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Never in her wildest dreams had she expected to meet the Queen of England face to face.
How Vernesta Cyril got her OBE.
Google Vernesta Cyril and you will find multiple articles about the girl from St Lucia who came to Newport and trained to be a midwife. The girl who ended up getting an OBE. As someone who has delivered a few babies in my medical career, I was enthralled to meet Vernesta Cyril at her home on the outskirts of Newport. This was my chance to find out the story behind Wales' most decorated midwife, the story of 'Creole speaking' Vernesta Cyril. Vernesta, born in 1943 and now nearly 80 years old, had a way of recalling her story as if it happened yesterday.
She described her idyllic childhood home on the beautiful Caribbean island of St Lucia, "an Island where if you lived in a street everybody knew you, even in the town”. It was her first-hand experience of witnessing childbirth in St Lucia that led her to move, as part of the UK government Windrush scheme, to Newport in Wales. It was here that she trained as a nurse and qualified as a midwife. My own great grandmother would have worked nearby as a midwife during that same period of time. It was the age in which the NHS was very much in its infancy, having been created around 13 years before Vernesta took the step of being part of the Windrush Generation.
She told me about the story of Cecilia, a cousin, who she described as pretty amazing and someone she looked up to. Sadly, Cecilia ‘went mad’, suffering puerperal psychosis after childbirth and left Vernesta's family to bring up the baby after Cecilia died in a mental hospital. Watching this sad turn of events led Vernesta to consider midwifery as a worthwhile vocation in life. Her determination to protect women really shone out in our short time together, as she said, "I've always supported women being the advocate for women in the community”.
At the tender age of 18 she made the journey to Wales. I did wonder whether she initially regretted ending up living in the relatively drab streets of post-war Newport. She described a Newport that was hostile to Caribbean immigrants and lacked the close intimacy of St Lucia. Vernesta described it as a strange land, where people ate fish and chips in newspapers and where she had her first experience of snow. Gradually, Vernesta made friends with others from the Caribbean. Although she was encouraged to work in London, like many of her compatriots, Vernesta chose to make Wales her permanent home. Vernesta qualified in midwifery, but not without gaining the prize for the most promising midwifery student in her group of trainees.
This was, as it turned out, an accurate prediction of her future. In the early days, Vernesta worked in a hospital, now converted into the Celtic Manor, but then known as the Lydia Beynon maternity hospital. She described difficult deliveries in the early days before cardiotocography (a system of monitoring the baby’s heartbeat). In those early days, difficult labours had a real chance of ending in tragedy. Vernesta's career is a testimony to her physical and mental fortitude.
However, through her story, one can also hear a firsthand account of the history of modern midwifery. Alongside her NHS career, Vernesta also spent a lot of time challenging discrimination and promoting racial equality. She was the founder of South East Wales Racial Equality Council (SEWREC). In 1999, out of the blue, Vernesta was awarded the order of the British empire (OBE). As she shared this memory, her lovely brown eyes glazed over and she was clearly lost in the past as she described celebrating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth as a child. Never in her wildest dreams had she expected to meet the Queen of England face to face.
She described the anxiety of waiting in the queue to get her medal and curtseying to the Queen and, "when I got to her, they said why I was getting it, [it was] for bringing communities together”. Of course, Vernesta was keen to stress that it was all about the teamwork behind the award, as she felt "it wasn't just for [her], it was for all [her] colleagues as well”. In 2006, her next prize was UK Midwife of the Year. I couldn't help but be impressed by Vernesta Cyril.
Alongside her glittering medical career and race equality campaigning, Vernesta was also a mum to three boys and a wife to Peter. I had to wonder quite how she managed to pull all this off (quite a feat). I was told that it was with much organisation and help from friends. It's hard to miss the fact that Vernesta Cyril was no ordinary woman, no ordinary midwife. Behind the frail façade of Vernesta, lies a trail blazer, someone with real guts and compassion for humanity.
Midwifery, in my opinion, is a job for the brave. My own medical experience suggests that being a woman of colour with this degree of decoration is incredibly difficult in the health service. This year is the 75th anniversary of Windrush... and I can absolutely say that the United Kingdom should be so much in awe of this amazing generation. Thank you, Vernesta Cyril, I can't offer you anything like an OBE, but I was truly impressed and fascinated by your long career of helping women.
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