Presidents

• Sir Clarence Seignoret
  Clarence Seignoret
  Sir Clarence Henry Augustus Seignoret, GCB, COL, KtM, OSJ, OBE was the third President of Dominica....
  
  
• Crispin Sorhaindo
  Crispin Sorhaindo
  Crispin Anselm Sorhaindo OBE was the fourth President of Dominica. He served from October 25, 1993 until October 5, 1998....
  
  
• Vernon Shaw
  Vernon Shaw
  Vernon Lorden Shaw was the fifth President of Dominica. He is an alumnus of the Dominica Grammar School and Trinity College, Oxford. He was a career civil servant, rising to the post of Cabinet Secretary in 1977, and retiring in 1990. He was elected to a five-year term by the House of Assembly on...
  
  
• Nicholas Liverpool
  Nicholas Liverpool
  Nicholas Joseph Orville Liverpool is a Dominican politician and jurist who has served as the sixth President of Dominica since October 2, 2003....
  
   (current President)

Prime Ministers

• Patrick John
  Patrick John
  Colonel Patrick Roland John was the Prime Minister of Dominica as well as the Premier of Dominica. During his premiership Dominica gained independence from the United Kingdom and he became the first Prime Minister of Dominica. He was a successful trade union leader and a mayor of Roseau before...
  
  
• Oliver Seraphin (Interim Prime Minister 1979/80)
• Dame Eugenia Charles
• Edison James
  Edison James
  Edison Chenfil James was the prime minister of Dominica from June 14, 1995 to February 3, 2000 as well as the Member of Parliament for the Marigot constituency from 1990. He graduated from the Dominica Grammar School...
  
  
• Rosie Douglas
  Rosie Douglas
  Roosevelt Bernard Douglas was a Dominican politician. In 2000 he was prime minister of the Caribbean island for eight months, from 3 February 2000 until his death later that year....
  
  
• Pierre Charles
  Pierre Charles
  Pierre Charles was Prime Minister of Dominica from 2000 to 2004 as well as Member of Parliament for Grand Bay, Dominica from 1985 until his death. He was born in Grand Bay in Saint Patrick parish. He began his high school education at the Dominica Grammar School and completed it at the St...
  
  
• Roosevelt Skerrit
  Roosevelt Skerrit
  Roosevelt Skerrit is a Dominican politician who has been Prime Minister of Dominica since 2004; he has also been the Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency since 2000...
  
   (incumbent)

Political party leaders

• Roosevelt Skerrit
  Roosevelt Skerrit
  Roosevelt Skerrit is a Dominican politician who has been Prime Minister of Dominica since 2004; he has also been the Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency since 2000...
  
   - Dominica Labour Party
  Dominica Labour Party
  The Dominica Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Dominica.-History:Founded in 1955 by Phyllis Shand Allfrey and Emmanuel Christopher Loblack, it is the oldest political party in Dominica. It first contested general elections in 1961, winning seven of the eleven seats. In the next...
  
   - DLP
• Edith Pestina - Dominica Freedom Party
  Dominica Freedom Party
  The Dominica Freedom Party is a conservative political party in Dominica.The party lost all of its seats in the House of Assembly at 2005 general election, held on 5 May 2005. This was the first time since 1975 that the DFP was not elected in any seats...
  
   - DFP
• Ron Green
  Earl Williams (politician)
  Earl Michael Williams is the former Leader of the Opposition in Dominica and former Political Leader of the United Workers' Party.-Early life and career:...
  
   - United Workers' Party
  United Workers' Party (Dominica)
  The United Workers' Party is a centrist political party in Dominica. As of the 2009 general election, it is the only opposition party represented in the House of Assembly of Dominica, holding three of the twenty-one seats...
  
   - UWP

Past figures

• Phyllis Shand Allfrey
  Phyllis Shand Allfrey
  Phyllis Byam Shand Allfrey was a West Indian writer, socialist activist, newspaper editor and politician of the island of Dominica in the Caribbean....
  
   (1907–86). Politician, novelist, poet and newspaper editor. Born in Roseau. Emigrated in her teens to the US and later to England where she got involved in Fabian Socialism, joined the British Labour Party and began her literary career. Published her only novel The Orchid House. Returned to Dominica in 1953. Founded the Dominica Labour Party with E. C. Loblack in 1955. Won a seat in the Federal elections of 1958 as a member of the parliament of the Federation of the West Indies. Was made Minister of Labour and Social Services. Returned to Dominica on the collapse of the Federation and was expelled from the DLP in a 'palace coup' in 1962. Taught briefly at The Wesley High School. Became editor of The Dominica Herald (1963–5) and The Dominica Star (1965–1982). Helped to found the Dominica Freedom Party in 1968.

