The Honourable Dame Eugenia Charles

Eugenia Charles (1919-2005) studied at LSE in the late 1940s. She became Dominica’s first female lawyer and the first female prime minister in not only Dominica but also the Caribbean. To many, Eugenia was known as the “Iron Lady of the Caribbean”, whilst at home she was “Mamo”, the affectionate term for leader. 

Eugenia founded the Dominica Freedom Party in 1968 to counter the ‘Shut your mouth Bill’ – a bill to silence criticism and outlaw the opposition. She came to power in 1980 on the strength of her arguments around Dominica’s independence. She focused on the need for a referendum to give the country a chance to decide on the terms of such a big step and eventually ran Dominica for 15 years to 1995. She sustained many attacks on her status as a female leader to the fourth longest-serving female prime minister in the world. She was made a dame four years before retiring from politics. 

Before becoming Dominica’s first female lawyer, Eugenia arrived in London in 1946 to take her final exams at the Inns of Court and be called to the Bar and decided to study Law too. She loved LSE’s Library and life in London (apart from the weather) - and did not pay any attention to early attempts to curtail her natural headstrong behaviour and sense of fun. Following a 1948 New Year’s party she wrote: “Boy did I enjoy that and did I let myself go (…) A fellow barrister of mine told me that he thinks I let down the profession by the amount of jiving. But I didn’t care. I told him for after all when I get down to Carnival at home I will do a lot more than that.”