Arnelle Williams Is the Recipient of the Joshua Obadiah Williams Award

Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 20, 2023 (CFBC) — At a modest celebration at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) on February 9,  2023, Ms. Arnelle Williams received the Joshua Obadiah Williams Award. The monetary prize, established in 1995, is awarded to the Division of Teacher Education graduate who receives the top grades in the University of the West Indies Examinations and the teaching practicum. Arnelle, a member of the CFBC Class of 2022, is a Secondary Education Science major with a perfect GPA. She is the daughter of Ella Ryner and Nigel Williams. 

The award commemorates educator, philosopher, poet, disciplinarian and humanitarian, 

Joshua Obadiah Williams. He was born to Albert Victor and Adosha Elisabeth Williams on 

October 11, 1926, in Barnes Ghaut, Nevis. After completing the Seventh Standard Certificate at 

16, he became a pupil–teacher at St. Thomas School in Lowland, Nevis. He moved to St. Kitts in 

1948 where he continued to teach and research. From 1955 to 1957, he attended Barbados‘ Erdiston 

Teachers College, after which he taught at the Cayon School and subsequently the St. Paul’s 

School. In 1965, he enrolled in the University of the West Indies, Mona, where he earned his 

Professional Certificate in Education. When he returned to St. Kitts, he was appointed headmaster 

of the Molineux All Age School (later renamed The Joshua Obadiah Williams Primary 

School). Joshua Obadiah Williams retired as headmaster of the Basseterre Boys‘ School in the 

early 1980s.