Oct 2020
Jamaican born Tryphena Anderson, the first black person to receive a British bursary to train as a health visitor.
Celebrating inspirational leaders in health and social care #BlackHistoryMonth
At the age of nineteen, Tryphena Anderson, answered the call from the British Government for nurses to join the NHS. She moved from Jamaica to England with the aim of dedicating her life’s work to helping others.
Tryphena was born in 1933 in Jamaica. She attended a Church of England school until 1952 when, just a week after completing her education, she boarded the HMS Franconia and sailed from New York to Liverpool to pursue a career in nursing.
On arriving in the UK, Tryphena was shocked to realise that her English was better than most people already living here. She moved to the Midlands to work as a junior nurse and complete her training at Nottingham General Hospital.
In 1954, Tryphena took a break from nursing and had her first baby, which was considered controversial.
After working at both Grantham Hospital and the Coppice, she began her postgraduate training at Nottingham City Hospital, and qualified as a midwife.
In 1988, after more than 30 years working for the NHS, in 1988 Tryphena bought a nursing home, which she ran until 2002.