Patrick Vernon

Patrick Philip Vernon OBE[1] (born 1961)[2] is a British social commentator and political activist of Jamaican heritage, who works in the voluntary and public sector. He is a former Labour councillor in the London Borough of Hackney. His career has been involved with developing and managing health and social care services, including mental health, public health, regeneration and employment projects. Also a film maker and cultural historian, he runs his own social enterprise promoting the history of diverse communities, as founder of Every Generation and the "100 Great Black Britons" campaign.[3][4] He is also an expert on African and Caribbean genealogy in the UK.[5][6] He was appointed a Clore Fellow in 2007,[7] an OBE in the 2012 Birthday Honours for "services to the Reduction of Health Inequalities for Ethnic Minorities",[8] and in 2018 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Wolverhampton.[9]

Patrick Vernon
OBE
Born
Patrick Philip Vernon

1961
Wolverhampton, England
EducationManchester Metropolitan University; Warwick University
OccupationSocial commentator and political activist
Known forSuccessfully campaigning for Windrush Day
AwardsHonorary degree of Doctor of Letters, University of Wolverhampton
Websitehttps://patrickvernon.org.uk/

Vernon led a successful campaign for 22 June to be recognized annually as Windrush Day, a national day acknowledging the migrant contribution to UK society,[10][11] which was officially backed by the British government in 2018.[12]

In 2019 he was appointed Associate Director of Communities at the Centre for Ageing Better,[13] a National Lottery Community funded charity looking to improve the lives of those approaching later life.[14]

Biography

Education and early years

Patrick Vernon was born in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands of England, to Norris and Avis Vernon,[15][16] who had migrated to the UK from Jamaica in the 1950s.[17] Growing up in the All Saints and Penn Fields areas,[15] Vernon attended Grove Junior School, Colton Hills, and Wulfrun College in Wolverhampton,[18] before going on to study law at Manchester Metropolitan University, followed by postgraduate studies at Warwick University.[19] He moved to London in 1989.[20]

Health and social care work

In a career focusing on health and social care, his work has included employment as manager for Citizens Advice Bureau; senior civil servant at the Department of Health and Local Government Association; Director of the Brent Health Action Zone (Brent Primary Care Trust), and Regional Director for charity MIND. He was the former Chief executive of the Afiya Trust, one of the leading race equality health charities in the UK.[17] He was a committee member for Healthwatch England, and a trustee for Social Action for Health. He is also a trustee for the North London Muslim Housing Association and the patron of The Santé Project, a Camden charity that a charity that aims to improve refugees' rights and health access, particularly mental health.[21][22]

He is an associate member for the Department of History of Medicine at Warwick University,[23] an advisory board member for the mental health campaign Time To Change, and a former ministerial adviser for mental health.[21] He was a member of the independent Metropolitan Police inquiry on Mental Health and Policing.[24][25]

Vernon is the Director of Black Thrive, a programme for tackling mental health inequalities and improving the wellbeing of the African and Caribbean community in the London Borough of Lambeth.[26][27]

Every Generation Media and family history work

In 2002 Vernon founded Every Generation Media[28] to develop education programmes, publications and films on cultural heritage and family history,[6] with the Every Generation website becoming one of the main sites on family history for African and Caribbean communities in Britain.[16] In 2003 he launched the successful "100 Great Black Britons" campaign, in response to a television series broadcast by the BBC called 100 Greatest Britons (a list topped by Winston Churchill through public nomination), in order "to raise the profile of the Black contribution to Britain and to challenge the notion of Britishness."[29] The campaign received wide coverage in the national print and television media, with Mary Seacole eventually announced as having been voted the greatest Black Briton.[30]

In 2006 Every Generation published When We Ruled, a history of African civilisations by Robin Walker.[4][31] In 2013 in partnership with Ian Randle Publishers he published Caribbean in Sepia: A History in Photographs 1840–1900, written by Michael Ayer. In addition, Vernon has published a book about the history of pirate radio stations (Master of The Airwaves written by Dave VJ and Lindsay Wesker).[32]

