British Windward Islands

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British Windward Islands
British colony
1833–1958
Flag Badge
Motto
"I pede fausto"
(Go with a lucky foot)
Anthem
"God Save the Queen"
Capital Bridgetown (1871–1885)
St George's (1885–1958)¹
Languages English
Government Constitutional monarchy
Monarch
 -  1952-1960 (last) Elizabeth II
Governor
 -  1958-1960 (last) Sir Colville Deverell
History
 -  Established 1833
 -  Federation 1871
 -  Colony of Barbados left 1885
 -  British Tobago left 1889
 -  British Dominica joined 1940
 -  Overseas Territory 1956
 -  West Indies Federation 1958
 -  Federation dissolved 31 May 1962
Area
 -  1958 2,100 km² (811 sq mi)
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Colony of Barbados
British Dominica
British Grenada
British Saint Lucia
British St. Vincent and the Grenadines
British Tobago
West Indies Federation
¹ Bridgetown was the capital before 1885

The British Windward Islands was a British colony existing between 1833 and 1960 and consisting of the islands of Grenada, St Lucia, Saint Vincent, the Grenadines, Barbados (the seat of the governor until 1885, when it returned to its former status of a completely separate colony), Tobago (until 1889, when it was joined to Trinidad), and (from 1940) Dominica, previously included in the British Leeward Islands.

The colony was known as the Federal Colony of the Windward Islands from 1871 to June 1956, and then as the Territory of the Windward Islands until its dissolution in 1960.

The capital was Bridgetown on Barbados, from 1871 to 1885, and thereafter Saint 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. There was, however, a common court of appeal for the group as well as for Barbados, composed of the chief justices of the respective islands, and there was also a common audit system, while the islands united in maintaining certain institutions of general utility.

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