A tireless women’s advocate and business leader also threw her hat in the ring as a political candidate, fighting an uphill battle in a stronghold for the rival political party.

Audrey DeSilva teamed with cricket legend Alma “Champ” Hunt as her running mate as the United Bermuda Party’s 1976 candidates in Devonshire North.

The two gamely accepted what was privately acknowledged to be a thankless campaign.

The constituency was a Progressive Labour Party bastion, where Dame Lois Browne Evans had won the seat handily in 1972 alongside Frederick Wade.

Dame Lois was then the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, while Mr Wade was Shadow Minister of Finance.

The UBP candidates, political newcomers, were unsuccessful in their bid.

At the time, Ms DeSilva was an accountant at one of the island’s exempt companies and the first president of the Business and Professional Women’s Association of Bermuda from its inception in 1975.

Lauren Hart-Bell, the archivist for BPW Bermuda, said: “Audrey will be remembered for her tenacity and strength — she was astute, professional and a strong leader and advocate.”

She called Ms DeSilva a “go-getter who helped to shape and pioneer the way forward” for the organisation.

An October 1975 profile in The Royal Gazette noted Ms DeSilva’s familiarity as a single mother with the “frustrations and unfairness” confronting Bermuda’s working women.

The United Nations had designated 1975 “International Women’s Year”, and Ms DeSilva was appointed that March by the premier, Sir Edward Richards, to a committee of women delegated to investigate the status of women in Bermuda.

It spurred the founding of the BPW Bermuda that July under the leadership of Dame Marjorie Bean, with Ms DeSilva — then Benevides — as its president.

The group is affiliated with the International Federation of Business and Professional Women.

The global organisation aims to develop the professional, leadership and business potential of women on all levels through mentoring, networking, skill building and economic empowerment programmes worldwide.

Ms DeSilva told the Gazette: “I have been always interested in women’s rights. There is much to be done in Bermuda as far as this is concerned.

“It’s only when you are a woman alone do you realise the disadvantages which face a woman as head of a family.”

Ms DeSilva attended Mount Saint Agnes Academy but left when she was 13 for two years of secretarial training.

She was candid regarding the limits of her education and constantly enrolled in courses. She said: “The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.”

Ms DeSilva’s secretarial skills led her to jobs in several offices, including head cashier at the Bermuda Drug Company.

She took on a role in the trust department of the Bank of Butterfield, where she rose from a clerk in the ledger department to supervisor.

Ms DeSilva left the bank in 1973 to go into business as a driving instructor but soon returned to the business arena with an eye on a burgeoning industry in Bermuda: insurance and reinsurance.

Her roles included assistant treasurer at the firm Bellefonte International Insurance; assistant to the accountant at Transcon Insurance; and co-assistant accountant at American International Reinsurance.

At International Harvester, she became assistant general manager, later general manager.

Ms Hart-Bell called her “a committed, hard-working and passionate” member of BPW Bermuda, where she was president until 1977.

“During Audrey’s tenure as president, talks and seminars were held on several topics including law, crime and finance,” she said.

“BPW also created profiles of women in Bermuda serving in a variety of significant capacities for exhibition at City Hall.

“Audrey’s involvement with BPW spanned several decades, including her participation as a panellist at a forum in June 1995 on the Topic The Position Papers — The Women’s Perspective alongside Rolfe Commissiong and Dame Pamela Gordon Banks.”

Ms DeSilva remained with the UBP in the 1980s, joining its executive committee for Sandys North in 1980, followed by the party’s Southampton Parish Committee in 1984.

She served from 1983 to 1984 on the Consumers Affairs Board, as well as the Public Services Licensing Board, a tribunal responsible for reviewing and authorising licences to drivers of public-service vehicles.

Ms DeSilva was part of the committee that launched the Government’s community education programme and served as treasurer of the Sandys Boat Club from 1984 to 1985.

In the mid-1980s, Ms DeSilva and her second husband, Leonard, took on another business venture, buying the Shapers Hair and Beauty Salon in Hamilton.

They expanded the salon from the Walker Arcade to a second location, with daughters Tammy and Geri on board as staff.

She sold the business to retire in 2007.

Along with her daughters, Ms DeSilva is survived by her children Michael Benevides and stepson Leonard DeSilva II.

• Audrey Ann DeSilva, the first president of the Business and Professional Women's Association of Bermuda and a prominent member of the United Bermuda Party, was born on October 5, 1939. She died on January 1, 2024, aged 84