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rFirst/W A Tith her white hair %/\/ peeking from under-▼ ▼ neath a light pink scarf which matched her dress of pink and aqua silk and chiffon, Lady Allan gaily accepted a floral corsage* It was her birthday, and she basked in the undivided attention of the members of the International Federation of Women who were celebrating the day with her.At 78 years, Lady Allen was«as articulate as when she first stood by her husband’s side on the Jamaican political platform in the 1940s. Her sight remained clear, her hearing unimpaired, her thoughts uncluttered.“It was in 1948 that my husband was knighted,” she remembered, speaking in an interview several days after the birthday party last month. “We went to Buckingham Palace where we were stared at openly by members of the Britishpeerage. People were surprised to see a black couple waiting to be honoured as we were,” she recalled.Jamaica’s first Black Lady, Edris Allan confessed that the honour was no big deal to her. “I just accepted it”, she said. “The morning after the accolade, my friends said to me, ‘Oh! but you are so calm!”*. She admits now that “everything stayed just the same for me.”That phrase could probably be her by^word, as she seemed to accept so much of life’s changes with stoicism. Calmly she related the trials of her husband’s political career and the jealousy of men and women alike over the honour the couple received from the British monarchy.Her husband, Harold Egbert Allan, was knighted for his representative role in the Geneva GATT conference in 1948. For four months, he ablyrepresented the West Indies, his wife said. This honour came seven years after they x were married and shortly after he had left the teaching profession to enter representational politics.The Knight and his Lady returned to Jamaica as they had left - by ship. Lady Allan said: “Back in Jamaica, being aLady did not make any difference to me. There was one society lady who was heard to say in reference to my husband, ‘They will soon make him a Lord.’”“She was very jealous, but things like that did not affect me at all.“She is dead now, anyway,” she added calmly.In Kingston, she was involved in many social projects. “I was then a member of the Jamaican Federation of Women, served as JP and sat in the Juvenile Court at Half-Way Tree,” she said.Lady Allan was merry at her birthday party in April when she was made much of by the members of the Jamaica Women ’s Federation.*AB honour came to my hstsband after we were married,” saidLady Allan. Here she wasirith fntfbwftFSir JfiiiiitfifllWt - v. ^liu tu; u. i. «Lady Allan was also a founding member of the Beach Control Authority. “That was an education for me. I drovemyself all around the island*and stopped at various beaches. I also served on a board with the Honourable John Pringle in the Labour Department,” she stated.Along with Lady Huggins,»Mrs Morris Knibb and others, the women of the International Federation of Women went into every “nook and cranny of Jamaica.“We had Railway Lane (then called Swine Lane) cleaned up and changed the name. I was struck when I saw in the papers that it is in such a bad condition again. That is the sort of thing we did - helping the less fortunate”, Lady Allan told Outlook.She accepted her husband’s political career, although she admits she was not veiy enthusiastic about it at first. “He was encouraged to do so. His friends and associates in Portland had said, ‘Go teacher, you must go.’’“I remember the day he drove to Folly Beach in Port Antonio and considered it seriously.“He left the school room and served on the Parochial Board in Portland, before being elected to the Legislative Council. He did go through quite a bit in his political career. I think that all those difficulties contributed to his• . i .final demise. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1953.“But, before he died, all honours went to him, especially after he got married to me. Some people said that I was abit of a obeah woman,” she• irecalled, as she smiled with a hint of glee.The couple were married in 1941. “I used to work as a clerk at Nathan and Company and that is where I met my husband,” Lady Allan notes. “I had a brother who got accidentally blind and I tried to raise funds to send him away to America. Sir Allan helped me to get a passage for my brother through the United Fruit company.“I used to live at Beach wood Avenue then and never dreamt that I would live in Stony Hill, in the hills of St Andrew. Heiused to take me on long drives and I thought that perhaps he was just out to have a goodtime.• •“But he was not and it wasquite a change in lifestyle when I got married. One girl at the place where I was employed before the marriage commented that the move I had made was “from shilling counter tohonourable.”Lady Allan had no regretsabout the years dedicated to supporting her husband in his political career and the life time of service in the cause of the less fortunate, she said.In her last weeks, though she was not as strong as she used to be, Lady Allan still moved with confidence in her well-kept house in Stony Hill - a site that has a breathtaking view of the city of Kingston andits harbour.Tenderly caring for dozens of potted plants and shrubs on the grounds of her home, she watched the dawning and passing of each new day, a routine broken only by the welcomed visits erf those she knew and loved.-A Uttanny
Newspaper Details
Kingston Gleaner
Kingston, Kingston, JM
Sun, May 28, 1995
Page 89
Full Page
Clipped by
Susun W.
USA 13 Feb 2019
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