Vernon has a collection of 5,000 historic postcards that he uses in workshops he runs on family history and genealogy.[22] He is the author of a guide to using the National Archives photographic images as a resource for family history, as part of the "Caribbean Through the Lens" project.[33][34] He is related to singer Jimmy Cliff and has traced his lineage as far back as the 1800s,[22] to a village in Senegal called Kédougou.[2][35]

Windrush Day and community activism

Vernon was the first to call for the national celebration of "Windrush Day" on 22 June, to recognise the migrant contribution to UK society, marking the day in 1948 when the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury, bringing the first big group of post-war migrants from the West Indies to Britain.[10][36][37] On being made an OBE in 2012, in recognition of his work to promote health equality for Black and minority ethnic communities, Vernon said: "I am dedicating this honour to my parents who were part of the Windrush Generation; they made a lot of personal sacrifices in coming to Britain and raising my four sisters and me. It is also great to receive this award which also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Independence of Jamaica."[15]

In 2015 Vernon was caught up in controversy around his concerns that the design of the flag of the Black Country was offensive and insensitive.[38][39] This led to him being "dragged into an online hate campaign after saying that the flag's chain motif represents an image of an industry which profited from the transatlantic slave trade."[40]

In May 2018, following his earlier campaign for Windrush Day and his 2013 petition to the British government, Vernon relaunched a petition asking the Prime Minister to recognise June 22 as a national day to commemorate and celebrate migration and migrant communities in Britain.[41][42][43] At the height of the Windrush scandal, with revelations about the wrongful detention and deportation of members of the Windrush generation and their children, and following Vernon's campaigning for justice for those affected, including an amnesty on deportations,[44][45][46][47] it was announced by the government that an annual Windrush Day would be celebrated, supported by a grant of up to £500,000, to recognise and honour the contribution of the Windrush Generation and their descendants and to "keep their legacy alive for future generations, ensuring that we all celebrate the diversity of Britain’s history."[12][48]

Vernon's work to create more awareness around the Windrush story includes developing a board game and having directed the documentary film A Charmed Life about Eddie Martin Noble, who came to Britain from Jamaica and was one of 10,000 Caribbean people who served in World War II.[49]

Vernon has also mounted a campaign for Mary Seacole to be featured on the Bank of England's new £50 note, which would make her the first black Briton to be honoured by appearing on a banknote.[50]

In April 2020 after his sister's partner died from the Covid-19 virus, Vernon set up a fundraising initiative called "The Majonzi Fund" which will provide families from Black & Minority ethnicities with access to small financial grants that can be used to access bereavement counselling and organise memorial events and tributes after the social lockdown has been lifted.[51]

Vernon featured on the August 2020 cover of British Vogue as one of 20 activists "ready to change the world".[52]

Political career

Vernon served for eight years as a Labour councillor for the Queensbridge ward in the London Borough of Hackney, stepping down in May 2014, when the ward was abolished.[22][53] He was appointed as chair of the Labour Party's Race Equality Advisory Group in December 2015.[54]

Cultural contributions

As a film-maker, Vernon's work includes directing and producing A Charmed Life, a documentary about the Caribbean contribution in the UK during World War 2, focusing on Jamaican ex-serviceman Eddie Martin Noble.[55][56][36][57] This led in November 2010 to "Speaking Out and Standing Firm", a programme (developed by Every Generation in partnership with Haringey Library Services) in which Vernon facilitated inter-generational workshops, with young people from North London interviewing war veterans, ex-service men and women from World War 2 and modern-day peacekeeping and international conflicts.[58][59]

Among the outlets for which Vernon writes are The Guardian, The Voice,[22] and Media Diversified.[60] In 2017, the 30th anniversary of Black History Month in Britain, he was appointed as guest editor for Black History Month Magazine.[61][62]

As MC Patrick Vernon, he presents Museum of Grooves, a podcast that explores Afrofuturism.[63][64]

