Bridget Brereton

Bridget Brereton (born 1946) is a Trinidad and Tobago-based historian, who is Emerita Professor of History at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. She is the author of works including A History of Modern Trinidad; Law, Justice and Empire: The Colonial Career of John Gorrie, 1829–1892; Race Relations in Colonial Trinidad, 1870–1900 and her articles have been widely published in journals and as book chapters. She edited Volume V of the UNESCO General History of the Caribbean: The Twentieth Century, and has been co-editor of several other books. Her father had been serving in the Indian Army during World War II, though as the war was over by the time she was born, her family returned to Britain when she was a baby and Brereton grew up in Scotland and England: she went to primary school in Edinburgh until the age of nine, after which she attended the Maynard School for Girls in Exeter, where she took her O-level and A-Level examinations. Marrying a fellow student from Trinidad and Tobago, she relocated there.

Brereton was a university teacher for many years, holding positions variously as Head of the Department of History, Deputy Principal, and Interim Principal at UWI, St Augustine. She has additionally held many public-service roles, among them as former Chair of the Board of the National Library and Information System (NALIS).

Selected works Race Relations in Colonial Trinidad, 1870–1900 (1979; Cambridge University Press, 2002, ) A History of Modern Trinidad, 1783–1962 (1989) Law, Justice And Empire: The Colonial Career Of John Gorrie 1829–1892 (The Press UWI biography series) (University Press of the West Indies, 1997, ) From Imperial College to the University of the West Indies: A History of the St Augustine Campus, T&T (Ian Randle, 2011) Islands at War - Trinidad a Tobago during World War II, with Karen E. Eccles (2019) History Matters - Selected Newspaper Columns, 2011–2021 (2022) Manning: Faith & Vision (2024)