‘I followed in the footsteps of my father by coming to the UK to work for the NHS’
The Windrush generation paid a pivotal role in building the NHS which was launched weeks after they arrived in the UK. Chelone is a midwife at St George’s whose father Conrad was born and raised in Trinidad before being inspired to join the Windrush generation by coming to the UK to work for the NHS.
My dad is a psychiatrist who came to work for the NHS from Trinidad in 1958 after receiving specialist training as a Commonwealth citizen.
He had worked as a psychiatrist at Foresterhill Hospital in Aberdeen for seven years and then returned to Trinidad, not being keen on the cold weather, and started a GP practice in a very rural area called Princess Town.
Conrad came to work for the NHS from Trinidad
After working in the UK for 10 years, he returned to Trinidad to help rebuild their health service with my Scottish mum and I was born there.
In 1990, I came to the UK when I was 20 years old to study nursing/midwifery before working in the NHS.
Conrad and his family in Trinidad
My father became very ill in 2004 at the age of 65. He was still working and refused to go into a care home so I returned to Trinidad and brought him back to the UK for a planned six months.
However, after two months I realised that time frame would not be enough for him to recover well enough to return to Trinidad, so I applied for residency status which would allow him to stay for a several months more.
Despite my mum, myself and my siblings all being British citizens his request was refused.
Chelone is a midwife at St George’s
We launched a fight which lasted two years and after two failed appeals we asked for the request to be terminated because my dad had recovered and had been worn down by the process.
He was rehabilitated by living with family, so he returned to Trinidad to continue working there.
My dad is now deceased and never claimed a pension from the UK or Trinidad Government because he said others needed it more!
My heart bleeds for those men and women who worked for most of their lives in the UK but were never given citizenship rights.
