In the 1960s many Vincentians like my own mother said goodbye to their families to make the journey to England with the aim of entering the nursing profession in what was then the still young and radically innovative National Health Service.
What those members of ‘the Windrush generation’ might not have realised is that a woman from Saint Vincent had made that same journey several generations before them, in 1870 when a free and universal healthcare service in England was not even dreamed of, let alone the world-renowned institution it has now become.
Annie Catherine Brewster was born in Saint Vincent in 1858. Her father, Pharour Chaderton Brewster was a Black merchant of Bajan descent. When Annie was twelve he took Annie, her sister and the girls’ stepmother to live in England. Interestingly for a while the family boarded in Luton, the Bedfordshire town where in the next century many Vincentians like my mother and father would also settle and raise their families.
Annie’s family eventually moved to South London, and in 1881 aged twenty-three, Annie began her training as a nurse at the London Hospital – now called The Royal London. In 1893 Annie’s father, sister and stepmother moved again when they all travelled to the United States. But Annie stayed behind in England and at the London Hospital.
When I went last year to visit the Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums the skilled and dedicated staff helped me to trace the path and progression of Annie’s nursing career at the London Hospital, recorded in meticulous handwriting in thick, heavy and bound volumes of training and ward records. One glowing reference in the training reports said that Annie was ‘a thoroughly satisfactory probationer…. quick, thorough and active. She was a favourite with all the sisters under whom she worked…and equally well suited for medical and surgical work. She was gentle and kind to her patients and showed a “head” for managing her ward.’ However as a result of my research I did have doubts about how Annie’s skills were initially valued. A different record said that Annie apparently initially failed her nursing examination because of her ‘lamentably deficient education’ rather than any lack of nursing skills. But Annie nonetheless did receive a certificate to the effect that her work was excellent and her conduct very good. She was appointed to the hospital’s nursing staff in 1884 and in 1888 gained the title of ‘Nurse Ophthalmic’ not just a badge and designation of the ward she became responsible for, but over time an expression of deep affection conferred by her colleagues.
Nine years later in 1890 despite the earlier judgement about her education Annie wrote a long and eloquent letter which appeared in the London Daily News defending the hospital against accusations that nurses were treated to harsh discipline and unduly onerous tasks with poor meals and inadequate consideration of their welfare. She was a fierce defender of the London Hospital and the nursing profession and also of how she and her colleagues were well taken care of and supported.
Annie gave the London Hospital 20 years of service, becoming much loved especially for her work with elderly patients with eye problems. But Annie passed away unexpectedly aged 43 on the morning of Tuesday 11th February 1902 on the hospital’s Victor ward after what was meant to be a routine operation 4 days before to remove ‘a large fibroid’ which was not thought to be malignant. She was much mourned – her Matron’s entry in the Register of Sisters and Nurses noting Annie’s death said:
‘Annie Brewster, best known to all her Hospital friends as “Nurse Ophthalmic,” spent the best and happiest years of her life at the London Hospital…… With her quick intelligence she became very skilful in the treatment of eyes and her kindness to the poor old people who passed through her hands during this period was unwearied. Hospital friends mourn her loss and keep her in affectionate remembrance.’
Annie was buried on Valentine’s Day, 1902. No family were present. She was buried in a plot owned by the London Hospital, which was already the resting place of a nurse called Mary Hannah Edwards who had passed away 12 years before and whose burial, like Annie’s, was paid for by the hospital governors.
Annie’s story might have ended there, except that 117 years later in 2019 a historian called Stephen Bourne, a diligent researcher of the presence and contribution of Black people in British life, went in search of her resting place. The City of London Cemetery in East London is vast and evocative – it spreads over two hundred acres and contains over 150, 000 gravesites in its maze of lanes. Carefully tended lawns and huge ornate marble memorials mix with the unmarked burial sites of people who passed away many centuries ago.
The cemetery’s administrators expressed strong doubts to Bourne that after such a long period any physical indication of the grave would remain, but after searching for several hours on that hot summer’s day, he found what he was looking for: a large heavy stone cross fallen, broken and deeply buried in thick grass. At its base was the memorial stone bearing a dedication to the person buried in that spot – instead of water he had to use tissues and his spit to uncover Annie’s name, but it was there.
On Tuesday 29th March 2022, a group of dignitaries from the English nursing and medical professions, the Corporation of London, and other supporters and well-wishers came together at the cemetery to mark the rediscovery and restoration of Annie Catherine Brewster’s resting place. The restoration was jointly organised by the Company of Nurses and the Royal British Nurses’ Association. Moving addresses were given by the Master of the Company of Nurses, Mrs Frances Davies, and the President of the Royal British Nurses’ Association., The Rt Hon Anne Milton. A blessing was given by the Honorary Chaplain to the Company of Nurses, The Reverend Canon Charles Pickstone, himself very familiar with worshippers from Saint Vincent and the Caribbean in his South London parish.
The day ended with an address by His Excellency Cenio E. Lewis, High Commissioner for St Vincent and The Grenadines. The High Commissioner noted two things. One was that Annie had laid a path that nurses from Saint Vincent were still following Annie’s path to come to England to support, develop and enhance the NHS: in 2018-19 alone 60 Vincentian nurse trainees were placed in hospitals in Leeds, Yorkshire. And his final point was about vision, the field in which Annie had developed her expertise. The High Commissioner made the point that vision is about seeing in all sorts of ways: knowing what is in front of us, understanding what is real and not real, and our belief in what is possible. Annie Brewster in her selfless dedication and lifelong service certainly laid examples for us all in every single one of these ways.
