Joycelyn Melton-Grey
Born: not given
Jamaica
Date of interview: 1st June 2006
My name is Joycelyn Melton-Grey
And your date of birth?
Fifteen of December 1939.
You have a hyphened name.
Yes I have.
Why is that?
Because I have been married twice.
So, is that your maiden name and your
No, that was my married name
Yes
My maiden name is Buchanon, BUCHANAN
Ok, can I ask you firstly, could you tell me something about your parents? (phone rings) And your early life
My parents are both dead now. My mother died at the age of fifty, and that was in the third year of nursing in England. She died of diabetic coma, six years after that my father died.
What did your father do for living?
My father was a saddle-maker. He supplied the plantations.
Where was this?
That was in Jamaica
Where about?
This was in the parish of Saint Mary. They had three children, and I was the eldest girl. My other two sisters had died, so I am the last of that line.
Your father was a saddle-maker
Yes and my mom was a housekeeper part-time and shopkeeper.
She was housekeeper where?
She used to housekeep for the expatriates and professional people when they went away.
expatriates
yeah
Were they diplomats?
No they weren't diplomats.
Were you brought up in the country-side in Jamaica?
Yes, I was brought up in the country-side.
Tell me something about the life in the country there, what was it like?
Country, we grew up in an extended family life and it was ... I remember it was quite good fun, Everyone in the extended family was there, aunties, cousins and grandma. But most of the time I was very close to my grandma, my mother's mother. We lived in a seaport town, Port Maria, the capital of St Mary. So we spent a lot of time sea-bathing because it was thought to be good for your health, and we would buy fresh fish from the fishermen as the boats came in.
Right
The primary school was not far from there by the sea.
What types of boats were these?
They were wooden rowing boats. In those days you didn't have motorboats, and they would cast their nets and drop their fish pots. There was a big variety of fish.
So, life was good, you enjoyed it there?
Life was good as I can remember it. Port Maria was a well known port because ships would come to take bananas and coconuts which were shelled first, then roasted, called coppra. This was shipped abroad to make oil. It was a popular place for children to visit on their way home to get coppra to eat. We used to have regattas there and all the schools competed against each other, and it was a fun day for all the family, but invariably every year of that particular day it would rain. Everywhere was made pretty with buntings around the wharf.Many people from round about came to the regatta - it was a occasion for the whole community including the European community. Everyone attended the same schools, where some of the teachers were also European. Noel Coward and Ian Flemming lived further along the coast road at Galina.
He farmed?
Yes, he farmed, everything really farmer as in ... what would you called it ..
Was there anybody in your extended family that went off to war
My uncle, he went but he did not come back. He married a European in the USA.
Do you know where exactly?
No. He and his wife used to sent lovely packages and lovely clothes for my mum, very fashionable, like we used to see in the films.
You said that you went to Kingston to start your grammar school education
Yes. I went to Kingston to take my entrance exam for a famous girl's school where the selection was very hard with not many places available. I didn't get a place. My mum sent me to be an apprentice with a seamstress who was a dress designer with well-to-do clientele.
So, you left school when you become apprentice, to what company was that?
Yes.
This was in Kingston?
This was in Kingston
Did you make friends with other people? did you go out much? or did you enjoy the night life or the day life of Kingston?
I didn't make a lot of peer-group friends, because my mother kept a close eye on me. We went out as a family to church and parties. I did not have the chance to network with peers as I had left them behind in the country.
Did you come from a religious background at all?
Religious, yes. We went often to church, it was our life and the centre of our social gathering and worship. Yes, when I was little we would fall asleep at the night service and were put to sleep on the bench.
What denomination was that? was it Baptists?
Yes, Baptists, and there were outings and lots of fun. Being at church, that was your recreation; you looked forward to going.
You enjoy that
Oh yes, yes
That is great
It is amazing, but now I hardly go as often. I am a Christian still, but I now go when I want to. When we were small we had no choice. Now when I go home to Jamaica I fall back into the routine of going to church as if I'd never left.
Going back to the time after you become an apprentice seamstress. How long was it before you decided to come to England? And why?
