Daphne Steele

Daphne Steele (1927 to 2004) was a Guyanese nurse and midwife who, in 1964, became the first Black matron in the British National Health Service. Born in the Essequibo region of British Guiana, she trained in nursing and midwifery at the public hospital in Georgetown, emigrated to England in 1951 as part of the Windrush generation of Caribbean recruits to the new service, and qualified as a state registered nurse and then as a midwife in 1954. After a spell working in New Jersey and a return to Britain, she was appointed matron of St. Winifred's Hospital in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, an appointment that made news around the world. When the hospital closed she worked at a children's hospital and retrained as a health visitor, a role she held until retirement in 1987. She is commemorated by blue plaques in Ilkley and in Balham, an annual memorial lecture and a university health and wellbeing academy named for her.