Dame Elmira Minita Gordon GCMG GCVO JP
1st Governor-General of Belize
In office 21 September 1981 – 17 November 1993
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	George Cadle Price Manuel Esquivel
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Colville Young
Personal details
Born	(1930-12-30)30 December 1930 Belize City, British Honduras (now Belize)
Died	1 January 2021(2021-01-01) (aged 90) Inglewood, California, US
Education	University of Nottingham University of Birmingham University of Calgary University of Toronto

Dame Elmira Minita Gordon GCMG GCVO JP (30 December 1930 – 1 January 2021) was a Belizean educator, psychologist and politician; she served as the first governor general of Belize from its independence in 1981 until 1993. She was the first Belizean to receive a doctorate in psychology. She is one of the few "double dames", having received damehoods in two separate orders: the Order of St Michael and St George and the Royal Victorian Order.

She is the first woman to serve as governor-general in the history of the Commonwealth.^[1][2][3]

Biography

Elmira Minita Gordon was born 30 December 1930 in Belize City, British Honduras.^[4] Her parents, Frederick Gordon and May Dakers,^[5] had immigrated from Jamaica to Lucky Strike, Belize in the 1920s.^[6] Gordon had five siblings: Lincoln Coyi, Dorinda Henderson, Kelorah Franklin, Rolston Coyi, and Robert Reyes.^[5] She grew up in Belize City, attending St. John's Girls' School and St. Mary's Primary. Gordon was a member of the Girl Guides from 1946.^[7] Years later, in 1970 Gordon became the District Commissioner of the Girl Guides for the Belize district.^[8]

Gordon continued her education at St. George's Teachers' College. She also took a correspondence course from the College of Preceptors, Oxford, England.^[7]

After graduation, she began teaching at an Anglican school. She also served as a missionary throughout Belize between 1946 and 1958. From 1959 to 1969, she was a lecturer at the Belize Teachers' Training College.^[8] From 1969 to 1981, she served as a Government Education Officer.^[4]

Gordon graduated from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada with a B.Ed. (1967)^[9] and an M.Ed. (1969) specialising in educational psychology.^[10][11] She completed postgraduate studies at the University of Nottingham and University of Birmingham in England.^[7] Between 1977 and 1980, when Gordon was in Canada, she served on the Educational Psychology Programme Planning Committee and was a member of the Toronto Leather Craft Club.^[8] She graduated with a PhD in applied psychology from the University of Toronto in 1980,^[12] becoming the first trained Belizean psychologist.^[8]

She returned to Belize after graduating.^[7] In 1981 Gordon was appointed as Governor General of Belize.^[13] She succeeded James P. I. Hennessy, the last Governor of Belize. She became the first Governor-General of Belize upon Belize gaining independence that year.^[14]

Gordon became a justice of the peace in 1974^[7] and a senior Justice of the Peace in 1987.^[4] Gordon received a lifetime membership of the British Red Cross in 1975,^[7] and in the Belizean Red Cross in 1981.^[6] In addition to her public works, Gordon was a master leather crafts artisan, having won numerous prizes for her works.^[4]

Gordon stepped down as Governor-General in 1993, and was succeeded by Sir Colville Young.^[15] In later years, poor health prompted her to move to the United States in 2016 to live with her sister, Kelorah Franklin.^[5] She died on 1 January 2021, in Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California, two days after her 90th birthday.^[16]

Honours

• Honorary LL.D., University of Victoria (1984)^[17]
• Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (1984)^[18]
• Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (1985)^[19]

References

Sources

• Lentz, Harris M. (2014). Heads of States and Governments Since 1945. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-26490-2.
• Sleeman, Elizabeth (2001). The International Who's Who of Women 2002. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1-85743-122-3.