Nola Ishmael

Nola Ishmael, born in 1943, is a Barbadian nurse who became the first black or minority ethnic director of nursing in London. She was appointed OBE in the 2000 Birthday Honours list. A portrait of her, a 2006 photograph by Julia Fullerton-Batten, is held in the National Portrait Gallery in London, and a BBC News feature from 25 June 2018 recounts how she became the first black nursing director in the capital. The Wikipedia article about her is short, so this entry records only what it states: her Barbadian nationality, her profession, the pioneering appointment that marks her place in nursing history, and the honour and portrait that recognise it. Details of her training, her earlier posts and the hospitals she led are not given in the source and are not asserted here.