The Girl Pat Steel Orchestra was most likely the first all female steel orchestra , since the steelband was formed between the years 1951 – 1952 at the home of Hazel Henley at No 79 Picton Street, Newtown, Trinidad. She was an accomplished musician who played the piano and formed the band with some of her friends, with the assistance of Ellie Mannette and and other panmen of that era.
The band was very accomplished and well respected; sufficiently so to be invited to successfully tour Guyana and Jamaica where they were much appreciated.
The members of the steelband were all Hazel’s friends and were Irma Waldron, Celia Didier, Eleanor ‘Ellie’ Maria Robertson, Joyce Forde, Norma Braithwaite and Eugene Gowen, and their panyard was at Hazel’s home, 79 Picton Street, Newtown.
The following selections are in recognition and honor of all the former members of this pioneering steelband.
The Castilianne is a Trinidadian interpretation of the Venezuelan waltz that was popular in Trinidad, particularly in the nineteen fifties and sixties
In 1956, Emory Cook produced an album of Castilianne music called “The Castilianne Maracas Waltz”.
Included were two selections by the Girl Pat Steel Orchestra – “Castilianne” and “Juliana”.
From the 1957 Cook Album, The Champion Steelbands of Trinidad. here is another selection by arguably the first all girl steel band, “The Girl Pat Steel Orchestra”
As of this writing in March 2020, I’ve been notified that band member Norma Braithwaite is still with us at 103.
Hazel Henley was born on December 14, 1917 and passed away on August 31, 2007
Eleanor Marion Robertson, another former member of the band passed away in New York on June 5th, 2012.
May all the deceased members of this pioneering band Rest In Peace
G R JOSEPH 
Sylia Goin turned 100 yesterday
LikeLike
Dear Mr. Joseph,
Sir, you are a wonderful person to go through all that effort to put us face to face with our history.
I felt very emotional to hear the old time steel pan in its infancy. Nostalgic because I grew up
in the days of the Red Army bad johns coming down Park Street around 1946 on a Carnival day.
Maybe if you give me your email I could invite you to my home to see the work I have been doing
for decades regarding the writing of steel pan music as it relates to the older times and particularly the
Romantic period when the greatest of all music was produced – unfortunately no more.
My email address is ventecltd @yahoo.com
It is people as yourself who have the courage to do what their convictions implore them to do,
the true national pioneers in their own rights who are the heart and soul of our country.
I salute you and may I might be blessed to meet you on certain day.
Thank your very much for the publication Mr. Joseph.
Peter S Moralles
66 Cascade Road
Tel 624-10019
LikeLike
This is very imperative information, and great history! Glenroy R. Joseph thank you for sharing this with us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved listening to these times from the all girl band.
Particularly as one of the tune is my name. Lovely melody and so soothing today Easter Sunday sounds.
Thank you for a history otherwise untold.
LikeLike
Good evening Mr. Joseph. Thank you for sharing this untold story for all to see. In 2025, we cannot even imagine the societal challenges these women would have faced as a result of playing the then much shunned, now national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. What a courageous woman Hazel Henley must have been. What courageous women were all the members of Gir Pat Steel Orchestra.
My mother, Irma Regis, nee Waldron, was an original member of the first all-female steel orchestra of Trinidad and Tobago, “Girl Pat Steel Orchestra”. Later in her life when attention was finally being paid to Girl Pat, she took it in stride. When being interviewed for a book on Steel pan by Kim Johnson; she happily recalled that time, of playing music with Girl Pat. As a member of Girl Pat, mummy was able to travel out of Trinidad and Tobago, for the first time, to what was then, British Guiana.
It was quite emotional listening here to the recordings of Girl Pat. I had never heard them before; but I could just imagine my mummy playing her tenor pan with joy. Thank you very much for sharing these recordings.
Mummy took great joy in the knowledge that her first grandson also plays the steel pan.
It is surely no coincidence that mummy worked for several years at the Engineering department of UWI with one of the creators of the G-pan, Professor Brian Copeland and Professor Emeritus Clement Imbert, who began his steel pan research in 1972.
At age 95, after living a beautiful life, my Mummy quietly and peacefully departed for Heaven on 11th July 2024. May she rest in perfect peace with the God she loved.
LikeLike