• Cecil Rawle
  Cecil Rawle
  Cecil Rawle , is Dominica's first national hero, activist and father of Pan-Caribbeanism.He was born in Trinidad in 1891. After leaving school he moved to London and went on to graduate as a barrister in London in 1913....
  
  , full name Cecil Edgar Allan Rawle (1891–1938). Lawyer, member of the Legislative Council, newspaper proprietor, pioneer of Caribbean unity. Cecil Rawle was born in Roseau on 27 March 1891, of Trinidadian parents, his father (William Alexander Romally Rawle (mother Jane Susanna Dieudonne))being the head of the local branch of the West India and Panama Telegraph Company, the precursor of Cable and Wireless. Rawle was educated at the Dominica Grammar School and Codrington College, Barbados and graduated in law at the Inner Temple, London, in 1913. He practised law briefly in Trinidad and Grenada before returning to Dominica. At that time there was no elected representation in Dominica and Rawle led a campaign to bring back the vote, founding the Dominica Representative Government Association. In 1925 its goal was achieved, a new constitution was granted, and Rawle represented Roseau in the first elected legislature in the 20th century. Besides practicing law he owned the Dominica Tribune newspaper, which he incorporated with the Dominica Guardian in 1924. He however clashed with his main reporter J. Ralph Casimir over Casimir's support of Marcus Garvey
  Marcus Garvey
  Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH was a Jamaican publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League...
  
  's Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
  Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
  The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League is a black nationalist fraternal organization founded by Marcus Garvey. The organization enjoyed its greatest strength in the 1990s, prior to Garvey's deportation from the United States of America, after which its...
  
   Pan-Africanist Movement. Finding that the elected minority in the legislature was restrictive, Rawle led a boycott of the legislature in 1931. The following year he chaired 'The Dominica Conference', the first regional meeting to be initiated by Caribbean leaders themselves to discuss the future of the region. The delegates called on the British government to grant greater representation and self-government. Another constitutional change in 1936 made some limited changes towards achieving their demands. In 1937 Rawle accepted the position of Attorney General of the Leeward Islands, based in Antigua. Some saw this as a sell-out to a British ploy to absorb an agitator, but Rawle's growing family and financial commitments had much to do with his acceptance of the post. Within a year however, he died suddenly in Antigua on 9 June 1938 at the early age of 47. Yet he had accomplished much within those years, particularly as a pioneer regionalist in the ranks of A. A. Cipriani of Trinidad and T. A. Marryshow of Grenada. He left his wife second wife Sylvia Eva Shillingford Rawle, his son Cecil Eric Albert (a former Attorney General of St Vincent) daughters Sylvia Evelyn, Cecil Corinne, Cecil Sonia Valerie, Gloria Cecilie, and Cecile Clodagh. His eldest child, Elsie Cecil Veronica, lived with his second wife's family after his first wife, Elsie Elizabeth Sophia, died in childbirth. He also had another daughter Shelia. (This page was edited by one of his grandsons and a great-granddaughter.)

