1952

1952

USA passes the McCarran-Walter Act, which restricts Caribbean emigration to the United States. Caribbean migrants look to Britain for work and career opportunities unavailable in the Caribbean. NHS introduces prescription charges of one shilling (5p) and a flat fee of £1 for ordinary dental treatment

1953

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II takes place in London. More than 300,000 new homes are built in Britain. The first successful open heart surgery takes place in the USA. Francis Crick and James Watson announce the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, the basic material of heredity.

1954

Some 10,000 Caribbean immigrants arrive in Britain. The Barbados Advocate reports that some landladies and lodging houses are refusing to accept ‘coloured colonials’. Food rationing ends in Britain. Polio vaccine is tested in the USA. ‘Rock’n’roll’ becomes popular.

1955

Conservatives win general election. Commercial television begins in Britain. Selection committees are set up in the Caribbean to choose nursing recruits for NHS hospitals. British government offers some financial help but most recruits fund themselves. About 3,000 colonial women are training in NHS hospitals. Most black recruits are forced to take up SEN training rather than SRN. SEN ‘pupil’ nurses wear check uniforms as opposed to the starched green uniforms of SRN nurses. Civil rights campaigners in the USA boycott segregated buses.

1956

Guillebaud Committee reports on the NHS and states that no reforms are necessary. Britain’s first large-scale nuclear power station opens, Calder Hall. About 26,400 West Indians arrive in Britain. London Transport begins to recruit for workers from Barbados; direct recruitment continues until 1970. Storthes Mental Hospital refuses to employ ‘coloured nurses’.

A few activists, including David Pitt, defend growing black population against racial discrimination.

1957

Britain explodes its first thermonuclear bomb. The Soviet Union (now Russia) launches Sputnik I and II into space orbit. Oral polio vaccine is produced. In Britain, postwar recovery is booming. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan tells the British public: “you’ve never had it so good.” Guyana-born Cy Grant sings the news calypso-style on BBC TV programme Tonight.

Cy Grant

Lord David Pitt (left, bottom row)