Many Caribbeans encountered discrimination in the early years of the NHS but with single-minded determination went to great lengths to break through the barriers, so achieving their own goals and setting role models for those who followed.

Lucy Martin-Burnham qualified as a midwife and then went into health visiting. She had to find her own accommodation, which was difficult because she was black. Fortunately her tutor organised it for her. Lucy worked for two years in England and then returned to Jamaica for a while as a public health nurse. Coming back to England, she “saw a job advertised in Berkshire … got the interview … and they said, we can offer you a job as a district nurse midwife but not as a health visitor, it is not customary for them to have colonials as health visitors. I then said could you tell me where I could get information to find other places because I’m prepared to try … I decided to apply to Berkshire County Council and then I was called for an interview and I was very, very pleased because the county nursing officer and medical officer of health were friendly and welcoming. He said ‘we welcome you with open arms and welcome colonials.’ I was obviously the first black person in this particular area but I didn’t feel daunted. It didn’t take long in a rural setting for word to get round … I was very pleasantly surprised when I visited people, they would say with a welcoming smile, ‘Oh do

come in, we have heard about you’ … They were very, very nice people.”

Having worked for a year, Neslyn Watson-Druée “went to see a senior member of staff and told her of my aspirations that I wanted to be trained as a health visitor and she actually said to me that ‘health visiting wasn’t for black girls.’ I decided that I was going to prove her wrong. It seemed as if I was in a catch 22 because I was now still on a student visa and I asked her to revoke my visa and she wouldn’t revoke my visa unless I stayed at the hospital as a midwife. I wanted to train as a health visitor so I thought how on earth can I do this? I decided the only way I could get myself out of this trap was if I were to buy property … At the time … when you saw places for rent, they would say, ‘No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish’ in that order … So I saw a maisonette and it was going for £9,500 at the time … I went to the GLC to the housing department and told them I wanted a 100 per cent mortgage. The person laughed at me … I wrote directly to the director of housing at the GLC. I said that I was a midwife and that I had aspirations to go on to do my health visiting training but more importantly in the here and now I am giving very valued service. I walked out of that office with a 100 per cent mortgage … So l left midwifery and was accepted by Merton, Sutton & Wandsworth Area Health Authority, I was sponsored for health visiting training. I went to the Polytechnic of the South Bank and there

was a cohort of 52 of us and of the 52 there were 50 whites and two blacks.”

Louise Garvey remembers that the early years in the NHS were “good because people sort of got on and supported one another”, but that both patients and staff could be racist. Despite this, she set her sights on becoming a sister: “I did extra training, whatever was going in the hospital. Opportunities were always there for nursing but at the same time there was the racism and the feeling at the time that nurses should only be there to do the bedside things. You put yourself forward to ensure that whatever internal training is being offered you get on board … I used to do what I called the watching game. I would watch and see what training was available, who was going for it and how often. I used to challenge the situation. I would say nurse A and B and whatever, she’s had x amount of training, I haven’t been on one. This training is available and I am interested, here is my application and that’s how you got on these things in those days. You had to fight for them.”

Lynette Richards-Murray “went to an agency in Bristol and they said to me, ‘I’m sorry but we don’t take your sort of people.’ That was in 1963. They wouldn’t get away with that now.” She went on to become a district midwife. “In those days if you wanted a house and a car you became a district midwife … I went to Redhill and worked as a midwife there and