• Edward Oliver LeBlanc. Premier, Chief Minister, Agricultural Officer and Poet. Born at Vieille Case, 3 October 1923. He was educated at the Vieille Case government school and took a course in agriculture at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad in 1944. He later studied on his own for the London Matriculation Certificate obtained in 1948. Worked in the civil service as Agricultural Instructor 1945-1953. Then was employed by the Dominica Banana Growers Association (DBGA) as agent in the northern district. Served during this time as nominated and then elected member of the Vieille Case Village Council. In his spare time he wrote poetry, some of which was published in the US. In 1957 he joined Dominica Labour Party (DLP), which had been founded two years earlier by Phyllis Allfrey and E. C. Loblack. Le Blanc contested the general elections of that year and won the Portsmouth seat in the Legislative council. The following year he resigned his seat to contest the Federal Elections, and along with Phyllis Allfrey, represented Dominica in the Federal Parliament of the West Indies. In 1960 he resigned from the Federal Parliament to contest the local Dominica general elections of 1961. He led the (DLP) to its first victory, winning the Roseau South constituency, becoming Chief Minister and Minister of Finance. In the aftermath of the collapse of the WI Federation in May 1962 he participated in all of the conferences in London attempting to save a federation of "the little eight" islands which were left after Jamaica and Trinidad went independent. Finally, when all else failed, he attended the 1966 Lancaster House Conference to make Dominica a self-governing Associated State in March 1967. He became the island's first Premier. From the following year political pressure increased with the formation of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) out of remnants of old DUPP as a result of unpopular legislation passed by the DLP. In spite of this, Le Blanc's widespread popularity in the countryside rode triumphant. He was associated with the great social, economic and infrastructural changes that swept Dominica during the 1960s. The regional banana boom, Colonial Development & Welfare (CDW) funded projects planned long before, and the tide of change sweeping the Caribbean had much to with this, but locally, Le Blanc was associated with leading all these achievements. His championing of the cause of "the little man" against the strangle hold of the old elite and the raising to the prominence of local talent in all fields, and folk culture in particular, made him the hero of the hour. But in 1970 his leadership was challenged by members of his own Cabinet who ousted him from the DLP. Running with his supporters under the banner of the Le Blanc Labour Party he comfortably won the 1970 general elections. By 1973 however, faced with protest demonstrations over another attempt at regional integration, this time with Guyana, and conflicts with the DFP, as well as with the Civil Service Association (SCA) supported by other trade unions, Le Blanc was becoming weary of leadership. In July 1974 he resigned and the position of Premier went to Patrick R. John. Le Blanc retired to his home at Vieille Case. At the early age of 53, embittered by what he saw as ingratitude and deceit around him and withdrew completely from public life.

• Patrick John
  Patrick John
  Colonel Patrick Roland John was the Prime Minister of Dominica as well as the Premier of Dominica. During his premiership Dominica gained independence from the United Kingdom and he became the first Prime Minister of Dominica. He was a successful trade union leader and a mayor of Roseau before...
  
  , former Prime Minister, parliamentarian, mayor, trade unionist, teacher, sportsman. Born in Roseau 7 January 1938. Educated at the Roseau Boys School and the St Mary's Academy. Worked for Waterfront and Allied Workers Union (WAWU). Elected to the Roseau Town Council and served as Mayor from 1965. In 1970 contested the general elections as a member of the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP) and won the Roseau seat, serving in the Le Blanc government at different times as Minister of Communications and Works, Home Affairs, Agriculture and Finance. In 1974 took over the leadership of the DLP from Edward Le Blanc and prepared the party with a new younger look for the general elections of 1975. This he won with a landslide, the DLP capturing 16 of the 21 seats in the House of Assembly. He became Premier and in the following year at Salisbury issued the Salisbury Declaration, preparing Dominica for negotiations towards full independence. This was achieved on 3 November 1978 and John became the first Prime Minister. He was bestowed with Venezuela's highest honour, The Order of Francisco de Miranda. His close association with President Forbes Burnham of Guyana was much criticized. In 1979, heavily influenced by the Attorney General Leo Austin, the DLP engaged in deals and took legislative action that stirred up the population in violent response. On 29 May 1979 demonstrators outside the House of Assembly were shot at by the DDF, several were injured and one youth was killed. Representatives of civil society gathered under the leadership of the Committee for National Salvation (CNS) and called for the resignation of the government. John and Finance Minister Victor Riviere did not resign, but other members did, shifting the balance of power that resulted in a new "interim government" headed by Prime Minister Oliver Seraphin. In the general elections of 1980 John lost his seat in the Assembly and disaffected DDF members, former DLP supporters, aided by a group of Dreads near Giraudel and foreign mercenaries sought to overthrow the duly elected (DFP) government led by Eugenia Charles. The attempts at a coup d'état were discovered, thwarted, and the plotters both in Dominica and the US were exposed. Under emergency powers, John and others were arrested. In October 1985 John was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the government. After several appeals from various persons to Eugenia Charles for leniency, he was released on 29 May 1990. He resumed a role in public life particularly in sports, becoming President of the Dominica Football Association and serving as warden of the St George's Anglican Church

• Emmanuel Christopher Loblack
  Emmanuel Christopher Loblack
  Emmanuel Christopher Loblack O.B.E. was a Dominican trade unionist and politician.-Trade union:Loblack was raised in Grand Bay, Dominica...
  
