S.M. GRIER

Conceived the idea of setting up the school.

Selwyn Macgregor Grier was born 1 April 1878.

He was educated at Marlborough College and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He taught at Berkhamsted School 1901-1902 and Cheam School 1902-1905.

In 1906 he joined the Colonial Service and was posted to Zaria province, Northern Nigeria. He was transferred to Bauchi in 1912 and Ibadan in 1913.

In 1921 Grier was appointed Secretary for Native Affairs 1921-1925 and in 1922 published The S.M. Grier Report on the Eastern Provinces. In 1925 he was seconded as Director of Education of the Southern Provinces.

Grier left Nigeria in 1929 when he was transferred to Trinidad as Colonial Secretary 1929-1935. In 1935 he was appointed Governor of the Windward Islands but the onset of blindness caused his resignation in 1937. His services were rewarded with the CMG in 1929 and he became a Knight Bachelor in 1934 and a KCMG in 1936.

Sir Grier died on 8 November 1946.

The colony of the Windward Islands was created in 1833 and consisted of Grenada, Barbados (to 1885), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tobago (to 1889), St. Lucia (from 1838), and Dominica (from 1940). The Governor of Barbados was also the Governor of the Windward Islands, until Barbados became an independent colony in 1885. After this, a Governor of the Windward Islands was appointed with a seat in Grenada. In 1960 the territory was dissolved with the creation of the Federation of the West Indies.