Monica Skeete
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23 October 1923
Monica Skeete | |
|---|---|
| Born | Monica Agnes Martineau 23 October 1923 Grenville, Grenada |
| Died | 1997 (aged 73–74) |
| Education | Queen's College |
| Alma mater | King's College, University of London |
| Occupations | Poet, writer and teacher |
| Notable work | Time Out (1978) |
Monica Skeete (née Martineau; 23 October 1923 – 1997) was a Grenadian poet, writer and teacher.[1] Her work was first published in the Barbadian literary magazine BIM in 1946.[2][1][3] Her 1978 collection of short stories, Time Out, was published by Nelson Caribbean in their Authors of the Caribbean series, to support a growing educational market for Caribbean literature.[4][5] Other short stories were anthologised in several publications.[6][7][8][9] She also wrote novels.[10] Much of her career was spent as a history teacher at Queen's College, Barbados. She died in 1997.[11]
Monica Agnes Skeete (née Martineau) was born in Grenville, Grenada, on 23 October 1923 and was educated at the Church of England High School (later called the Anglican High School), Grenada, before she moved to Barbados, where her father lived, in 1937 for an education at Queen's College girls' school.[12] After graduating from Queen's in 1942, she was awarded an Ext. B.A. Gen. in 1950 (in Latin, English and History) and took up a teaching post at Queen's College in 1951.[13] In 1956, she took study leave from her job and relocated to London, England, travelling with her then fiancé Harry Skeete, a Barbadian with plans for university study in London. The couple were married a Holborn Registry Office in September 1956 and lived in Hornsey, North London.[14] In October 1956, Skeete entered King's College, University of London, where she gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Education and then a BA Hons in History.[15]
Skeete went on to pursue a successful career in teaching, returning to teach at Queen's College in 1960,[16] but also taking a posts at Modern Secondary Schools in London when she and Harry returned to London in 1962–3.[17] Back in Barbados from 1963, Skeete taught at Queen's College from January 1964 until 1983 when she retired as the Head of History.[18] From 1978, Skeete served on the Sub-Committee of the Caribbean Examinations Council.[17] In her retirement, Monica spent some years in Harare, Zimbabwe, with her husband and became a passionate advocate of African Studies. Her argument, to Barbadians, that was that it "is important to us to explore and rediscover the African part of our heritage, which has been underplayed for so long".[19]