   (1898–1995). Trade unionist, legislator. Born at Grand Bay he became a mason and builder, eventually employed by the Public Works Department. In 1939, when the Moyne Commission was visiting Dominica to investigate conditions here, Loblack appeared before the Commission and with others, accompanied its members to view the slum areas of Roseau and made complaints about wage rates and the tenuous position of tenant farmers. One member, Lord Citrine, encouraged the setting up of a trade union, as he had done in other territories. It was not until the 1940s however, that Loblack with the assistance of Austin Winston and Ralph Nicholls, launched the Dominica Trade Union on 11 January 1945. The union grew rapidly, soon having 26 branches around the island. In 1949, Loblack represented Dominica in Britain at the International Confederation of Trade Unions. When Phyllis Shand Allfrey returned from England in 1953, she and Loblack worked together to found the Dominica Labour Party on 24 May 1955. By that time Loblack's hold on the DTU was weakening as new younger members became more active and he was expelled from the DTU in 1957. His role as a political activist for the DLP strengthened, however, and he was rewarded with a nominated seat in the legislative council when the DLP won the 1961 general elections. The expulsion of Felix Allfrey from the DLP in September 1962 caused Loblack to fall out with the hierarchy of the DLP and he grew increasingly critical of the government. By 1968, Loblack and Allfrey joined with Eugenia Charles and others to found the Dominica Freedom Party and for the rest of his life Loblack was an outspoken supporter of the DFP. He received a meritorious service award from the state and a certificate of commendation from the University of the West Indies.

• Hon. George James Christian (1868–1940), barrister (great-grandfather of TV newscaster Moira Stuart
  Moira Stuart
  Moira Clare Ruby Stuart OBE is a British journalist who was the first African-Caribbean female newsreader on British television...
  
  , OBE; grandfather of publisher/writer Margaret Busby, OBE).

• Dame Mary Eugenia Charles. Prime Minister, lawyer, politician, journalist, known as 'the Iron Lady of the Caribbean'. (See: lennoxhonychurch.com/home.cfm)

• Mabel “Cissie" Caudeiron (née Boyd) (1909–68). Folklorist and teacher. As a child Mabel “Cissie” Boyd was always involved in plays and concerts and later composed many Creole songs highly influenced by the beguines of Martinique. A time at Arima in Trinidad also contributed to her knowledge of the wider Caribbean forms of folk culture. She was away from Dominica for many years following her marriage in 1938 to Jean-Albert Caudeiron, a French engineer. They moved to Venezuela, where she raised her family, returning to Dominica in 1957 with renewed energy and determination to continue her earlier work for the greater recognition of Dominican folk heritage and traditional culture. She opened a small school of her own and was a teacher at the Wesley High School. Supported by the Chief Minister, Edward Le Blanc, she helped to organise the first National Day celebrations of 1965. She founded the Kairi Artistic Troupe, the first group of its kind to be formed in Dominica, which represented the island abroad. Locally she researched and wrote articles on the heritage of music, dances and traditional

dress. She was a Creole nationalist similar to others elsewhere in the Caribbean at the time who raised the national perception of folk culture to the forefront of national consciousness. She died while in the process of carrying on that legacy, collapsing on 20 February 1968 during a practice in preparation for that year’s upcoming Carnival.

• Drs CN and PN Griffin. Two doctors, father and son who served Dominica in important areas of medical care at different times in the 20th century. Dr Charles Norman Griffin, trained at McGill University
  McGill University
  Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
  
  , Canada, was appointed assistant medical officer in Roseau in 1923 and served in Grand Bay from 1924 to 1926. From 1929 he was medical officer of Health and served in 1934 Chief Medical Officer until 1939 when he was transferred to St Kitts. His son Philip Norman Griffin graduated from Sheffield University, UK, and took up the duties in Grand Bay in 1954. Transferred to Roseau in 1957, he was one of the pioneers of the new Princess Margaret Hospital where he was in charge of laboratory services among other duties. Later he was Specialist Anaesthetist at PMH. After years of private practice he retired in 1996.

