The Cavell staff and trustee teams are proud to support and recognise Black History month during October.

What is it and when did it start?

Black History Month is a time of celebration, recognition and sombre reflection, and also a time to learn about and understand Black history and culture. An awareness month started in the USA in 1926 which developed into it’s current form, with a similar awareness and celebration month starting in the UK in 1987.

Nursing connections

Black people from African and Caribbean communities have been an integral part of British history and society long before the Windrush generation arrived on UK shores in 1948. Many women who arrived on the boats were in the UK to work as nurses and midwives, helping to keep Britain’s new National Health Service afloat.

There are however stories of black nurses contributing to British society long before the Windrush and other boats docked in 1948. You may have heard of Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole, a contemporary of Florence Nightingale, who nursed troops in the Crimean war. Other black nurses include Annie Brewster from St Vincent, who moved to London as a child in the 1860s and worked at the London hospital in Whitechapel. Also Eva Lowe came to the UK from Jamaica looking for work. She eventually trained at St Nicholas’ hospital in Plumstead, south London, from 1932, registering with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) as a qualified nurse in 1935.

According to the RCN, there are many other stories, as yet untold, of women who trained in the UK and were admitted to the nursing register before the 1930s. No one knows who they were, as the nurse’s ethnicity was not recorded. However, it is known that hospitals in London and Birmingham admitted black nurses for training before that time.

Today, more than a quarter (29%) of nurses and midwives working in the NHS have Black and Ethnic Minority heritage, rising to much higher levels in some regions, such as up to 40% in London.

Supporting nurses and midwives

Cavell is proud to be here for all nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants working in the UK, regardless of ethnicity, gender and sexuality, supporting them when they are going through tough times. Nursing and midwifery are a strong and special workforce because of its diversity, and we celebrate this.