Daphne Steele

Daphne Steele (15 October 1927 – 23 July 2004) was a Guyanese nurse and midwife who in 1964 became the first Black matron in the National Health Service.

Early life

Daphne Adrianna Steele was born on 15 October 1927 in the region of Essequibo, British Guiana (now part of Guyana) as the eldest of nine children. Her mother Maude was a piano teacher and her father worked as a pharmacist who travelled around the colony to work. The family were sufficiently well off to be able to afford servants to clean the family house.

Medical career

She underwent training in nursing and midwifery at the public hospital in Georgetown in 1945. She emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1951, Individuals in the Windrush generation were often denied jobs and housing. Most individuals from the Windrush Generation experienced adversity and racism in the United Kingdom. There was constant prejudice against black nurses and physicians and the desire to improve the workplace for them during the 1950's. Her mother and two sisters—Jeune, who was a nurse, and Carmen Munroe—joined Steele in UK. In 1964, Steele was appointed as matron at St. Winifred's Hospital in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. This was the first time that a Black person had been appointed as a matron anywhere in the NHS. In 2002, Steele carried the Shipley relay baton for Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee as part of the run up to the Commonwealth games in Manchester. She was survived by her son Robert.

Accolades English Heritage's first blue plaque was placed to commemorate Daphne Steele on February 23, 2024. Blue plaques are significant in London as they celebrate the connection between a significant person and a place. Individuals awarded a blue plaque have had an "important positive contribution to human welfare or happiness."

A second blue place was put up by the Nubian Jak Community Trust and the Association of Guyanese Nurses and Allied Professionals, in order to commemorate Steele's time training in St. James Hospital in Balham, South London. This plaque describes Steele as "Britain's first NHS hospital matron of African descent." St George’s Hospital in Balham celebrates Daphne Steele Day on 16 October, her birthday.

In 2022, it was announced that the University of Huddersfield’s planned Health & Wellbeing Academy was to be named for Daphne Steele. The new building is destined to train more people to work in health related careers and is planned to open in September 2024.