Bermuda’s Loss

Limited opportunities at home kept many Black Bermudian RNs overseas, even after 1958 when racial barriers were lifted. Lincoln graduate Mary Tucker Mynns became a supervisor at Lincoln Hospital. 

Cora Williams Nicholson, a 1921 graduate of Frederick Douglass Nursing School in Philadelphia, spent her whole nursing career in the US. 

In 1952, Marion Simons George returned to Bermuda after four years in the UK, where she had qualified as a State Registered Nurse (SRN) and State Certified Midwife (SCM). Denied a position at KEMH, she joined the staff of the Cottage Hospital Nursing Home. In 1954, frustrated by KEMH’s whites-only policy, she returned to the UK, where she worked as a midwife and ended her career as a respected tutor of midwives.

Lincoln-trained RNs Lillian Smith Hutchinson and Annie Edness Wright also remained in the US after finishing their studies, while Laura Francis moved to East Africa. In 1934, the Bermuda Recorder reported that Annie Wright was employed by the Henry Street Visiting Nursing Service in New York.

In 1952, Marion Simons George returned to Bermuda after four years in the UK, where she had qualified as a State Registered Nurse (SRN) and State Certified Midwife (SCM).  She applied for a position at KEMH, but was rejected. She was accompanied on her trip home by a white friend and colleague, who also applied to work at KEMH—and was hired as a midwife.

Marion George joined the staff of the Cottage Hospital Nursing Home, but in 1954, frustrated by KEMH’s whites-only policy, returned to the UK, where she worked as a midwife and ended her career as a respected tutor of midwives.