The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports

projects that connect people and communities

with the UK’s heritage.

A Place Called Home is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Thanks to National Lottery players, within A Place Called Home, we have been able to put on this locality event 'A Trail-blazing Nurse; My journey from Guyana 65 yrs ago to train as a nurse at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton”

Exploring migration themes through Lynnette's testimonial, stories, photos, family treasures and memorable items.

https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/

After WW2, the British Government recruited thousands of people from throughout the Caribbean to work in British hospitals in a range of roles including doctors and nurses, cleaners and porters, midwives and health visitors, cooks and administrators. Using archive and contemporary photographs and oral history, this publication explores the stories of some of these men and women who came to live and work in Britain from the late 1940s through to the 1960s, and considers the challenges and discrimination they had to overcome. In doing so, the book recognises the significant part that immigrants from the Caribbean played in the development of the NHS during its formative years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z27nqhv/revision/5

History; Changes in health and medicine, c.1340 to the present day

https://heartofthenation.migrationmuseum.org/medical-migrants-a-brief-history/

Medical Migrants: A Brief History

Migrants have made contributions to healthcare in Britain long before the birth of the NHS. This site shows some of the many medical migrants who have had a lasting impact on healthcare and medicine in this country over hundreds of years...from 1123 to the 1940s

https://heartofthenation.migrationmuseum.org/map/

The NHS employs people from over 200 countries, spanning six continents. Click on a continent or region and then on the country name within each continent list to find out how many people holding that country's nationality worked for the NHS as of the end of March 2020.

See also articles at:-

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20250613143223/https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/african-princess-in-guys-the-story-of-princess-adenrele-ademola/

https://lwbooks.co.uk/radical-black-women-series-old/educational-resources

As part of the Radical Black Women series, Lawrence Wishart have collaborated with the Young Historians Project and artist Meera Shakti Osborne to create a series of educational resources on Black women’s activism in Britain

https://www.younghistoriansproject.org/resources

Find Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 5 workbooks including writing exercises, primary source analysis tasks, a Black British history timeline, and history themed word–searches, crosswords, and quizzes. And short videos to explain each section of the workbooks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083dgtb

(NB. not currently available on BBC i-player) Documentary telling the story of the thousands of Caribbean and African women who answered the call 70 years ago to come to the UK to save the then ailing health service. A tale of a struggle to overcome racism, their fight for career progression and their battle for national recognition.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04hjnd9

Extract from the 58mins documentry Black Nurses: women who saved the NHS

Former midwife Beverley Chapman reveals the significance of her role and the part she played bolstering the NHS after arriving in the UK in 1969 aged just 18 from Jamaica.

https://www.facebook.com/BBCRadio4/videos/the-black-nurses-who-saved-the-nhs/371616020055640/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe2ZLkfRyf4

Doreen Black is the divisional head of nursing for the surgical division at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. Doreen oversees areas such as intensive care, surgery, trauma and orthopaedics. For many Black patients, a successful blood transfusion will most likely come from a donor of the same ethnic background As we continue to celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth NHS are sharing the stories of the individuals driving change and raising awareness in the Black community. This is their story.

https://www.chardmuseum.co.uk/people/emma-gifford

Chard Museum has information & exhibits that puts Emma's life and outstanding work into context, time & place.

https://oursomerset.org.uk/nhs-birthday-2023/nhs75-yourstories/

As we commemorate 75th anniversary of the NHS , memories & stopries were gathered celebrating the positive impact the NHS in Somerset has had on all our lives.

"Read the memories of those working in the NHS, volunteering, and patients. Your stories matter and we hope you enjoy reading them."

Mary Morris arrived in Britain from Southern Ireland in 1939 when she was 18 years old to train as a nurse.

From the inception of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, Irish women and men were actively recruited to train and work as nurses in British hospitals. By the 1960s approximately 30,000 Irish-born nurses were working across the NHS, constituting around 12% of all nursing staff.

Contribution of Irish nurses to NHS being highlighted on 75th anniversary of founding

By 1971, more than 30,000 Irish-born nurses were employed by the NHS.

Memories and records, as well as a roll of honour, of nurses from across Ireland has been compiled by the Royal College of Nursing Northern Ireland.

These nurses followed thousands of ships of Allied troops who landed in France on June 6 1944 amid intense fighting in the bid to liberate the nation from the Nazi Germany occupation.

