My friend Frank Bailey,who has died aged 90, was one of the first black firefighters in Britain and a much admired trade union representative both in the fire service and, and later,as a social worker.
Frank was born in British Guiana (now Guyana). After attending local church schools, he became an engineering apprentice, and then signed up to work on a German ship as a trimmer,shifting coal from the ship’s bunkers to the stokers. He reached recent York and decided to stay there, finding work in a hospital – first as a porter and then in the physiotherapy department as a medical assistant, and where he led a successful walkout against the hospital’s racially segregated dining facilities. He also married Isabella Maven; they later divorced.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com