Recognising the Legacy of Black Bermudian Nurses

Today, nursing workforces are often incredibly diverse and international, yet historically not all nurses have had equal opportunities. Neither have their work and stories been appreciated equally, both in the UK and more widely.

As this Black History Month draws to a close, reflecting on the theme “Reclaiming Narratives” is an opportunity to remember and take inspiration from these nurses who despite facing obstacles, carried out trailblazing work, paving the way for a better environment for all.

Based on research by Meredith Ebbin and Cecille Snaith-Simmons, and also from conversations with them, this article will focus on the journey that led to black Bermudians being able to work as district nurses and in hospitals in Bermuda. The racially segregated landscape of the time made this journey difficult, and I will focus on a few nurses, some being Queen’s Nurses, whose grit and persistence in their pursuit of a successful nursing career helped to break down these barriers.

Lorraine Dyer-Bizek, working as a nurse in Britain in the 1940s
Source: bermudabiographies.bm

Although slavery was abolished in Bermuda in 1834, racial segregation continued until the formal desegregation of Bermudian schools in the late 1960s.

For nursing, this meant that when Bermuda’s only hospital, the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH) opened in 1920, their training programme was open to white nurses only. Midwifery in black communities was learnt through experiences passed down generations in families, and training was limited to a small local programme at the Bermuda Nursing Home, which included a fourth graduate year at Lincoln Hospital School in New York. Many black Bermudians would go directly to the US to train, hoping to return home and work in Bermuda as qualified nurses.

However, upon their return, KEMH did not accept them, giving the excuse that American training was inferior, or – shamefully – claiming that tourists would be offended by them. For the first half of the twentieth century, employment opportunities for black Bermudians were limited to the Bermuda Nursing Home, or to private duty nursing.

”You could work for a private patient at KEMH but you could not eat in the dining room, socialize with the white nurses or move about the hospital. You brought your own food, ate where you changed your clothes or with your patient.
Cecille Snaith-Simmonshistorian and retired district nurse

Similarly, for district nursing, which was managed by the Bermuda Welfare Society (BWS), there was a requirement to have a Queen’s Nurse (QN) qualification, which effectively barred US-trained Bermudian nurses from employment. The introduction of a written midwifery examination in 1927 also discriminated against informally trained black midwives.

Despite this, Bermudian nurses persisted; the Bermuda Graduate Nurses’ Association was formed as a place for black nurses to share their ideas, and support each other in what was a racially charged climate. Members would hold meetings in their homes, and together they shared a determination to be able to work as nurses in their own communities.

In the 1950s, a younger generation of nurses were returning from training in England. Many were not offered roles which matched their levels of training, but Barbara Wade became the first black registered nurse employed by KEMH in 1958.

The return of this next generation also created a desire to be involved with international nursing groups. This ultimately led to the amalgamation of the Bermuda Graduate and KEMH Nurses’ Associations in 1967, as the International Council of Nurses limited membership to one organisation per country.

Nurses Cecille Snaith-Simmons and Caro Spencer-Wilson, along with their legal representative Dame Lois-Browne Evans made up the team which helped draw up the constitution for the new, singular nurses’ association. Cecille recalls the charged atmosphere of these meetings:

”The contention was caused because of the racial climate at the time which believed we were less than and deserved less than the white nurses. Nevertheless, we fought on and in the end the Association was formed and became the Bermuda Registered Association, now known as the Bermuda Nurses’ Association.

In district nursing, the picture was similar. Despite the BWS requiring a QN qualification, throughout the 1950s there was a white Bermudian nurse employed as a midwife and district nurse who had no general training. Waiting until her retirement, Leonie Harford, who had returned to Bermuda as a QN around this time, became the first black Bermudian to be employed as a district nurse by the BWS in 1963.

Sandra Allen was then employed by the BWS in 1966 without a QN qualification, followed by Cecille Snaith-Simmons in 1967. However, they still experienced discrimination, described by Cecille when she first joined the team:

”I experienced some difficulties. The white patients felt that I should always come to the back door to enter their homes. This was not a situation that I was prepared to accept and so I frequently had to let the referring doctors know that although I was wearing a white uniform, I was not the maid, and very quickly the word spread that the nurse did not go to back doors. For three months I remained unpaid as the Treasurer felt I should only be admitted through her back door.

Despite experiences like these, these nurses’ persistence, along with the unification of the two segregated nurses’ associations in 1967 meant that the environment was changing. Black nurses could now work at KEMH, and the BWS was taken over by the Bermudian Department of Health in the 1970s.

Within this narrative, the following nurses represent some (but not all) of the key figures, whose pioneering work enabled the much-needed changes that followed.

The nurses who were part of the first generation of Bermudians to train in the UK and USA left their homes and families and undertook huge journeys, despite knowing that KEMH was unlikely to offer them employment upon their return.

Caro Spencer-Wilson (1903-1989)

Upon her return from Lincoln Hospital School (US) to Bermuda in 1929 as a qualified RN, Wilson struggled to find employment. She could not work at KEMH or as a district nurse for the BWS, so a prominent group of black families in Hamilton parish created a district nursing and midwifery service especially for her, forming the Hamilton Parish Nursing Association. Throughout her 40-year career, Hamilton had two district nurses who often saw the same patients; Spencer-Wilson, and the nurse employed by the BWS.

