British Windward Islands

The seat of government was Bridgetown on Barbados, from 1871 to 1885, and thereafter St. George's on Grenada. The islands were not a single colony, but a confederation of separate colonies with a common governor-in-chief, while each island retained its own institutions. The Windward Islands had neither legislature, laws, revenue nor tariff in common. However, there was a common audit system, while the islands united in maintaining certain institutions of general utility.

In 1859 a common court of appeal for the group was established, composed of the chief justices of the respective island colonies. Under the West Indian Court of Appeal Act 1919 this court was replaced by the West Indian Court of Appeal, responsible for appeals from not only the Windward Islands but also the Federal Colony of the Leeward Islands, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and British Guiana.

In 1939 the Windward and Leeward Islands Supreme Court and the Windward and Leeward Islands Court of Appeal were established, which was replaced in 1967 by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court which provides both functions.[1]

Chief justices of the Windward and Leeward Islands

• 1940–1942 James Henry Jarrett[2]
• 1943–1950 Sir Clement Malone[3]
• 1950–1957 Sir Donald Jackson[4]
• 1958–1963 Sir Cyril George Xavier Henriques[5][6][7]
• 1963–?1967 Frank E. Field[8]

• List of governors of the Windward Islands
• History of the British West Indies
• Windward Islands
• British Leeward Islands
• Windward Islands cricket team

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Windward Islands". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 716.

• Queen and Commonwealth: Other Caribbean realms for the official website of the British monarchy
• U.S Library of Congress – Barbados and the Windward Islands colony
• WorldStatesmen.org