Eulogy for Peggy Ince-Hull

Written by her daughter Monique Hull and delivered at the funeral by niece Dornette Hull

Niece Dornette Hull delivering the eulogy

Peggy Anita Ince entered the world on July 5, 1939, the third and last child of Agatha Seaton and George Ince, both of Georgetown. She followed her sisters Norma and Shirley; Norma pre-deceased her. Peggy’s mother Agatha moved the family to Kingstown, specifically Back Street in the area of Grenville Street. Her father George died when she was only two years old so she was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother, Charlotte Seaton Poyer (Granny Chatty).

As soon as her elder sister Norma began working, Norma moved the family from back street to McKies Hill. Mom said things would have been very different for the family had they stayed at back street. Mommy began her journey through the education system at the Wesley Hall School which was a Methodist school located at the present site of the Kingstown Methodist Church Hall.

My mother was somewhat of a tomboy who liked to climb the fruit trees that were in abundance at the home at Sharpe Street where Granny Chatty worked.

It was during her tenure at the Primary School that she began playing netball from the age of eight. This love for netball extended throughout her life and I remember her numerous requests to take her to the different tournaments that were being played across the country and I dare not be late, not even for the march past. She would meet some of her friends who she had played against in earlier years at these tournaments.

At the age of nine she made the Wesley Hall School netball team and at 13, the national team while still a primary school student. She was a part of the team which went to Trinidad and Tobago in 1953 and so dazzled the commentator with her on court performance that he referred to her as ‘The Little Ju-c’ girl and the label stuck.

My mother was a very determined and disciplined individual, she set her goals and was determined to achieve them. She passed the Entrance exam to Girls’ High School, which was a fee-paying school at the time and wished to attend, however my grandmother did not have the resources. That however did not deter my mother. She went to her sister Norma who had just begun working and informed her that she wanted to attend High School. Her sister asked her who was going to pay and my mother replied “you” and my mother entered High School in 1954. At school she played netball on every opportunity when there was no class, so much that she told me that she was once banned from the court. She was also the captain of the school team while still maintaining her links with the national team. She was St Vincent’s most popular netball player in 1957.

In 1963, she captained the first ever West Indies netball team to the First World Netball Tournament in Eastborne, Sussex, England. They defeated Scotland, Ireland and Sri Lanka. In 2015, she was named one of St Vincent’s Sporting Ambassadors; she was also a netball umpire and administrator. Her main playing positions were Centre, Wing Attack or Shooter.

During her years at High School, my mother also took the opportunity to learn short hand and typing at Ms McKie’s school in Kingstown. This skill would prove to be an asset later in life. After leaving High School my mother went to teach at the St Joseph’s Convent, then the Richmond Hill School followed by the Kingstown Prep School after which she left to join the Government Service.

She was appointed Temporary Probationer on September 1, 1959 in the Establishment Office and promoted to Class II in 1960, then Class I Clerk in 1965. During this period she was asked to work as a relief Secretary to the Chief Secretary Henry Williams who recognized her abilities and was determined for her to get additional training in secretarial duties.

In 1965 she left St Vincent to pursue studies in Applied Arts and Pedagogy at the Manitoba Institute of Technology in Winnipeg where she qualified as an Executive Secretary. Those lessons from Ms McKie’s school were paying off. While at school in Canada, she represented her college in basketball, field hockey and badminton, rising to the highest rank as the ladies doubles badminton champ. She returned to St Vincent in 1967.

In the early sixties she met E Phil Hull who originated from Cedars but was living in Kingstown. My father was a very friendly and jovial man and soon turned his attention to my mother who he succeeded in charming and they were married in 1967 after she returned from Canada. This union produced four children Monique, Yves, Nadine and Dane and lasted until my father died in 2009. Yves left us when he was two years old and my mother would forever grieve for him.

On January 1, 1968 she was appointed Secretary in the Chief Minister’s office and later became the Private Secretary to the Premier on January 1, 1970 and then Prime Minister when the country attained independence in 1979. She was then promoted to Assistant Secretary in July 1980 in the Service Commissions Department and transferred to the Ministry of Health as Assistant Secretary in 1988. She also acted as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health. While at Service Commissions she oversaw the entry of new employees into the government service who all called her Aunty Peggy.

She retired from the government service in 1994 and worked at various private enterprises ending with 13 years at the St. Vincent Building and Loan Association. Her friends from overseas loved her at Building and Loan, they sent everything to her to be done and they were very upset when she left.

She put her training in typing and shorthand to good use by opening a typing and shorthand school at her home in Montrose. She taught both male and female students and I remember her reprimanding us when we were making too much noise upstairs from the school especially when West Indies was playing cricket and the excitement was too much to contain. A significant number of persons passed through my mother’s school. She was the fastest typist I ever saw, nobody typed faster than my mother and her mistakes were few.

My mother also liked to bake and her fudge was legendary. I remember my siblings and I fighting for either the pot or the spoon after Mom finished making fudge. Mom’s baking was also superb and she was always baking something for someone, she was a giver. We, the children learned the hard way not to cut a cake or eat a fudge without finding out if it belonged to the home. More than once we would cut a cake only to find out that it belonged to someone. If by chance a cake didn’t turn out how she wanted, she would bake another one as she was determined to figure out what went wrong with the cake. Her best cake was a plain cake.

While I followed my mother into the netball arena, though never as good as her and neither was my sister, but she was so proud when my sister won the shooting competition for Kingstown Prep School she couldn’t stop talking about it. Months would pass and it would still be topical. My brother also remembers meeting Mom one afternoon after primary school and she was in such a hurry to get to netball she forgot to put on her skirt (umpire). She was so proud of her children who she ensured all received a tertiary education. She also supported her first grandchild when he went off to University.

My mother left a legacy in netball that is still talked about today.

She leaves to mourn her three children and five grandchildren (Monique, Nadine, Dane, Najee, Dmitri, Jerod, Nadia and Shaune). She will be missed. Until we meet again rest in perfect peace and we will always love you. Gone too soon.

Peggy’s son Dane (second from right) comforting his aunt Shirley Ince (Peggy’s sister) at the grave site.