Charles Wilton Wood Greenidge was the vice president of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1968. He was secretary of the society from 1941-1956 and director from 1957–1958.

Early life

Greenidge was born on 10 January 1889 in the parish of St James

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

. He was the youngest son of Charles Joseph Greenidge, a member of the Colonial Parliament of

the West Indies by his second wife, Edith Marion Wood. He was a distant cousin of

Abel Hendy Jones Greenidge Abel Hendy Jones Greenidge (22 December 1865 – 11 March 1906) was a writer on ancient history and law. Early life and education Greenidge was born on 22 December 1865 at Belle Farm Estate, Barbados, the second son of the Rev. Nathaniel Hea ...

. He was educated at Harrison College, Barbados, and then

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...

, where he read Law.

Career

He was appointed a

Magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

St Kitts Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...

, Leeward Islands, in 1919 and Magistrate in Barbados in 1923. He rose to the office of

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

in 1925. He then transferred to

Port of Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

as a Magistrate in 1927. Later, he acted as Solicitor General and then-

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

as well as being a member of the Legislative Council. A further posting as

Chief Justice of British Honduras The Chief Justice of Belize is the head of the Supreme Court of Belize. Under Chapter 7 of the Constitution of Belize, the Chief Justice is appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime Minister. Since the retirement of Kenneth B ...

followed in 1932–36. In 1936, he took up the post of Solicitor General of Nigeria where he remained for five years. He was a member of the Logang on Development of

British Guyana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

and

British Honduras British Honduras was a British Crown colony on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony, renamed Belize in June 1973,

in 1947 and appointed to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

' Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Slavery 1950–51. Between 1958 and 1962, he was a member of the Legislative Council of Barbados.

Personal life

When he was not posted overseas, he lived most of his life in Barbados, with a second home in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. He was unmarried and died 28 April 1972 in Nice,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The Greenidge family traced their ancestry in Barbados to John of Greenwich who left London on 2 May 1635 on ''

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

''. Within one generation the etymon, meaning Green Port or Trading Place (cf

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

and

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

in England), he had assumed distinctly the surname of West Africa orthographic format of Greenidge of which he maintained a very similar

phenomic EA Phenomic was a real-time strategy video game developer, headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, and founded as Phenomic Game Development in 1997 by Volker Wertich, who had previous worked in Blue Byte and developed '' The Settlers'' and '' The ...

identity.

Papers and publications

* 1943: Forced Labour * 1945: Land Hunger in the Colonies * 1947: Impressions of Four West Indian Islands Visited in 1946 * 1948: Forced Labour updated * 1949: The Present Outlook in the British West Indies * 1950: The British Caribbean Federation * 1952: Slavery in the Twentieth Century * 1953: Memorandum on Slavery * 1954: Slavery at the United Nations * 1955: Slavery and the United Nations * 1956: Memorandum on Forced Labour in Portuguese West Africa * 1958: Slavery (Published George Allen and Unwin)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenidge, Charles Wilton Wood 1889 births 1972 deaths Barbadian judges Saint Kitts and Nevis judges British Trinidad and Tobago judges Barbadian lawyers Colony of Barbados judges Chief Justices of British Guiana British Leeward Islands judges Chief Justices of British Honduras People from colonial Nigeria Barbadian writers Attorneys General of British Trinidad and Tobago 20th-century Barbadian lawyers 20th-century Barbadian writers People educated at Harrison College (Barbados)