CHRISTOPHER NATHAN
The memory of BWIA International Airways Corporation lives on in a social media group with a membership of over 100 former airline pursers and senior flight attendants.
Adamant that the beloved BWEE is too precious to fade away, the group has committed to spreading news about the dissolved carrier to the world of aviation.
These efforts received a boost when I came across evidence that one of our colleagues, Pearl Lydia Marshall (later Marshall-Beard), had been the world’s first flight attendant of African descent.
Unfortunately, Marshall’s accomplishment is not mentioned in academic journals or aviation history publications. The accolade of “world’s first black flight attendant” goes to a member of Cameroon’s royal family, Princess Leopoldine Emma Doualla Bell Smith, who in 1957 began training with a French/African airline – Union Aeromaritime de Transport/Union de Transports Aeriens. She later transferred to Air Afrique, where she became chief hostess.
Ruth Carol Taylor is recorded as the first African American air hostess, after an historic flight on February 11, 1958 on Mohawk Airlines from Ithaca Thompkins Regional Airport to New York.
In addition to my research at the National Archives and the Heritage Library, jeweller Gillian Bishop connected me with Marshall’s daughter Lisa, who lives in San Francisco, and she connected some dots. She also provided newspaper clippings and some family background about her mother’s flying career.
[caption id="attachment_970796" align="alignnone" width="168"] Pearl Marshall-Beard -[/caption]
Marshall’s historic journey began in 1950: encouraged by Sir Hugh Wooding, former mayor of Port of Spain and later chief justice, and Beryl Mc Burnie, founder of the Little Carib Theatre, she entered the previously all-white Jaycees Carnival Queen Show in 1950 and placed first runner-up to Marion Halfhide-Borde.
Ironically, one excuse she later received from Lady Wooding for not winning was that the first prize was a trip to New York, but the judges unanimously decided: “New York was not ready for a black queen.”
During that period, the Trinidad Carnival Queen shows were an upper-crust, high-profile pageant; the contestants were sponsored by major corporations such as Pan American Airways, Trinidad Publishing Co Ltd, Agostini Bros Ltd, JT Johnston and Furness Withy.
Unable to secure a sponsor, Marshall competed as Miss Little Carib, since she was one of Mc Burnie’s dancers. But insufficient financial support and no sponsors meant little money for the designer wardrobes expensive shoes and jewellery of the other contestants, so it must have seemed like a Cinderella movie script to the statuesque five-foot-seven-and-a-half beauty from San Fernando. Her first outfit was casual shorts and a simple blouse, the second a three-quarter-length, grape-coloured evening dress, which she had to wear for the formal evening-wear segment.
Though she did not win, the experience clearly boosted her confidence and in 1955 she applied to join BWIA's Inflight Servi
