DZAGBELLE MATILDA ASANTE

DZAGBELE MATILDA ASANTE

I was nursing in the UK before Windrush and the NHS

The prevalent Windrush narrative belies the fact that there were African nurses born in Britain or from Africa in the health service before and during the fledgling years of the NHS. History consultant Kwaku provides one such story with a familial connection.

Afew days shy of her 93rd birthday, Dzagbele Matilda Asante, who was born in 1927 at La, Accra in the then Gold Coast (now Ghana) is upset that she can’t remember much of her history. But she obviously provided enough memories both for a video and a Q&A session I organised, for many of the attendees who affectionately referred to her as Mummy. Incidentally, that’s what I call her, on account of her being my mother-in-law.

Born into a well to do family – her father worked in the Treasury department of the then British colony of Gold Coast, where his position was that normally reserved for Europeans. Such positions were referred to as “European appointment”. Oh yes, even though it’s not spoken about much, there was colour bar and class bar within the British colonies.

Whilst it was unusual at the time for most girls to have secondary education, Mummy did not only complete her secondary schooling with a School Certificate (equivalent to GCSE), but went on to teach at Accra High School, which was founded by a Sierra Leonean named Rev. JT Roberts. He was one of a number of Sierra Leoneans to establish schools in the Gold Coast.

Teaching however was a temporary job, whilst she waited for arrangements to be made by her father for her to travel to the UK to study nursing. The profession was decided by her father, who also got one son to study medicine at Leeds University and another son to study law at Oxford University.

Incidentally, although she was a privatelyfunded student, she still had to go to the Castle, the seat of the colonial government in Accra, to sign a bond confirming that she would return upon completion of her training.

Mummy recalls arriving at Dover in August 1947. Although it was supposed to be summer, she found the weather cold. Her boat trip started from Ghana, but because of some unexplained post-war difficulties, she had to travel to Gambia to board the ship that brought her to the UK. She was put in the charge of the Ghanaian barrister and later the first Speaker of the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly Sir Emmanuel Quist and his wife Lady Quist.

On arrival in London, Mummy was taken by a British Council officer to the Colonial Hostel in Collingham Gardens, near Earl’s Court – the British Council in those days was very particular about which part of London it housed its colonial guests. In less than a fortnight, she moved to Barnet Hospital in north London, where she began her nursing training.

Unfortunately this hospital was rather small, without training facilities. So after several weeks of daily bussing to a bigger hospital for training, Mummy and a Sierra Leone fellow training nurse, made private arrangements to continue their training in bigger hospitals.