Quick Facts
Biography
Edna Elliott Horton (13 September 1904 – 1994) was the first West African woman from a British colony to receive a university degree. A Sierra Leonean, Elliott-Horton completed her BA degree in liberal arts in 1933 at Howard University, where Dr. Edward Mayfield Boyle, her maternal uncle, had graduated as a doctor.
Background
Edna Elliott-Horton was born on 13 September 1904 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to a prominent Creole family of Settler stock. Both sides of Horton's families were descended from the Nova Scotian Settlers who were the original founders of the 1792 Sierra Leone Colony. Elliott-Horton's mother was descended from the Easmon family, while through her paternal ancestry she was a direct descendant of the original Nova Scotian settler, Reverend Anthony "Papa" Elliott (1775–1856). The Elliotts resided on Little East Street.
She was elected as assistant organising secretary of the West African Youth League.