For over six decades, Teacher Irma Richardson showed up for Anguilla.  She shaped, defended and believed in the children she taught and in doing so, quietly helped build a generation of Anguillians.

“This year so many people have been telling me how much they appreciate me.”

A Journey That Began in Aruba

Irma Richardson’s story starts not in Anguilla, but in Aruba, where her mother, herself a teacher, built something remarkable from scratch. After moving to Aruba and getting married, Irma’s mother recognised a gap. There was a growing community of English-speaking Caribbean people from St. Maarten, Grenada, St. Vincent and beyond, with no English-language school to send their children. She decided to start a primary school. All eight of her children, including Irma (the second born), were born in Aruba and did their early schooling there.

But as the years passed, Irma’s mother grew convinced that Anguilla’s (English) education system offered something the Dutch one could not. In January 1950, when Irma was almost ten years old, she began school in Anguilla after her mother brought her children home and left four of them with her mother.

Assessed, Placed, and Ready

At West End Primary School, Albena Lake Hodge, the headmistress at the time, assessed them, and Irma and her sister Bertha were placed directly into the fifth standard. She and her sister Bertha worked their way up, and when secondary school began in Anguilla in 1953, Irma and her siblings were among its first students. They had already received the seventh standard certificates and passed a Pupil Teacher’s exam. 

Irma was placed in third form and excelled. After completing her fifth form and sitting the Cambridge examination, that year, she was one of just two students selected to attend the St. Kitts and Nevis Grammar School for Sixth Form. She completed two years there before returning to Anguilla and stepping, almost inevitably, into a classroom of her own.

A Calling, Not Just a Career

“When I left school there were only a few choices, become a teacher or a nurse,” Ms. Richardson reflects. “But I felt like teaching was a calling.”

She first taught at West End Primary School in 1960, the same year Hurricane Donna struck the island. In that same year, she was transferred to the Valley Secondary School. Ms. Richardson later furthered her studies at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. Over the decades that followed, she taught: English, Latin, English Literature, Religious Knowledge, History, French, Mathematics and even Physical Education. Teachers in those years were expected to do a great deal, and Ms. Richardson never shied from the challenge.

Her French was good enough to take her into the courtroom.  She has translated French legal documents for the courts of Anguilla. But it was always the students themselves, not the subjects, that motivated her.

She shared, “I enjoyed teaching. This year so many people have been telling me how much they appreciate me and what I did for them.”

Pioneer, Counsellor, Officer

In the late 1970s, Ms. Richardson earned a Diploma in Guidance, Counselling in Education and became the first guidance counsellor at the secondary school. It was a role that suited her temperament perfectly as she is someone who listens carefully, says little, but acts decisively when it matters.

She went on to serve as Schools Officer with the Education Department, and as Education Officer responsible for examinations during the pivotal period when the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) was introduced. “It was a good experience,” she says, “but intense around examination time.”

In the mid 1980s, she witnessed another landmark moment when the Valley Secondary School was renamed the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School, honouring the very woman who had assessed a ten-year-old Irma on her first day back in Anguilla. The school was also transitioned to a comprehensive education model.

The Woman Behind the Teacher

“I am a person of a few words,” Ms. Richardson says simply. “I don’t say much. But I take a stand when necessary.”

One story illustrates this perfectly. When a child was being recommended for removal back to primary school to relearn writing, Ms. Richardson stepped in. She supported the mother. She pushed back against the decision. Years later, that same student found her and brought her a new dress as a token of gratitude.

The stories keep coming. Two students recently invited her for lunch. Another brought booklets and a mug to show how much she was appreciated. One, clearly amused by how times have changed, told her with a grin: “Miss. Richardson, you thought we were bad, see bad now!”

Her generosity extended far beyond school hours. She taught children in the community after school free of charge. She ran paid Saturday classes in English and English Literature for external exam students. And long before she ever stood in a classroom professionally, she was already teaching, helping her younger siblings at home with such consistency that her brother Leslie, she says with a quiet smile, still knows the sound of her footsteps.

A Life in Service Beyond the Classroom

Irma Richardson’s commitment to Anguilla has never been confined to the school gate. She has served with the Methodist Church, holding key positions over many years. She has been active in Soroptimist International of Anguilla, the St. John Ambulance Brigade, and the Red Cross, each organisation reflecting a different dimension of her care for community life.

For these contributions  to education, to her students, and to the wider community,  Irma Richardson was awarded the MBE. The honour is well deserved, but those who know her would say it only begins to describe what she has given.

Her Message

To teachers, she offers this:

“No matter what obstacles you face, hold on because you will be helping someone. Some children will be profiting from what you do. Don’t give up. Be true to yourself.”

And to students, her message is equally clear,

“Do your best, and do it earnestly. “Without a solid education and knowledge, advantage can be taken of you” she says.

When students express thanks for the difference she has made in their lives, Ms. Richardson says she feels happy, blessed and grateful. After more than six decades of service, those words chosen by a woman who readily admits she is a person of few words say everything.

On this Anguilla Day, My Anguilla Experience is proud to celebrate Mrs. Irma Richardson as our first feature highlight on “An Anguillian Story.” This feature was sponsored by Calvert Fleming – Superior Industrial Equipment Co Ltd.