• Edison Chenfil James (1943- ). Former one-term Prime Minister, parliamentarian, agriculturist, sportsman. Born at Marigot, 18 October 1943. Educated at the Marigot Government School and the Dominica Grammar School. Emigrated to England in 1964 where he studied at the East London Polytechnic, the University of Reading and the Imperial College, London, at which institutions he obtained B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Botany, Biochemistry and Crop Protection Technology. He returned to Dominica in 1973, first teaching at the St Mary's Academy and then taking up posts with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Canadian funded Coconut Rehabilitation Project. From 1980 to 1987 he was general manager of the Dominica Banana Growers Association (DBGA) and then the newly established Dominica Banana Marketing Corporation (DBMC). He served the sport of cricket as player and manager in positions both local and regional. In 1988 he led the formation of The United Workers Party (UWP) and prepared it for the 1990 general elections. At this the UWP gained 6 seats and James became Leader of The Opposition. The UWP won the 1995 general elections with 11 seats and formed the government with Edison James as Prime Minister. The party lost the government in the general election of January 2000, gaining only 9 seats, which were reduced to 8 when one member crossed the floor. He is noted for his anti-Roseau sentiment, a fact that may have contributed to his losing the 2000 elections. In February 2000, James returned to the position of Leader of the Opposition.
• Dr Philip Irving Boyd (1912–84). Son of Philip Ivor and Isla Millicent Boyd and the eldest of nine children. In 1930 he became the first Dominican to win the Leeward Islands Scholarship. He proceeded to study medicine at the University of London, qualifying in 1937 after winning the Fellows Silver Medal and the Fellows Gold medal in 1932 and 1936 respectively. He served in various capacities in several West Indian territories, including Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad, eventually becoming the first Chief of the Health Desk of CARICOM in 1971 after service at PAHO/WHO (1964–71). Honorary Doctorate, UWI, 1975. National Award of Honour of the Commonwealth of Dominica, 1978.

Writers and historians

(with notable books listed)

• Phyllis Shand Allfrey
  Phyllis Shand Allfrey
  Phyllis Byam Shand Allfrey was a West Indian writer, socialist activist, newspaper editor and politician of the island of Dominica in the Caribbean....
  
  (The Orchid House
  The Orchid House
  The Orchid House is the title of:*The Orchid House , written by Phyllis Shand Allfrey in 1953;*The Orchid House , a television programme based on it, directed by Horace Ové and broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 in 1991....
  
  )
• Alec Waugh
  Alec Waugh
  Alexander Raban Waugh , was a British novelist, the elder brother of the better-known Evelyn Waugh and son of Arthur Waugh, author, literary critic, and publisher...
  
   (Island in the Sun)
• Jean Rhys
  Jean Rhys
  Jean Rhys , born Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, was a mid 20th-century novelist from Dominica. Educated from the age of 16 in Great Britain, she is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea , written as a "prequel" to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.-Early life:Rhys was born in Roseau, Dominica...
  
   (Wide Sargasso Sea
  Wide Sargasso Sea
  Wide Sargasso Sea is a 1966 postcolonial parallel novel by Dominica-born author Jean Rhys. Since her previous work, Good Morning, Midnight, was published in 1939, Rhys had lived in obscurity. Wide Sargasso Sea put Rhys into the limelight once more, and became her most successful novel.The novel...
  
  )(1890–1979). The pen name of Dominica’s most famous author who was born in Roseau on 24 August 1890 and was christened Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams. Her father was a Welsh doctor working here and her mother was one of the Lockhart family, longstanding Dominican Creoles, who owned Geneva Estate at Grand Bay. She was educated at the Convent School and left for England when she was sixteen years old. She went into the theatre for a short time but began writing in earnest in 1922, publishing her first book in 1927. By then she had married a Dutch poet, the first of her three husbands, and lived a rootless wandering life in Europe mainly in London, Paris and Vienna. Her early novels and short stories reflect this lifestyle. She only returned to Dominica once, in 1936. Her literary triumph was the novel Wide Sargasso Sea published in 1966, which won literary awards, and which, like parts of her other books, drew on her memories of Dominica. She died in Devon, England, on 14 May 1979.
• Lennox Honychurch
  Lennox Honychurch
  Lennox Honychurch is Dominica's most noted historian and a politician. He is well-known for writing 1975's The Dominica Story, the 1980s textbook series The Caribbean People, and the 1991 travel book Dominica: Isle of Adventure...
  
