp349–350
- "Ja loses first female Member of House", Kingston Gleaner, 19 June 2001