{{Short description|Bahamian women's rights advocate (1926–2018)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Lady | honorific_suffix = | name = Zoë Maynard | image = | caption = | birth_date = 1926 | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and given age|df=y|2018|12|10|92}} | death_place = Nassau, Bahamas | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | birth_name = Zoë Ruth Davis Cumberbatch | party = Progressive Liberal Party | spouse = {{marriage|Sir Clement T. Maynard|1947}} | mother = Meta Davis Cumberbatch | children = 5, including Allyson Maynard Gibson | relatives = Kathleen Davis (aunt) }}
'''Zoë Ruth Davis, Lady Maynard''' ({{nee}} Cumberbatch; 1926 – 10 December 2018) was an important figure in the Bahamas known for advancing women's rights.
==Early life== In 1926 her parents, surgeon Roland Cumberbatch and musician Meta Davis Cumberbatch, moved from Trinidad to the Bahamas when her father accepted a post from the Colonial Medical Service.<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter D. |last=Maynard |title=Great Awakening: Meta Davis Cumberbatch, "Mother of the Arts" |year=2010 |page=167}}</ref> She was born Zoë Ruth Davis Cumberbatch the same year.<ref name="bp">{{cite news |url=https://bahamaspress.com/tributes-pour-in-following-the-passing-of-zoe-lady-maynard-this-morning/ |title=Tributes pour in following the passing of Zoe, Lady Maynard this morning... |newspaper=Bahamas Press |date=10 December 2018 |access-date=15 January 2022}}</ref>
==Military service== During World War II Maynard, still a teenager, enlisted as a private in the Auxiliary Territorial Service and was stationed in Jamaica.<ref name="ng">{{cite news |url=https://thenassauguardian.com/lady-maynard-dies-at-92/ |title=Lady Maynard dies at 92 |first=Jasper |last=Ward |date=11 December 2018 |newspaper=The Nassau Guardian |access-date=15 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://vdoc.pub/documents/race-and-class-in-the-colonial-bahamas-1880-1960-1jdbbueo8vb0|title=Race and Class in the Colonial Bahamas, 1880–1960|first=Gail|last=Saunders|author-link=Gail North Saunders|publisher=University Press of Florida|date=2016}}</ref> She had numerous duties, including communications.<ref name="ng"/> At the time of her death in 2018 she was reported to have been the last living female veteran from the Bahamas.<ref name="ng"/>
==Career and family== On 17 January 1947, a little more than a year after the end of the war, she married Clement T. Maynard, the son of a builder and a suffragist.<ref name="bp"/> Trained as a medical technologist, he would go on to become a politician and eventually deputy prime minister.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bahamashistoricalsociety.com/newsletter/200910.shtml |publisher=The Bahamas Historical Society |title=Newsletter |date=October 2009 |access-date=16 January 2022 |archive-date=29 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150729200919/http://bahamashistoricalsociety.com/newsletter/200910.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref> Maynard and her husband had five children: Julian (died 1995),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bahamasuncensored.com/July07.html |title=Right Back Before 1967 -- Sir Clem's Book |website=bahamasuncensored.com |date=29 July 2007}}</ref> Peter, Allyson, David and Clement III. (Her husband also had one daughter from a previous relationship.)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bpsubahamas.org/files/Clement_Maynard_Bio.pdf |title=Hon. Sir Clement T. Maynard |website=The Bahamas Public Service Union |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913193036/http://www.bpsubahamas.org/files/Clement_Maynard_Bio.pdf |archive-date=13 September 2014}}</ref> Their daughter Allyson would go on to become the country's attorney general.
For some time, Maynard worked for the British Overseas Airways Corporation.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YHcpAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA8-PA28 |via=Google Books |page=28 |newspaper=B.O.A.C. Review |date=September 1964 |title=Free Holidays for Top Seat-Sellers}}</ref> Arthur Foulkes recalled that she and her husband used the travel opportunities afforded by her career to purchase books for their comrades in the progressive movement.<ref name="foulkes">{{cite news |url=https://www.bahamapundit.com/2009/10/a-tribute-to-sir-clement-maynard.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015224529/http://www.bahamapundit.com/2009/10/a-tribute-to-sir-clement-maynard.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=15 October 2009 |title=A Tribute to Sir Clement Maynard |first=Arthur |last=Foulkes |author-link=Arthur Foulkes |website=Bahama Pundit|date=11 October 2009 |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref> (Books by radical West Indian authors such as C. L. R. James, Frantz Fanon and George Padmore were not easily accessible in the colony.)<ref name="foulkes"/> She also served as secretary general of the Airport, Airline and Allied Workers Union.<ref name="ng"/>
A supporter of the progressive movement and women's rights, she worked closely with her mother-in-law, Georgianna Kathleen Symonette, during the suffrage movement.<ref name="ng"/> In January 1968, a year after her husband was first elected to the senate, Maynard became the first woman to register for jury duty in the Bahamas.<ref name="ng"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://bahamianology.com/first-woman-in-bahamian-history-to-apply-for-jury-service-mrs-zoe-maynard-1968/ |title=First Woman Applies for Jury Service |newspaper=The Nassau Guardian and Bahamas Observer |date=30 January 1968 |access-date=15 January 2022 |via=Bahamianology}}</ref> She also served as secretary for the Women's Branch of the Progressive Liberal Party.<ref name="ng"/>
In 1989, Clement Maynard was appointed a Knight Bachelor and Mrs. Maynard became Lady Zoë Maynard.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/bis-news-updates/officials_paying_tribute_to_the_late_Sir_Clement_Maynard_printer.shtml |title=Bahamas Prime Minister and Officials Pay Tribute to the Late Sir Clement Maynard |newspaper=The Bahamas Weekly |date=14 October 2009}}</ref>
==Later life== After her husband's death in 2009, Maynard began studying pottery and painting.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.tribune242.com/news/2013/dec/18/lady-maynard-shines-in-ceramic-art-exhibition/ |title=Lady Maynard Shines In Ceramic Art Exhibition |newspaper=The Tribune |date=18 December 2013 |first=Jeffarah |last=Gibson |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref> Her works were exhibited in group shows such as "The F Factor: Female Artists of The Bahamas".<ref>{{cite press release |url=https://www.popopstudios.com/popop-artists-in-f-factor/ |title=Popop Artists In F Factor |date=22 September 2011 |author=D'Aguilar Foundation |via=Popop Studios |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref>
Maynard died on 10 December 2018 at the age of 92.<ref name="ng"/><ref name="bp"/> In a tribute, opposition leader Philip Davis called her "a freedom fighter, particularly for women’s rights and in the arts."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.tribune242.com/news/2018/dec/10/lady-zoe-maynard-dies-aged-92/ |title=Lady Zoe Maynard Dies, Aged 92 |date=10 December 2018 |newspaper=The Tribune |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Maynard, Zoe}} Category:1926 births Category:2018 deaths Category:20th-century Bahamian people Category:21st-century Bahamian people Category:21st-century Bahamian women Category:Auxiliary Territorial Service soldiers Category:Bahamian social liberals Category:Bahamian suffragists Category:20th-century Bahamian women Category:Wives of knights Category:Women's rights activists