Elma Napier

Elma Napier (née Gordon-Cumming; 23 March 1892 – 12 November 1973), also known as Elma Gibbs and by the pen-name Elizabeth Garner, was a Scottish-born writer and politician who lived most of her life in the Caribbean island of Dominica. She published several novels and memoirs based on her life, and was the first woman elected to a Caribbean parliament.

Born Elma Gordon-Cumming in Scotland, the eldest of five siblings born to Sir William Gordon-Cumming, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 4th Battalion, The Scots Guards (1848–1930) and his wife, Florence Josephine Gordon-Cumming (née Garner; 1870–1922), an heiress whose own fortunes would slump during the marriage. Elma's father was a landowner, soldier, adventurer and socialite.

Elma's siblings were:

Elma later adopted her mother's maiden name as a pen name. Her Army officer father's reputation had been ruined shortly before her birth, in what became known as the Royal Baccarat Scandal. In 1891, he was accused of cheating in a game of baccarat with the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), Sir William sued for defamation and lost.

As a result of the scandal, Gordon-Cumming was dismissed from the army the day after the trial Elma came to understand that she was expected to rehabilitate the family by entering a good marriage. In 1912, she married Captain Maurice Antony Crutchley Gibbs (1888–1974), a businessman, with whom she had two children: Ronald and Daphne. The couple moved to Australia, where they lived for nine years until Elma met and fell in love with another English businessman, Lennox Pelham Napier (1891–1940). Elma divorced, losing custody of her children in the process. Elma and Lennox married in 1924, and had two more children, Patricia and Michael. The couple remained wed until Lennox's death in 1940.

The Napiers first visited Dominica, then a British colony, while on a Caribbean cruise in 1931. They moved there the following year, settling near Calibishie, at a house they built and named Pointe Baptiste. Her daughter by her first husband, Daphne, now 20, also came to live with them. Lennox died in 1940. Elma was first elected to the colony's Legislative Council that year, where she championed local government and development in the form of village boards and cooperative ventures. She became involved in local conservation efforts to preserve Dominica's forests. Elma remained at Pointe Baptiste, entertaining guests who included Somerset Maugham, Noël Coward, Patrick Leigh Fermor, and Princess Margaret.

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