1958

Racial tensions increase in Britain. Whites attack black residents in Nottingham and west London, sparking so-called race riots. Civil liberty groups denounce the atmosphere of violence. There are increasing calls for immigration controls.

Trinidadian Claudia Jones founds West Indian Gazette to promote equal rights for

black community. West Indian Standing Conference (WISC) forms to promote interests of Afro-Caribbean community in Britain. Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is formed. Thousands march from London to the nuclear base in Aldermaston to protest against nuclear weapons. Nurses’ working week is reduced from 48 hours to 44.

© Courtesy of Lambeth Archives

1959

About 10 million British households own televisions. General election returns Conservative government with big majority. Nurses receive a 12 per cent pay increase; their pay remains far behind those of teachers and other comparable professionals. Some 20,400 West Indians move to Britain. Afro-Asian West Indian Nurses Association forms but is short-lived. David Pitt stands for parliament, the first black Caribbean to do so, but fails to gain seat.

1961

Enoch Powell, Minister of Health, announces an 11 per cent increase in costs of NHS. He doubles prescription and other charges. The NHS begins recruiting doctors from India and Pakistan. There are about 500,000 Caribbean and South Asian people in Britain – about one per cent of the population. Pay freeze introduced. Oral contraceptive – the pill – becomes available. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space. Berlin Wall completed.

1962

Commonwealth Immigrants Act ends open access for Commonwealth citizens. Entry restricted to those who have been issued with employment vouchers, or those who can support themselves without working. Would-be nurses need to have employment vouchers. Labour opposition leader, Hugh Gaitskell, calls the act “a plain anti-colour measure”. Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago gain independence. Royal College of Physicians confirms links between smoking, cancer and heart disease. SEN nurses earn about £2 per week. Nurses campaign for more pay.

1963

Enoch Powell announces a 10-year plan of community care under an expanding NHS. Numbers of West Indian arrivals in Britain fall to an average of less than 14,000 a year. Inquiry into slum landlords, particularly Rachman in Notting Hill who lets sub-standard housing at high prices to West Indians. Measles vaccine produced. President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Valentina Tereshkova becomes first woman in space. Rachel Carson’s The Silent Spring highlights dangers of chemical pesticides. Surgeons in Leeds perform successful kidney transplant.