In Anguilla for one night last weekend was Dr. Macmilla L. Hodge, an Anguillian national serving in private practice in St. Kitts.
He received his early education first at the Old East End School in Anguilla, then in St. Kitts and later again in Anguilla at the same school.

Doctor M. L. Hodge, wife and son at Wallblake Airport

In 1949 he joined 155 students from a number of islands to sit the Teachers’ Scholarship Examination in St. Kitts to attend the Grammar School there for three years and then to return to the elementary schools to teach. He did so well that he reached a level where he could sit the Senior Cambridge Exam even though it was not a requirement for the Teachers’ Scholarship holders. He excelled in that examination to such a degree that the headmaster of the Grammar School, U. G. Crick, requested that the scholarship be extended for another two years to allow him to proceed to Sixth Form to sit the Cambridge Higher School Certificate, now called A’ Level.

In 1952 the Leeward Islands Scholarship was introduced and he won it the following year. This enabled him to pursue medical studies at the then University College of The West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. Anguilla celebrated a public holiday in honour of that achievement. Prior to going to Jamaica he taught for a brief period at the Valley Secondary School in Anguilla.

On graduation with the MB and BS (London) degrees, he did his internship at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados, following which he took up an appointment as Medical Officer in St. Kitts in 1963. In 1966 he won a Commonwealth Scholarship to study Pediatrics and General and Internal Medicine in the United Kingdom. Before retuning to St. Kitts he served as Registrar of Medicine at one of Edinburgh University’s Hospitals. Within a few years he became the Pediatrician-in-Charge of the Pediatric Department and also the Medical Specialist-in-Charge of the Medical Department at the Joseph N. France General Hospital. He was honoured with the MBE award by The Queen for community service.

Dr. Hodge was accompanied to Anguilla by his wife, Mrs. Angela Inniss-Hodge, daughter of former St. Kitts-Nevis Governor-General and Lady Probyn Inniss, and their 3-year-old son. Angela, an Attorney-at-Law, who has relatives in Anguilla, worked on the island for a brief period some years ago. In addition to being a qualified lawyer, she holds a Master of Business Administration degree and also a Masters degree in International Commercial Law. She was at one-time Registrar of the Supreme Court in St. Kitts, Register of Titles, Trade Marks and Commercial Business and Additional Magistrate.

Dr. Hodge has two grown children from a previous marriage: Dr. Mark Hodge, a Radiologist in St. Kitts and Margaret, an Art Teacher also in St. Kitts.

He is the son of the late Reuben and Juliette Hodge of Stoney Ground and brother of Nat Hodge of The Anguillian.

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News