Selected articles

Selected awards and recognition
  • 2003: CRE Race in the Media Awards for New Media[4]
  • 2003: Buckingham Palace recognition as "Pioneer of the Nation" for Cultural History[65]
  • 2004: Windrush Awards winners for Internet and Technology and Community Champion[4]
  • 2005: National Ethnic Minority Social Enterprise Award[4]
  • 2006: CRE Race in the Media Awards runner-up in New Media
  • 2007: Clore Leadership Fellow[66]
  • 2009: a community space in the Chalkhill Health and Community Centre, near Wembley Stadium, was named "Vernon Hall" in 2010, in recognition of his work locally as a former senior NHS manager in Brent.[6]
  • 2012: awarded OBE in Queen's Birthday Honours for services to the reduction of health inequalities in ethnic minorities[67][17]
  • 2013: Visiting Fellow, Centre for History of Medicine, Warwick University
  • 2014: Health Service Journal, BME Pioneer for 2014[68]
  • 2014: Jamaica Times UK, Political Representative of the Year[69]
  • 2018: Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, University of Wolverhampton[70]
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gollark: Oh, you're in the terrariolan faction.
gollark: Hi¡
gollark: Mekanism.
gollark: Anyway, I think we should put all the lasers on the underside of some ~y240 sky platform on turtles, spread out to prevent them shooting each other by accident, and with a teleport receiver fed power with a power cell or solar panel.