   (The Dominica Story
  The Dominica Story
  The Dominica Story: A History of the Island is a history book from 1975, written by famed Dominican historian Lennox Honychurch. Originally presented as a miniseries for Radio Dominica in 1974, the inaugural edition covered every aspect of local history from prehistory up to the then-present .The...
  
  ) (Official site)
• Irwin Andre (Distant Voices)
• Juliana T. Magloire (The Sea Hawk)
• Trish Cooke (parents are Dominican)

• Marie-Elena John
  Marie-Elena John
  Marie-Elena John is a Caribbean writer whose first novel, Unburnable, was published in 2006. She was born and raised in Antigua and is a former development specialist of the African Development Foundation, the World Council of Churches’ Program to Combat Racism, and Global Rights , where she...
  
   (Unburnable
  Unburnable
  Unburnable, a novel published in 2006 by HarperCollins/Amistad, was penned by Caribbean writer Marie-Elena John , who spent a career as an Africa Development specialist in New York and Washington, D.C. prior to turning to writing. Unburnable is her debut novel...
  
  ) (mother is Dominican Boyd)
• Gabriel Christian (Rain on a Tin Roof)

Musicians

• Mary Sylvester www.marysylvester.com
• Edmond Sylvester www.edmondsylvester.com
• Harold Sylvester
  Harold Sylvester
  Harold Sylvester is an American film and television actor.Sylvester was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. A graduate of New Orleans' St. Augustine High School and Tulane University, Sylvester is best known for his role on the TV series Married... with Children as Griff, the co-worker and friend of...
  
   www.haroldsylvester.com
• Scrunter and Hunter, two famous calypsonian
  Calypsonian
  A calypsonian , originally known as the chantwell is a musician, from the Anglophone Caribbean, who sings songs called calypso. Calypsos are musical renditions having their origins in the West African griot tradition...
  
  s of the 1990s
• Corinne Durand
• Nasio Fontaine
  Nasio Fontaine
  Nasio Fontaine, also known simply as Nasio, is a reggae artist from the Commonwealth of Dominica.-Biography:Nasio was the youngest of seven children born to a Carib Indian mother and father of African descent, in the village of Carte-Bois. When he was eight years old, Nasio began singing in the...
  
  
• Swinging Stars
• Levi Loblack
• Music Lovers Band
• Michele Henderson
• Ophelia Marie
  Ophelia Marie
  Ophelia Marie is a popular singer of cadence-lypso from Dominica in the 1980s. She is sometimes referred to as "Dominica's Lady of Song", and the "First Lady of Creole"...
  
  
• Atherton Martin
• Richard George, now known as Rockland
• Midnight Groovers
• Bashy
  Bashy
  Ashley Thomas , better known by his stage name Bashy, is an English recording artist and actor. He rose to prominence in 2007 after the release of his controversial track "Black Boys".-Early life:...
  
  ; his father is Dominican
• Cissy Caldeiron
• Algernon Rabess

Television personalities

• Lennox Linton (host of What About...)
• Nazarine Gordon (anchor of Marpin Evening News)
• Tim Durand (anchor of Marpin Evening News)
• Trisha Goddard
  Trisha Goddard
  Patricia "Trisha" Goddard is a British television presenter and actress best known for her morning talk show, Trisha Goddard, which is broadcast on a mid morning slot on Channel 5 in the UK. In Australia she is known as a long time presenter of Play School.-Background:Goddard was born in London,...
  
  , host of Trisha; her mother is Dominican
• Jim Rush (singer)
• Moira Stuart
  Moira Stuart
  Moira Clare Ruby Stuart OBE is a British journalist who was the first African-Caribbean female newsreader on British television...
  
  , female newsreader on British television, working for the BBC
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
  
• Diane Parish, from Eastenders
  EastEnders
  EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
  
  ; her father is Dominican

Michele Henderson, mother Margret Rose née Pacquette, grandfather Paul Pacquette, who moved to England in the late 1950s.

