Bajan History

Bajan (Barbadian) history.

Joe Fortes (1863 – 1922)

Joe Fortes (1863 – 1922)

Joseph (Joe) Seraphim Fortes was a prominent figure in the early history of Vancouver, Canada.  He was born in Bridgetown, Barbados on February 9, 1863.  After leaving his homeland in his mid-teens, he worked in Britain for several years. In 1884 he sailed around Cape Horn from Liverpool  on the Robert Kerr, arriving in Burrard Inlet  …

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Capt William T Shorey

Capt. William T. Shorey (1859 – 1919)

Known affectionately as the Black Ahab, William Thomas Shorey was born on January 25, 1859 on the island of Barbados in the British West Indies. He was the son of a Scottish sugar planter and a West Indian woman of mixed African and European ancestry. In 1875 he shipped to Boston, Massachusetts as a cabin …

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Cartoon of Charles Darwin on HMS Beagle

Dr. Benjamin Bynoe (1803 – 1865)

Benjamin Bynoe was born in Christ Church Parish, Barbados in 1803. He came from a long established Barbadian family. Like so many Barbadians before and since, he sought fame and fortune off the island. In Bynoe’s case, he studied medicine and subsequently joined the Royal Navy. In October 1825, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon on …

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Dr. Colin Hudson

Dr. Colin Hudson – Agronomist, Environmentalist, Inventor and Hiker (1938 – 2004)

Dr. Colin Hudson was a British-born environmentalist and innovative scientist, who lived in Barbados. His acknowledgements were not only local but also international. After studying agronomy at Cambridge University, he came to Barbados in 1961 to work in sugar cane agronomy. In 1968, he assumed permanent residence in Barbados and completed a prize-winning doctorate at …

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