Annie Huldah Bodden

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(21 April 1908 – 15 June 1989) was a Caymanian civil servant, lawyer, and politician. She was the first woman to serve in the Legislative Assembly of the Cayman Islands, of which she was a member from 1961 to 1964 and from 1965 to 1984.

Early life

Bodden grew up in George Town, Grand Cayman. She left school at the age of 15 to work as a secretary to a local

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

. She taught herself book-keeping, and in 1939 began working for the Cayman Islands Motor Boat Company (Cimboco); she eventually became the company's manager. In 1949, Bodden was appointed chief government auditor, the first woman to hold position. She resigned in 1959 and the following year qualified as an attorney-at-law, the first Caymanian woman to do so.

Politics

Bodden was appointed to the Legislative Assembly in 1961, as one of the nominees of

the governor A governor is an official, usually acting as the executive of a non-sovereign level of government. Governor may also refer to: Leadership * Governor (China), the head of government of a province * Governor (Japan), the highest ranking executive ...

; the legislature was not yet fully elective at that time. Her three-year term expired in 1964, but the following year she re-entered parliament as an elected member in the George Town constituency – she was not the first woman to be elected, as Mary Evelyn Wood had been returned in Bodden Town in 1962. Bodden was re-elected at every subsequent election until her retirement in 1984. She was one of the leaders of a protest march against the ''Land Development (Interim Control) Bill'' in 1970, which prompted the governor to (unsuccessfully) request a British warship to be sent to monitor the situation. She also campaigned against the re-introduction of judicial corporal punishment for juveniles in 1967, lobbying for the maximum number of strokes in canings to be reduced to six.

Honours

Bodden was made an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

1976 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1976 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 1 January 1976 to celebra ...

, the first Caymanian woman to receive the honour. A lecture series in her name was inaugurated in 2001, and she has also appeared on the Cayman Islands Postal Service's "Pioneers" series of stamps.Pioneers II
Cayman Islands Postal Service. Retrieved 29 November 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bodden, Annie 1908 births 1989 deaths Caymanian lawyers Caymanian women in politics Members of the Parliament of the Cayman Islands Government audit officials Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century lawyers