WEST INDIES FEDERATION
West
Indies Federation |
1958-1962 |
The West
Indies Federation, also known as the Federation of the West Indies,
with its capital St. George (Grenada) was a short-lived Caribbean federation
that existed from January 3, 1958 to May 31, 1962. It consisted of the former
Leeward and
Windward colonies of the United Kingdom: 1. Antigua and Barbuda, 2. Barbados, 3. Dominica, 4.
Grenada, 5. Jamaica (to which were
attached the Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands as dependencies), 6.
Montserrat, 7. Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla (present day Saint Kitts and
Nevis and Anguilla), 8. Saint
Lucia, 9. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 10. Trinidad and Tobago.
The expressed
intention of the Federation was to create a political unit that would become independent
from Britain as a single state, however, before that could happen, the
Federation collapsed due to internal political conflicts. |
|
The
achievement of the Federation was adopted on 1.VIII.1957. [1] Arms: Or, a pile reversed Gules per pile reversed Argent, within a bordure
barry wavy of eight pieces Argent and Azure, charged with 10 besants Or, and
a chief Gules, a lion guardant passant
Or. Crest: On a helmet guardant, lambrequined Or and Gules, a hand upright holding
a flaming torch, all proper. Supporters: Two boobies (Sula variegata - Sulidae) proper. Motto: TO DWELL TOGETHER IN UNITY. [2] In the
arms the bordure barry wavy symbolizes the Caribbean, the ten besants the ten
parts of the federation. The chief symbolizes the British past and the torch
the freedom of the people. The two guano boobies (Sula variegata - Sulidae),
represent the avifauna of the federation. The
achievement became obsolete after the dissolution of the federation in 1962 A photography of the full achievement,
hitherto hardly known, was published recently (2008) on Internet. Old, worn, sign board of the Federation [3] showing the colors |
© Hubert de Vries 2010-02-19;
Updated 2018-07-31
[1] Neubecker. p. 50.