Category: Bajan People

Bajan’s (Barbadian’s) that have done outstanding things or have made outstanding contributions.

  • Blue Box Cart. The growing years 1982 to 1991

    Blue Box Cart. The growing years 1982 to 1991

    Blue Box Cart. The growing years 1982 to 1991 was one of the very early BajanThings post back in 2015! 2026 year makes 44 years since the Blue Box Cart became part of the Barbados Crop Over celebrations. Reading the article on the first few years brings back good memories. William At COT Printers, sometime…

  • Bishop Wilfred Wood

    Bishop Wilfred Wood

    Wilfred Wood is a Bajan Anglican priest who became the first Black Bishop of Croydon in 1985. He was a leading anti-racist campaigner and advocate for racial justice in Britain for four decades, from 1962 to 2002. Bishop Wilfred retired to Barbados in 2003 and continues to live there. On 15th June 2026 Bishop Wilfred…

  • Hon. Alderman Doreen Madolin Weatherhead: 5th Nov 1931 – 5th Feb 2026

    Hon. Alderman Doreen Madolin Weatherhead: 5th Nov 1931 – 5th Feb 2026

    Doreen Weatherhead was a formidable woman – who was proud of her Bajan heritage. She is a former Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Councillor who served her Pembridge Ward for 47 years. She was also my godmother. My mother – Dorothy Burton (nee Boyce) – and Doreen met while taking…

  • Ruby Cottage – A Memory

    Ruby Cottage – A Memory

    My grandparents’ home was a squat, little, grey-boarded house that sat up an inclined driveway over-looking Belmont Road which as an adult was a constant stream of vehicles roaring and sputtering as they zipped in and out of the city. As a young child, traffic was a donkey cart ambling by carefully passed by cars,…

  • June 1975 Barbados Rally is still the best

    June 1975 Barbados Rally is still the best

    2025 has gone. On this first day of 2026, Happy New Year from BajanThings… This article originally appeared in the BAJAN in August 1975. This years June Rally was by far the smallest in terms of entries that the Barbados Rally Club has held since its inception in 1957. The 19th renewal of what has…

  • The 1679 Barbados Census – a searchable database

    The 1679 Barbados Census – a searchable database

    The 1679 Barbados Census offers one of the earliest and most complete snapshots of colonial society in the English-speaking world. It captures land ownership, plantation structure, and demographic patterns at a time when Barbados was the wealthiest colony in the British Empire. For genealogists and historians, it provides essential insights into early family names, migration,…

  • Jean Agatha Forde

    Jean Agatha Forde

    Jean Agatha Forde was born on the 22nd September 1942 at Triopaths in St. Andrew, Barbados. War was raging in Europe and the Pacific, but they were not affected by this. She grew up in a safe and hardworking environment. Very little food was imported into the island, and what was would not have reached her…

  • W/O Derek Davies – A Bajan Specialist Gunner with 224 Squadron RAF Coastal Command

    W/O Derek Davies – A Bajan Specialist Gunner with 224 Squadron RAF Coastal Command

    Derek Sewell Blackburn Davies joined the RAF on 3rd September 1942, serving for nine months in the RAF regiment. He received aircrew training as a specialist air gunner receiving his wing in April 1944 and was then posted to 224 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command joining the crew of F/L Merrington flying in B-24 Liberators hunting…

  • Haunted by Janet

    Haunted by Janet

    This is a follow on post to: Hurricane Janet – 22 September 1955. 70 years on Clem Griffiths recalls Hurricane Janet. Some Bajans measure life by elections, others by cricket matches – but me? By hurricanes. My first brush was Janet of 1955, though at two years old I nearly slept through it… until a…

  • Belleville Village

    Belleville Village

    Belleville was developed in 1885 by Samuel Manning and his brother, Thomas Manning, in partnership with George Whitfield. It was designed as a model residential suburb of Bridgetown, featuring fine homes and nearly 900 Royal Palm trees. By 1890 construction had commenced and by 1898 at least 79 houses had been completed. Some regard Belleville…