People's History of the NHS

Back

Here to Stay: Celebrating the National Health Service’s Windrush Heritage

Across our Windrush Season, we will be adding photographs and other content to this gallery, to demonstrate and celebrate both the instant and the enduring effects of the Windrush Generation on our National Health Service. In the past four weeks we have shared the portraits of women and men who have played critical roles in the National Health Service across their lifetimes. Each of them has generously shared parts of their life stories with us, and all have intriguing connections -- direct, indirect, or trans-generational -- with the post-war migration of British subjects from her colonies and former colonies to take up jobs and make their lives rebuilding Britain from the destruction of World War Two. Click on the portraits to read their stories. These portraits will also be shown at the University of Warwick and Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust exhibition on the University of Warwick campus. Please join us on 15 June, from 2-4 as we raise a glass to the Windrush Generation and the BAME heritage in the NHS! You can register your interest at the link below:
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/chm/research/current/nhshistory/heretostay/

4 thoughts on “Portrait of Violet May Hayles

  1. My mother worked in mental health. God rest her soul , she has passed for many years but strengthens me every day. I would welcome being there to remember her and all of the other people I know who have worked in the NHS from the Windrush generation. @yearwoodjackman

    1. We would love to hear more about your mother and her work for the NHS, and to include memories and recognition of her contributions in our archive. If you would like to share anything with us, do please get in touch here or at our email address: NHShistory@warwick.ac.uk
      Recognising the long-term impact of the Windrush Generation and their heritage of contributing to the NHS themselves and through inspiring their children is especially important and urgent now.

  2. I was browsing your blog whilst looking for information for a project for my Year 6 class on The Windrush Generation and their influence on the NHS. It was so wonderful reading the stories of these inspiring people and I’m sure the kids will love to hear about them too. Thank you to each and every one of you for everything.

    1. We are so happy to hear that your students enjoyed these stories! I’ll be sure to pass this along to our lovely contributors and the artist who created the portraits. And THANK YOU for sharing this important aspect of our history with your students!

Should you wish to remove a comment you have made, please contact us

Twitter Feed

The information is provided by us and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. We only capture and store personal information with the prior consent of users. Any personal information collected as part of the user registration process or the submission of material (including, but not limited to, name, address, e-mail address) will be stored securely, and accessible only to members of the Cultural History of the NHS project team. We will not sell, license or trade your personal information to others. We do not provide your personal information to direct marketing companies or other such organizations. These opinions do not necessarily represent those of Warwick University or the Wellcome Trust.

This site would like to use cookies to track your usage of the site