I would like to congratulate Dr Sonia Browne, MP for St. Philip North, for calling for the Three Houses Park to be renamed after social worker and politician, the late Mrs Florence Daysh (1908 – 1979). I have been calling for this to be done for many years, through several fora, because Florence Daysh was a remarkable woman of colour and privilege (known as Brown sugar), who devoted her life to the welfare of Barbadian mothers and children, founding day nurseries, leading other organisations such as the Red Cross, and fighting the cause of underprivileged women and children at every level. (See A- Z of Barbados Heritage by Carrington et al).
She was a vestrywoman for St. Philip, a member of the Legislative Council, and such an outstanding and popular figure nationwide that she was elected to the Federal Parliament in 1958, even defeating National Hero The Right Honourable Errol Barrow.
Also, I am told that the park is actually on Thicket Plantation land, owned by Florence’s father Howard Smith, while she herself lived at Thicket. Florence’s mother, Evalina Smith, is memorialised in the Evalina Smith Children’s Ward at the St. Philip District Hospital, and Florence’s magnificent contribution to Barbados in the 1940s through 1970s deserves recognition.
Yours faithfully
Professor Emeritus Sir Henry Fraser
