A Legacy Beyond Borders

Garnet Wells Garraway, descendant of an influential merchant and a freed slave, carried within him a story that crossed oceans.

Born in Grenada on September 24, 1882, he left the Caribbean for London, where he married Jessy Brock Browse in 1903 and became a barrister the year after. The couple returned to the islands, but Garnet’s adventurous spirit soon led him to enlist in the Canadian Army in 1915.

In 1916, he set foot on French soil with the 20th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. A life of courage and movement, cut short too soon — he passed away in Toronto in 1922, at the age of forty.

From his union to Jessie was born Edith Joan Wells Garraway, their only child, known as my Nana, in Soufrière, Saint Lucia, in 1914. As a child, she left the Caribbean with her mother for London, where she grows up while Jessy’s path led her across continents — as a governess in Canada, a lady’s companion in New York, before passing away in England.

In London, Nana built a family with Frederic Wilkins, giving birth to a lineage that would later take root in France.

From this story of travel, resilience, and blending of worlds emerged a spirit free of borders — that of Luc Garnet Pelletier, heir to a legacy shaped by oceans, courage, and connection.