Pauline Henriques

Pauline Clothilde Henriques (1 April 1914 – 1 November 1998), popularly known as "Paul," was a Jamaican-born English actress. In 1946, she became the first black female actress on British television. She was also the first black female Justice of the Peace, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1969.

Henriques worked extensively with unmarried mothers and worked as a counsellor with, and later Secretary to, the Brook Counselling and Advisory Clinic.

Early life Pauline Henriques was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Cyril Charles Henriques, a wealthy merchant, and Edith Emily Delfosse. Her father was of Portuguese and Jewish descent, while her mother was a "native of Haiti". One of six children, she moved with her family to England from Jamaica in 1919, as her father wanted to give his children an English education. Her elder brother, Cyril George Henriques (1908–1982), became a Lord Chief Justice of Jamaica and was knighted in 1963.

In 1932, she enrolled in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts to study drama. During this time she experienced challenges due to roles that were available to her, she explained in a later interview: "I appeared in many school productions, but I had to play my parts in white face, including Lady Bracknell and Lady Macbeth! I went along with it because I was very anxious to learn my craft, and to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress. You see, I couldn't sing or dance, and dramatic roles were non-existent for black actresses, so I had to "white up" to gain experience."

She broke more than one glass ceiling in her time, the first of which was as the first Black female actress on British TV in 1946. Cast as Hattie Harris in a 1946 BBC television version of Eugene O'Neill's play All God's Chillun Got Wings, Henriques continued to perform on stage and screen in a variety of roles during the 1950s. She was also cast as Ella in The Heart Within.

In 1948, she became a founding member of the Negro Theatre Company and directed a variety show called Something Different

She acted in the BBC's A Man from the Sun, a television drama documentary that for the first time portrayed the lives of Caribbean settlers in post-war Britain.

Counselling During the latter part of her career, then known as Pauline Crabbe, she worked extensively in counselling unmarried mothers and was involved in championing counselling for pregnant teenagers, especially those under the age of 16, to determine whether abuse had been involved. In 1966, she helped form the Havistock Housing Trust, and in the following year was appointed to the Housing Corporation. From 1969 to 1971, she worked as a Conciliation Officer with the Race Relations Board, before moving to the London Brook Advisory Centre to work as first Secretary and then, from 1976 as Senior Counsellor until, in 1980, she was appointed as the National Vice-Chairman until her retirement in 1986. In 1977, she featured as a speaker at the Altrusa Convention, as the Secretary to the Brook Advisory Centres. She was also interviewed at length for the British Library's National Sound Archive.

For Channel 4's Faces of the Family show in 1994, Pauline appeared as the matriarch of an extended family.

For her role and responsibility towards women, she was quoted in the First Woman Sheriffs in the United States on the front page:

Works "Social and Emotional Aspects of Pregnancy in Teenagers", Journal of BioSocial Science 10 (1978), pp. 171–184.

Featured in: Bourne, Stephen (1998), Black in the British frame: Black people in British film and television, 1896–1996, Cassell, and (2025), Trailblazers of Black British Theatre. The History Press. Murray, Jenni (1996), The Woman's Hour: 50 Years on Women in Britain. BBC Books. Nicholson, Mavis (1995), What Did You Do in the War, Mummy? Chatto & Windus. Pines, Jim (editor) (1992), Black and White in Colour: Black People in British Television since 1936. BFI.