Howard Fergus

Teresina Bodkin was identified as a prospective speaker in 2009. She supported in getting ready for this role by six months of training by Fergus. During that time Fergus returned to his former role replacing the previous speaker, Joseph Meade. On 6 April 2010, Bodkin was selected as the first female Speaker of the island's Legislative Council. Bodkin served until September 2014.

2004 – Beneath The Bananas: Poems of Montserrat Celebrating the Centenary of The Birth of R.W. Griffith 1904 – 2004. The book includes poems in the names of individual authors; reveals "a new level of maturity and creative skill; and the book benefits greatly from the presence of Archie Markham, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor of Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University". The book was published with financial assistance from The Department of Education and Culture, Montserrat Moments Inn. and R.W. Griffith Investments Ltd. Design and layout by KiMAGIC.

2003 – Volcano Verses is a collection of poems in three sections: 'volcano verses', 'people' and 'occasional poems'. Published by Peepal Tree Press. ISBN 978-1900-715799.

Fergus was winner of The Caribbean Writer Poetry Prize in 1992 and of the David Hough Literary Prize for an author residing in the Caribbean in 2002.

Fergus was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 for services to education and the community in Montserrat, and was upgraded to Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1995. In 2001, he was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order (KBE). Fergus received the Order of Excellence from the Government of Montserrat in 2014.

His poetry began appearing from 1976, with "Cotton Rhymes; Green Innocence" (1978) and "Stop the Carnival" (1980), and his poems have been anthologised in the Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse and appeared in Artrage, Writing Ulster, Bim, The New Voices, Caribbean Quarterly, Ambit, Caribanthology and others. In 1998, Peepal Tree published "Lara Rains & Colonial Rights".

Fergus served as the Speaker of the Legislative Council of Montserrat from 1975 to 2001, one of the longest terms for a presiding officer in the Commonwealth of Nations. He has subsequently returned to the post as acting speaker on several occasions, as well as periodically serving as deputy Governor of Montserrat and acting governor when the role is vacant. He has served on several committees related to constitutional and electoral matters.

Fergus is Montserrat’s historian and has written extensively about the island. His published work includes History Of Alliougana: A Short History of Montserrat (1975), Montserrat the Last English Colony? Prospects for Independence (1978); William H. Bramble: His Life and Times (1983); Hugo Versus Montserrat (with E.A. Markham (1989)) and Montserrat: History of a Caribbean Colony (1994).

Sir Howard Archibald Fergus KBE (born 22 July 1937) is a Montserratian author and historian. He was born at Long Ground in Montserrat. He attended Bethel Primary School, Montserrat Secondary School, Erdiston Teachers College in Barbados, the University College of the West Indies (London), the Universities of Bristol and Manchester, and finally the University of the West Indies (UWI), earning a PhD in 1978. He retired from the University in 2004 as Professor of Eastern Caribbean Studies.