Spencer-Wilson was a founding member of the Bermuda Graduate Nurses’ Association in the 1950s, and was involved in the amalgamation of the association with its equivalent at KEMH, resulting in the creation of the singular, racially integrated, Bermuda Nurses’ Association in 1967.

Caro Spencer-Wilson as a newly qualified nurse in 1929
Source: bermudabiographies.bm

Lorraine Dyer-Bizek QN (1915-1991)

With greater ambitions than could be met by the training offered at the Bermuda Nursing Home, in 1937 Bizek travelled to England to train as a State Registered Nurse (SRN), one of the first Bermudians to do so. Qualifying in the midst of the Second World War in 1941 led her to Coventry where she helped treat bomb casualties, and then to a hospital in Litchfield for those wounded as a result of the war.

She then trained as a midwife in Scotland, where she became Bermuda’s first QN in 1944, which was followed by another year’s training to be recognised as a QN in England in 1945.

Throughout her 10 years spent in England, Bizek had a desire to return to Bermuda. Appearing in the 1943 BBC film “Hello! West Indies” she describes wanting to open a nursing home in Bermuda after the war.

She returned to Bermuda in 1947 to find few offers of employment, despite her lengthy qualifications. Although not documented in official records, at her memorial service her family described how she was told by KEMH that she was “overqualified”.

Bizek spent the majority of her career in Britain, where she also acted as a mentor to some of the Bermudian nurses who later trained there. Due to the racially hostile environment of the first half of the 20^th Century, Bizek was one of many Bermudians whose talents were appreciated elsewhere.

Lorraine Dyer-Bizek
Source: bermudabiographies.bm

Clare Harford Perry QN (1933-1993), Gleena Gilbert QN (1931-2023)

Cousins Clare Harford Perry and Gleena Gilbert were the second and third Bermudians to qualify as QNs. They left Bermuda together in 1954 to train at Manor Hospital Nursing School in Staffordshire, where they each qualified as SRNs in 1957, and later as midwives as well. Following this, they both enrolled in the QNI district nursing course to become Queen’s Nurses, for Perry in 1961, and Gilbert in 1962.

Perry returned to Bermuda in 1961 where she worked at KEMH for a short time, before moving to New York to work at the Roosevelt Hospital in 1964. She spent the rest of her career in the US.

Similarly, Gilbert also worked at KEMH after returning to Bermuda. A 1962 article in The Bermuda Recorder describes her return, and the improvements at the hospital while she was gone. However, she left two years later to work at a hospital in New York, remaining in the US for the rest of her career. Her family have said this was due to the discrimination she experienced at KEMH.

Perry and Gilbert are part of a wider group of Bermudian nurses from this time whose skills were not recognised by health establishments in Bermuda, and whose careers were spent in the US.

Gilbert and Perry in the UK as student nurses in 1955
Source: bermudabiographies.bm

Phyllis Leonie Harford QN (1921-2003)

At the age of 17 in 1938, Leonie Harford joined the training programme at the Cottage Nursing Home in Bermuda, before completing a graduate year at Lincoln Hospital School (US), and then further obstetrics training in Rhode Island.

As with others after her, on her return to Bermuda KEMH would not accept her based on her American qualifications, offering her the position of nurses’ assistant instead. Insulted, she instead worked as matron and instructor for students at the Cottage Nursing Home where she had first trained.

In 1957, due to the frustration and resentment in the community about the American and Bermudian qualified black nurses who were not being offered employment, the Bermudian government paid for these nurses to be retrained in Britain.

Harford then began her training for the second time, and returned to Bermuda in 1962 as their fourth QN. In 1963, she became the first black Bermudian nurse employed by the BWS, working as a district nurse until her retirement.

Put by her colleague and friend Cecille Snaith-Simmons in The Royal Gazette:

“Years later, Leonie Harford described her career path as extremely challenging but rewarding. Her sincere hope was that qualified Bermudian nurses would never again experience the humiliation of rejection in finding employment in their own country.”

Leonie Harford
Source: Cecille Snaith-Simmons via royalgazette.com

Final thoughts

Through documenting these stories, we remember the legacy of the contributions made by these nurses. Their contributions to Black history and to world nursing history were felt in Bermuda the UK and USA. They deserve greater recognition than what they were given in their time.

As put by Cecille:

”There are only two of us left from the group that amalgamated the two racially divided Nurses’ Associations, which is why I write often to remind the younger generation of how far we’ve come.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank both Cecille Snaith-Simmons and Meredith Ebbin for their assistance and enthusiasm towards the research for this article.

More information on Bermuda’s nursing history, including nurses not mentioned here, can be found both at Meredith’s website, and also in Cecille’s various articles for The Royal Gazette.

Another resource is the film Healthcare Heroines: Black Bermudian Nurses and the Struggle for Equality, for which Meredith was the principal researcher.

Violet Trevelyan-Clark