Navy pioneer Thelma Eunice Coward-Ince, who marked many firsts in Nova Scotian and Canadian history, has died at age 86. She died on April 17 at the Northwood Halifax campus after suffering from dementia and the most recent outbreak of the coronavirus at the long-term care home, according to her obituary at Arbor Memorial funeral home.
Coward-Ince became the Royal Canadian Navy’s first Black reservist in 1954 and the first Black senior secretary when she became secretary to the chief of staff to the admiral.
At the Department of National Defence, she became the manager of administrative services. Coward-Ince was the first Black manager and the only female manager in the Ship Repair Unit Atlantic between 1979 and 1992, when there were fewer