‘A most remarkable woman’ - Gov't hails law and World War II veteran Ena Collymore-Woodstock

The Jamaican Government has paid tribute to “a most remarkable woman,” Ena Collymore-Woodstock, who died on Tuesday at the age of 108, calling her a trailblazer whose life of service broke barriers in both the military and law.

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange highlighted Collymore-Woodstock’s pioneering military service, recalling how the Spanish Town native became the first Black female Radar Operator working on anti-aircraft guns during World War II.

“She had joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, which was a branch of the British Army because she wanted to be part of the war. She moved from Jamaica to London and was disappointed that she was given the same administrative tasks that she was performing here. So she wrote to the War Office to say she didn’t come all this way to be part of the typing pool, she came to fight. After that she was transferred to the Anti-Aircraft Service where she made history as a Radar Operator,” Minister Grange said in a statement.

After her military service, Collymore-Woodstock studied law and returned to Jamaica, where she established several firsts in the country’s justice system.

“She was the first woman in our country to be appointed Clerk of the Court; first woman appointed Assistant Crown Solicitor; and first woman to be appointed a Resident Magistrate in Jamaica,” the minister said. “She was a role model, a pioneer, a trailblazer, a most remarkable woman who proved that women were capable of succeeding at anything.”

Minister Grange also noted her advocacy for working women, particularly her efforts to promote workplace nurseries, adding: “She will always be remembered for setting the stage for women to rise and succeed.”

Collymore-Woodstock’s impact has also been recognised by the judiciary.

Chief Justice Bryan Sykes said her legacy “resonates in every courtroom where a woman now presides, and in the heart of every Jamaican who witnesses justice administered with fairness and without fear or favour.”

President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Marva McDonald Bishop, reflected on her national impact: “Her legacy is not confined to the courts she presided over, but lives on in the culture she cultivated – a judiciary that prizes talent, integrity, and excellence above all else. She was a true architect of transformation.”

Born in Spanish Town, St Catherine, in 1917, Collymore-Woodstock joined the courts as a temporary clerk in 1937 and rose through the ranks to become Jamaica’s first female resident magistrate in 1959.

Her career spanned more than eight decades, including judicial assignments in the Turks and Caicos Islands and Anguilla, earning her both the Order of Distinction and the Order of the British Empire.

Collymore-Woodstock’s life of service, courage, and pioneering achievements continues to inspire generations of women in Jamaica and beyond.

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