NB. To find out about a Somerset connection: 'A Trailblazing nurse: Guyana to Somerset' Visit https://aplacecalledhome.glade.org/events/

NB the Irish Linen Centre, Lisburn Museum features artefacts and memorabilia belonging to staff nurse Johnston.

More than 25,000 nurses who are educated in the Philippines work in the NHS, but Oliver Soriano is the first to make it to the top.

In June 2022, over 1.3 million people were employed by the NHS, this link shows breakdown by % of each ethnic group.

In 1910 he qualified as a doctor yet was refused an appointment at a hospital or any practices in that era.

In 1913 Harold set up his own practice in Peckham, London. and married Olive Mable Tranter, a white nurse.

In 1930 Dr. Harold Moody founded the League of Coloured Peoples, aiming to fight discrimination and seek better opportunities and conditions for students and workers from Africa and the West Indies in England.

Find out more at:

https://www.history.co.uk/articles/dr-harold-moody-life-influence

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/dr-harold-moody

https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/second-world-war-service-and-sacrifice/dr-harold-moody-1882-1947/

On 30 June 2016, a memorial statue of Mary Seacole was unveiled by Baroness Floella Benjamin OBE in the gardens of St Thomas’s Hospital; the UK’s first in honour of a named black woman

1) Unconscious bias

2) Representation in the curriculum matters

3) New conversations about race, anti-racism and heritage

4) Actions for your classroom

For more information call or text 07546 200 332

An exhibition on display now at RCN headquarters in London and running until 31 December 2027. Through historical and contemporary artwork, it focuses on how art and nursing are interlinked, in ways that might surprise the viewer.

Nursing staff are reclaiming their place in the frame at a new exhibition at RCN HQ in London 

See also; Whelan, J. (2021). Nursing the Nation ([edition unavailable]). Rutgers University Press. Retrieved from https://www.perlego.com/book/3876728/nursing-the-nation-building-the-nurse-labor-force-pdf (Original work published 2021)

Online enquiry form at: https://forms.gle/uz1aRnW1PAmnnLLZ9

This article focuses on the early career of Dame Nita and her inspiring rise from middle class schoolgirl, probationer nurse, to become the first black matron of the University College Hospital of the West Indies.

See also book review at; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26552465_Book_Review_Breaking_the_Glass_Ceiling_the_Stories_of_Three_Caribbean_Nurses_by_Jocelyn_Hezekiah_University_of_the_West_Indies_Press_2000_Trailblazers_in_Nursing_Education_a_Caribbean_Perspective_by_H

Enquiries to Lynn@glade.org or call/ message 07546 200 332

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/african-nurses/

Use this lesson to find original documents which explore the role of African nurses in the health services of Britain.

Please note that some sources contain offensive language that was used at the time and is unacceptable today.

Really useful document collection to allow students and teachers to develop their own questions and lines of historical enquiry on the political and social aspects of 1950s Britain.

Connections to the curriculum

These documents can be used to support any of the exam board specifications covering the political, social and cultural aspects of 20th century British history.

Dzagbele Matilda Asante arrived in the UK from Africa’s Gold Coast in 1947. She was born in 1927 at La, Accra in the then Gold Coast (now Ghana).

There were African nurses born in Britain or from Africa in the health service before and during the fledgling years of the NHS.

See also:-

https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/inspirational-women/dzagbele-matilda-asante-i-was-nursing-in-the-uk-before-windrush-and-the-nhs/

https://www.younghistoriansproject.org/early-women/dzagbele-matilda-asante

https://www.equality4blacknurses.com/post/inspirational-black-nurses-pioneer-nurse-dzagbele-matilda-asante

Article shows how Dzagbele Asante continued to inspire at 95; https://www.modernghana.com/news/1185715/dzagbele-matilda-asante-from-gold-coast-students.html

https://heartofthenation.migrationmuseum.org/arrival/

Heart of the Nation: Migration and the making of the NHS, the brand new digital exhibition from the Migration Museum shining a light on the stories and experiences of people who have come to Britain to work in the NHS over the past 72 years is now live. Visit the exhibition at: heartofthenation.migrationmuseum.org

https://youtu.be/vLPd6XNEKkA

"They know us. They take care of us, often they are the first and the last people we see. And yet often we know very little about them. Who is the doctor behind the face mask? Who are the people behind the uniform? Right from the beginning people have come from all over the world to work in the NHS. They have made its vision come true."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f61tml

Windrush generation nurses

Three nurses from the ‘Windrush generation’ share their stories.