St Kitts-born midwife is featured in Leeds museum

A museum in Leeds, England is featuring a St Kitts-born midwife who used humour to overcome racism in Leeds. The new exhibition highlights how migrants have helped shape that English city.

The BBC News article states that Gloria Hanley left St Kitts aged 18 in 1968, seizing upon a chance to train in England as a nurse.

She arrived in Leeds in the 1970s where she worked as an NHS midwife, delivering hundreds of babies, many of them in Harehills.

Her journey is one of the dozens being told at an exhibition at Leeds City Museum.

Titled 'A City and it's Welcome: Three centuries of migration to Leeds' it looks at the many different people who have travelled to the city to make a new life for themselves.

Among the exhibits are family heirlooms and photographs loaned by members of the Jewish, Irish, Muslim and Sikh communities.

Illustrating Ms Hanley's story are her midwifery bag, ID badge and the hat she used to wear.

Now aged 71 and retired, she recalls her early experiences in the city she now considers home.

"Love brought me to Leeds but when I first arrived I wasn't impressed at all but then I soon got acclimatised," she said.

"I'd come up from London where I'd been training and what struck me about Leeds was how integrated it was.

"In London, you didn't see a lot of black and white people together.

"But here, I remember going to a party and thinking 'wow, white people are here'."

She added: "I've always treated racism with humour and managed to break down barriers every time.

"My main aim was always to get into the house and care for the mother and baby."

Other items on display include a collection of toy houses brought to Leeds by Eva Mitchell from former Czechoslovakia in 1938.

Curator Ruth Martin said: "Migration is core to the story of Leeds.

"The city wouldn't the same unique place it is today without the knowledge, individuality and heritage they brought with them.