Religious personalities

• Brother Egbert Germain (former principal of Saint Mary's Academy)
• Gilbert Malzaire (current Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church
  Roman Catholic Church
  The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
  
  )
• Arnold Bogehart (Catholic Bishop from 1975 until 1993)

Families of Dominica

• Shillingford (E): A family widespread in Dominica that has its origins in the 18th-century English settlers. There are several places in England named Shillingford. The family arrived on the island in the 1780s and opened a blacksmith's shop in Newtown. Their names appear in certain documents of the time, but they rose to prominence in the 1860s. One member, Thomas, bought Perdu Temps Estate near Geneva, Grand Bay; the others expanded their property near the Newtown Savannah. Each had several children who were prolific in their relationships, their resultant offspring being widely distributed around the island. One such example is Thomas Howard Shillingford, who invested in shops in each village along the west coast from Layou to Dublanc. Each shop was run by a woman with whom he had children, whom he duly supported and to whom he bequeathed his properties. The female Shillingfords married into other influential families such as Royer, Garraway, Rawle, Boyd, Trotter, Green, Alleyne and Winston, thus spreading the Shillingfords' influence even further. By the 1930s the network of Shillingfords, headed by those such as H. D. and A. C. S., virtually controlled every aspect of Dominican society, from the membership of the legislature, to land holding, the import of food and other merchandise, the export trade in cassava farine, arrowroot, cocoa and coffee, and agro-industry in the production of rum, lime juice, other citrus fruit and bay rum. Although this powerful influence began to decline from the 1960s, with the rise of the Lebanese and political change, the Shillingford name was spread across the land and is still identified around the Caribbean as "a Dominican Name". All generations of the family were in the forefront of sports, representing Dominica, particularly in cricket, led by Hughes, Stafford and Ivan, followed in the 1970s by Grayson and Irvin.

• Garraway (E) A leading family in Dominica during the 19th century, the most distinguished member of which was James Garraway, who rose to the Presidency (the equivalency of Governor) of Dominica in the 1860s. His achievement led him to be described at the time as "The first man of African blood who ever reached this high honour in any of the former slave-holding dependencies of the British Crown". He was the founder of J. A. S. Garraway, the oldest surviving company in Dominica. His father, Robert, was influential in the construction of the Anglican church. The family owned Morne Prosper estate, and, much later, Mount Eolus estate at Portsmouth.

• Peltier (F) A family of French origin, long associated with the village of Point Michel and the land around it. John Baptiste Peltier was the first of the family to settle on the island in the 1730s. He had previously been a small-scale planter in northern Martinique, who then moved across the channel to Dominica and acquired land in the parish of St Luke. His descendants have been prominent people in Point Michel for generations.

• Boyd (G) The Boyd family was originally of Scottish descent and were among the early colonial families in Dominica (English Creoles). They were considered quite influential in the 18th-19th century and produced the first Dominican to win the Island Scholarship (a very difficult achievement since only one was awarded to the whole group of islands at that period), Dr Philip Boyd in 1930, Dr Peter Boyd, the first radiologist produced by Dominica, and Dr Dave Boyd, also the first dentist, followed by their younger brothers in progressive years (an academic achievement not just for the family but for the island as a whole). His father, also a Philip Boyd, was the first man with the title Mayor of the capital, after whom the little street Boyd's Avenue was named in Roseau; his daughter Cynthia in later years became the Mayor, Dr Philip Boyd's sister. Early records having been lost in the island's constant hurricanes, much history on many families including the Boyds is lost for ever. Their influence is still present today even in parliament; the current speaker of the house (2010) is Alix Boyd Knights, a long descendant of William Boyd, who, as shown by the earliest record for the Boyd family in the late 1780s, was a wholesaler importing meats and linen from England; the business name Boyd & Son is also held by direct descendants of William. More information can be found at http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~clanboyd/dominica.htm and on the wills, titles and marriages. The book called The Name Is Boyd (a seemingly private release) shows the family tree and its descendants to this day starting with William Boyd. Many of the Boyds left Dominica for jobs and other various reasons. Reference to the family is made in Lennox Honeychurch's book The Dominica Story and also at the end an early advertisement by William Boyd. Tout Boyd Foo is a saying in French patois about the family for over 200 yrs an covers their eccentricities and brilliance academically throughout the many years present in Dominica.

The family house is preserved by S.H.A.P.E. (a group that preserves the architectural and cultural heritage of Dominica) and is located on Great George street in Roseau and is owned by the Colonial Life Insurance Company.
Lennox Honychurch

Lennox Honychurch

Lennox Honychurch is Dominica's most noted historian and a politician. He is well-known for writing 1975's The Dominica Story, the 1980s textbook series The Caribbean People, and the 1991 travel book Dominica: Isle of Adventure...

Medicine

• Dr Peter Boyd: Dominica's first Radiologist and also an Island Scholar (1938) who practised in later years in Trinidad.

