Dame Sandra Mason

Sandra Prunella Mason was born on 17 January 1949 in East Point, Saint Philip, Barbados. She studied law at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1973, then completed her legal education at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad, qualifying in 1975. Alongside her own legal work she taught family law at the university.

Mason built a career of firsts in the law and public life. She was the first magistrate appointed an ambassador from Barbados, serving as ambassador to Venezuela, Chile, Colombia and Brazil in the early 1990s. After returning home in 1994 she held several judicial posts, and in 2008 she became the first woman to serve as an appeals judge on the Barbados Court of Appeal.

She also served as one of only two women on the 13-member CARICOM commission set up to evaluate regional integration. In 2017 she was named Barbados's eighth Governor-General, taking office on 8 January 2018 as the second woman to hold the post, and in 2018 was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George.

In 2020 Mason announced Prime Minister Mia Mottley's decision that Barbados would remove Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and become a republic. On 12 October 2021 she was nominated for the new office of president by both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, and on 20 October 2021 Parliament elected her.

Dame Sandra was sworn in on 30 November 2021, the 55th anniversary of Barbadian independence, becoming the first president of the Republic of Barbados. At her swearing-in she repeated Errol Barrow's words that Barbados should no longer be found loitering on colonial premises. She served until 30 November 2025, when Jeffrey Bostic succeeded her as the island's second president.