"A scholar of great intellectual stature, a diplomat and international public servant who worked with diligence to advance and improve the status of women, not only in Jamaica and the Caribbean, but throughout the world." That is the memory which remains of one of Jamaica's finest, Ambassador Dr Lucille Mathurin Mair, who died on Wednesday, January 28, after a long illness. She will be remembered for accomplishments in different spheres, none more esteemed than the role she played in seeking to advance the cause of Jamaican women.

Seminal work

As a scholar, her seminal work in this area remains highly respected with her ground-breaking research 'A historical study of women in Jamaica from 1655 to 1844' being recognised as a classic in Caribbean historiography. Her publication, The Rebel Woman in the West Indies During Slavery, placed Nanny, the Jamaican warrior woman, in context and is credited with influencing the decision of the Government of Jamaica in the 1970s to add Nanny to the pantheon of Jamaican national heroes, the first and still the only woman to be so recognised.

As a tutor and mentor to young women in her role as warden of Mary Seacole Hall at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, Mair is remembered for her role in helping to shape a new generation of West Indian women, many of whom have gone on to become trailblazers in their own right. She was a seminal figure also in the evolution of the discipline of gender and development studies, a centre for which is now part of the UWI's remit. In the wider community, she was the nation's first ambassador to Cuba and the first director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs.

But it was in the field of diplomacy that some will say Lucille Mathurin Mair's star shone brightest, as she gave service as secretary general of the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for women in 1980, and gaining another first as undersecretary general for the United Nations Conference on the thorny and still unresolved issue of Palestine.

She contributed to the work of United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund and other UN agencies, thereby earning the respect of the worldwide organisation. It is no surprise that since her passing, the present secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has extended the condolences of the organisation to her family and colleagues here and placed on record the esteem in which Lucille Mathurin Mair was held.

This was the measure of the woman whose memory is recalled today, whose contribution to the advancement of women affected the human family in our Caribbean and across the globe. She did it with unaffected efficiency and an air of quiet confidence and elegance, which places her on the list of great Jamaicans who have made a difference not only in the land of her birth, but wherever her life's journey took her.

In paying tribute to Lucille Mathurin Mair, it is appropriate to salute her daughter, Ambassador Gail Mathurin, who carries the flag which her mother raised, serving Jamaica as a distinguished diplomat and the first woman to be named permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, a testimony to the lineage from which she has descended. The legacy of Lucille Mathurin Mair lives on.

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