References
  1. "Queen's birthday Honours list in full", The Daily Telegraph, 16 June 2012.
  2. "Patrick Vernon" Archived 1 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Sankofa 2013: Teachers' Resource Pack, p. 41.
  3. Chandler, Mark (10 June 2019). "Robinson snaps up 100 Great Black Britons book". The Bookseller. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  4. "Every Generation Media Timeline".
  5. Vernon, Patrick. "African Diaspora Approaches to Family History & the Collections of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)". Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  6. "Patrick Vernon OBE", Specialist Speakers.
  7. "Distinguished friends: Patrick Vernon OBE". Migration Museum. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  8. "Influential health equality advocate Patrick Vernon OBE joins HSIB". HSIB. 21 February 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  9. "Patrick Vernon OBE". Cumberland Lodge. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  10. Vernon, Patrick (25 January 2010). "Windrush Day: a fitting way to celebrate our immigrant population". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  11. Vernon, Patrick (9 May 2018). "The Windrush shaped Britain. Why not recognise that?". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  12. Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, "Annual day of celebrations for the Windrush Generation" (Press release), UK Government, 18 June 2018.
  13. "Patrick Vernon – Associate Director for Communities". Centre for Ageing Better. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  14. "What we do". Centre for Ageing Better. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  15. "Patrick Vernon" Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Black History & Heritage Wolverhampton.
  16. Kimone Thompson, "Patrick Vernon's journey home – A Jamaican Briton traces his roots", Jamaica Observer, 25 September 2011.
  17. Ellie Broughton, "Hackney councillor Patrick Vernon awarded OBE in Queen's birthday honours", Hackney Citizen, 11 July 2012.
  18. "Award for community activist". University of Wolverhampton. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  19. "5 Minute Interview – Patrick Vernon – Chief Executive, The Afiya Trust", ReConnect Africa.
  20. "Doctor Patrick Vernon, OBE". Gelliwig Outdoor Residential Activities Centre. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  21. Patrick Vernon profile at The Guardian.
  22. "The last supper: Patrick Vernon dines with Hackney Citizen", Hackney Citizen, 5 June 2014.
  23. "Patrick Vernon, OBE - Associate Member". News at the Centre for the History of Medicine. University of Warwick.
  24. Lord Victor Adebowale, "Independent Commission’s Public Consultation on Mental Health and Policing", HuffPost, 14 February 2013.
  25. "Exposed: The Truth About Policing", The Voice, 25 May 2013.
  26. "Patrick Vernon, OBE", Black Thrive.
  27. "Black Thrive", Collective Impact Forum.
  28. Every Generation Media.
  29. "100 Great Black Britons Campaign", Every Generation Media.
  30. Omar Alleyne Lawler, "Patrick Vernon and One Hundred Great Black Britons", Black History Month 365, 28 September 2016.
  31. "Editor's CTBF Choice (1 of 2): When We Ruled", Books Live, Sunday Times, 20 June 2007.
  32. Benjamin Mortimer, "Masters of the Airwaves: The Rise and Rise of Underground Radio – review", East End Review, 11 April 2014.
  33. " Caribbean through a lens – explored!", The National Archives.
  34. Patrick Vernon, "Reflections on Caribbean Through A Lens", The National Archives.
  35. Patrick Vernon, "'How I Tried To Trace My Roots Back To Africa'", The Gleaner, 18 May 2011.
  36. Patrick Vernon, "Why Windrush Day matters", British Future, 21 June 2013.
  37. Patrick Vernon, "We need a Windrush Day to celebrate the migrant contribution to UK", Brixton Blog, 8 July 2015.
  38. "Black Country flag 'offensive and insensitive' says leading racism campaigner", Express & Star, 13 July 2015.
  39. Peter Henn, "Activist sparks fury after he brands 12-year-old girl's Black Country flag as 'RACIST'", Daily Express, 14 July 2015.
  40. Poppy Brady, "'Slave Flag' Row Historian Gets Invite To Black Country" Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Voice, 17 July 2015.
  41. "Former Hackney councillor renews call for national Windrush Day", Hackney Citizen, 21 May 2018.
  42. Erenata Kadrolli, "Petition launched to recognise Windrush Day", East London Lines, 25 May 2018.
  43. Patrick Vernon, "The Reader: We should designate a day to celebrate the Windrush’s arrival", Have Your Say, Evening Standard, 29 May 2018.
  44. "Anger as 'Windrush generation' face deportation threat", BBC News, 11 April 2018.
  45. Mike Urban, "Petition: Amnesty for the Windrush Generation, stop all deportations", Brixton Buzz, 12 April 2018.
  46. "Windrush generation: Who are they and why are they facing problems?", BBC News, 18 April 2018.
  47. Josh Layton, "The Windrush explained: The who, what and why of the men and women who came to rebuild a nation", Birmingham Live, 18 June 2018.
  48. Nadeem Badshah, "UK makes Windrush Day official with £500k grant to support events", The Guardian, 18 June 2018.
  49. "Windrush70: the documentary celebrating a trailblazer", ITV News, 6 July 2018.
  50. "Campaign To Put Mary Seacole On £50 Note Gains Strength", The Voice,1 November 2018.
  51. Gelder, Sam. "Campaigner launches fundraiser to support BAME communities affected by coronavirus". Hampstead Highgate Express. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  52. Afua Hirsch (3 August 2020). "The 20 Remarkable Activists On Vogue's September Cover Are Ready To Change The World". Vogue.
  53. "Councillor Patrick Vernon OBE", Hackney Council.
  54. "Patrick Vernon OBE appointed as Chair of Labour Party's Race Equality Advisory Group", Race on the Agenda (ROTA), 14 December 2015.
  55. "Eddie Noble: A Charmed Life (2009)", IMDb.
  56. "A Charmed Life (2008)", BFI, Film Forever.
  57. "About", A Charmed Life website.
  58. Speaking Out and Standing Firm website.
  59. Patrick Vernon, "Remembrance Sunday: Don't Forget Our West Indian Heroes", The Voice, 10 November 2013.
  60. Patrick Vernon page at Media Diversified.
  61. "Black History Month 2017 | As Black History Month celebrates its 30th Anniversary", Black History Month 365.
  62. Josh, "Patrick Vernon OBE Appointed Editor-in-Chief of Black History Month Magazine", Black History Month 365, 19 July 2017.
  63. "Revolution 600 Revisited: Imaginary Futures Revolutionary Pasts", The List.
  64. Josh Rivers (26 January 2019). "Patrick Vernon OBE". Busy Being Black.
  65. "Patrick Vernon OBE", Cultural Compounds.
  66. "Clore Fellows", The Clore Leadership Programme.
  67. Sarah Ingrams, "Hackney councillor and health campaigner awarded OBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours List", Hackney Gazette, 19 June 2012.
  68. "Healthwatch England Committee member one of top 50 BME health pioneers", Healthwatch, 7 November 2014.
  69. "The Jamaica Times Awards 2014".
  70. "University announces honours list", University of Wolverhampton, 9 August 2018.

  

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