Author: Emma Gardner

EMMA GARDNER was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1935. Surviving the bombing and the siege of Budapest during 1944–1945, she became a member of the Hungarian Olympic gymnastic team in 1949. In 1951 she graduated from the High School of Art and Craft in Budapest, Hungary, with a diploma of artistic photography. The year 1956 began with an earthquake. A leading role in a movie followed. She left Hungary in August 1956, two months before the Hungarian Revolution. She stayed with her relatives in Rome, Italy, where she attended Pierandreas College of Ladies Fashion Design in 1957. She landed in Montreal, Canada at the end of 1957. She followed her architect husband to Jamaica in 1972 and joined the British Sub-Aqua Club, Jamaica Branch, branch secretary 1973–1975. In 1976 she became the first woman diving officer in the history of the Jamaica Sub-Aqua Club. In 1975 she designed and made the original gowns modelled for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in Kingston, Jamaica. Following her husband to Nigeria, West Africa, she arrived in Maiduguri, Borno State in December 1977. They moved to Spain to retire in 1984.