November 2004

LYSTRA   LEWIS

DATE OF BIRTH: 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH: Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
EDUCATION:
  • Tranquillity School
  • Bedford College, Bedfordshire, England
  • CAREER:                                 As a youth, Lewis represented Tranquillity in netball and later joined the Malvern Sports Club where she was a member from the 1940s to the 1950s. Her love for netball led her into coaching, and she went on to conduct many clinics and seminars throughout the Caribbean. In 1945, she was the Secretary/Treasurer of the Port-of-Spain Netball League and coached the Trinidad & Tobago National Team for the first time in 1952. She was a member of the West Indies Netball Board of Control when it was formed in 1954, and was the lone West Indian representative at the 1960 World Netball Conference in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) was established. She received a scholarship from the British Council and left Trinidad to study physical education at Bedford College. She later became the first West Indian to be appointed to the All-English Panel of Umpires. She returned to Trinidad in 1961 to coach the national team and to introduce netball to primary and secondary schools. In 1962, she was the driving force behind the erection of the first official netball court in Trinidad at the Princess Building Grounds, Port-of-Spain. Lewis founded the West Indies Netball Association in 1963, and coached the national team at the inaugural World Netball Championships in 1963. She assisted in the formation of the Caribbean Netball Association in 1974, and served as an executive member of the IFNA.
    AWARD:
    • 1963 - Member of the British Empire (MBE)
    DIED: July 4, 2009, in Port of Spain
    Compiled by Ronald C. Emrit