• Dr Philip Boyd: Dominica's first Island Scholar (1930). Received an O.B.E. from Her Majesty the Queen of England and the first head of the Caricom Health Desk.

• Dr Algernon Boyd: an Island Scholar (1932, 2nd Dominican to win the Leeward scholarships) and later became Antigua's Chief Medical Officer

• Dr Edward Watty: Island Scholar, 1942. Sometime acting President of the Commonwealth of Dominica

• Dr Dave Boyd: Dominica's first dentist; later practised medicine in St Christopher (St Kitts & Nevis)

• Dr Chapman B. Boyd: Island Scholar, 1944. G.P. Practises in Trinidad and received the Trinidad Government award the Chaconia Medal.

• Dr Dorian Shillingford: Island Scholar, 1946, and long-time practitioner in Dominica (perhaps the oldest).

• Dr Peter Bellot: St Mary's Academy Medicine UWI/Jamaica Island Scholar (1963)

http://www.da-academy.org/island_schol.html
http://www.da-academy.org/IslandScholars.html

Other

• Attorney General (UK) Baroness Patricia Scotland QC
• Ethelca Brand MBE, MSA (Commonwealth of Dominica) Community activist, Charity volunteer and Trustee, Chairperson of the Dominica Overseas Nationals Association (D.O.N.A.) in London, England
• Fred White and Alison Boyd (was considered to be an eccentric genius and a very capable self-taught person in electronics for his time and the co-founder of the amateur radio society)(which amateur radio
  Amateur radio
  Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
  
   served as Dominica's only form of communication in the aftermath of 1979's Hurricane David
  Hurricane David
  Hurricane David was the fourth named tropical cyclone, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season. A Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, David was among the deadliest hurricanes in the latter half of the 20th century, killing...
  
  )
• Phillip DeFreitas
  Phillip DeFreitas
  Phillip Anthony Jason "Daffy" DeFreitas is a retired English cricketer. He played county cricket for Leicestershire, Lancashire and Derbyshire, as well as appearing in forty four Test matches and 103 ODIs...
  
  , cricketer born in Dominica, who subsequently played for the England
  English cricket team
  The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
  
   cricket team.

• Vince Hilaire
  Vince Hilaire
  Vincent Mark Hilaire is a retired professional footballer who played in the Football League for Crystal Palace, Luton Town, Portsmouth, Leeds United, Stoke City and Exeter City...
  
   footballer with Crystal Palace Football club in the late 1970s. His parents were Dominican

• Frank Bruno, professional boxer; his father was from Dominica.

• Joe Cooke
  Joe Cooke
  Joseph 'Joe' Cooke is a retired Dominican professional footballer player who spent his entire career in England. He began his career at as a centre-forward, but was later converted into a central defender.-Career:...
  
  , footballer with Bradford City
  Bradford City A.F.C.
  Bradford City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, playing in League Two....
  
   in the 1970s and 1980s was born in Dominica. After leaving Bradford City he also played for Peterborough United
  Peterborough United F.C.
  Peterborough United Football Club are a professional English football club based in Peterborough. Peterborough United formed in 1934 and played in the old Midland League, which they won six times; eventually being admitted to the Football League in 1960, replacing Gateshead. Their home ground is...
  
  , Oxford United, Exeter City, Bradford City (again), Rochdale, Wrexham and Liversedge F.C.
  Liversedge F.C.
  Liversedge F.C. are a football club based in Cleckheaton, England, on the border with Hightown in Liversedge and members of the Northern Counties East Football League Premier Division for the 2011–12 season....
  
  . He is the older brother of Trish Cooke writer and TV presenter.
• Norbert Philips, Cricketer
• Billy Doctrove, current Test cricket umpire

• Elizabeth (Ma Pampo) Israel, who died at the age of 128, is considered the World’s oldest person. Born in Portsmouth, Dominica, and the daughter of slaves, she started working on a plantation at the age of 25 and retired 79 years later. Ma Pampoo ascribes her longevity to her diet--including lots of dumplings and bush tea. She has survived her husband and two children. Unfortunately, the Guinness World record has not officially recognized Ma Pampo since they are still in the process of verifying the claim. A Baptismal certificate was issued by the Roman Catholic Church with her birth date stated as January 27, 1875, but since it is not an official record, it cannot be used to authenticate the claim.