I started practical nurse training, I always wanted to be a nurse because my grandmother had a great big nursing book at home. And this was a book I used to leaf through. It was kept in the sitting room, where you weren't allowed to play. I remember it very clearly because of the old fashioned uniforms that they wore in the Victorian times. All the pictures that were in the book were of white people and children but I always said when I grow up I'm going to be a nurse. I started my basic nurse training when I came of age that was about eighteen.
Which hospital was that?
This was at nursing school in Kingston. Then as students we were sent to help at Kingston Public Hospital when there was a big railway crash in Kendal. It was a major disaster and many people died. After that, I decided I would like to go to England, to further my studies, to include gynaecology and obstetrics. In those days that would put you up the ladder and you could be made a ward manager ... we used to call them "ward-sister" ... If you didn't have midwifery then the promotion wouldn't be very promising. So, the plan was that I would go to England for five years.
So you were about eighteen at this point.
No I was a bit older.
How did you find-out about England? Was it through friends or through your nursing course?
I think one of the girls on my course, Joyce, she suggested that I complete my application which I'd already started. I can't remember responding to any form of advertisement. She came up in the August, and she said: why don't you just come on up, and finish your application up there? My mum agreed, so she sold the house in the country, which was rented out.
Oh right
So that was sold.
So your mother came to England with you.
No, my mother stayed behind. But she sold the country house to pay my fare.
What date was that?
That was 1960, I think it was the first week of September.
Can you tell me about your journey over there?
Well I flew, BOAC, which is British Overseas Airways. And in those days you were all dressed with glamorous little pill box hats, and your linen dress, and gloves. We heard that it was very cold over here and we shouldn't wear white because the snow would stick to us. There were lots of things like flannelette nighties and panties, warm socks etc brought with us.
The good thing was that I came to stay with my school mate's family from the same district in the country where I came from. It was good to see them in England and be welcomed by them.
At the airport
At the airport, the coach collected us from Heathrow, and brought us to Victoria and then I was met there by friends from my home so I didn't come to an strange place.
And where did they take you?
They took me home, this was in Stoke Newington, Osbaldeston Road. But one of the things was that the hospital that I was going to was in Reading, in Wallingford which is in Berkshire, and they said: oh no you don't want to go to the country, stay in London. So, I started to try to change hospitals in London, and it wasn't possible. While I was there, my friend said I had to be independent here. So they took me to a London transport recruiting office, and I did a test, and there and then they said I could be a catering officer. So I did the training for about a week. And then I was sent to Fify-five Broadway where the main head-office was, and I became the tea-girl.
Did you enjoy that?
Yes, I enjoyed doing that, I was very chatty and friendly. I was very cheerful, and would talk to people. I stayed in London for six months, and the I left and came to Walligford. I travelled on the Oxford coach and I got off at Benson the airbase and then a taxi took me to the hospital, Fairmile Hospital. I remember quite clearly I was met by the assistant matron who was young and thin. I had this great big suitcase, with so many things in it and she helped me to carry the case to the new student quarters.
The principal of the training school was a Scottish gentleman and he came up and he gave me the General Nursing Council Test. It was a written test, which I passed to become a student nurse.
Later on in my career when I became a ward manager they were short of a tutor in the training school and I was asked if I would do a stint down there. So I looked through my records and I saw that I scored quite highly in the intelligence test.
How did you find London when you arrived?
I was disappointed because I was expecting to see bright colours like in the Caribbean where the houses were attractive and when I came there was just grey buildings, it was brick, and it was foggy and it was cold. On the way home they said to me would you like to try the English national dish? So we bought fish and chips and it was served up in newspaper and I was horrified because newspaper is regarded as being dirty. I thought so this is the national dish, it had no flavour and it had no taste and was greasy.
On my first Christmas it snowed. I found it so difficult to walk in the snow that night, my legs hurt. I can remember that very clearly and my fingers got very cold and then they became very hot as if they were going to burst.
That was my first impression.
I found the food very bland when I went to the nursing home in comparison to our spicy cooking. Strangely we only had about five black girls in training there, one was from Africa, one Trinidadian, two from Barbados, another Jamaican and myself. We looked out for each other. The hospital had loads of Spanish and Irish nurses. The matron was Irish and there were a few French and few Italians.
Were you treated with respect by everybody?
I was treated with respect, yes, I mean ok, it was a psychiatric hospital so the nurse, so the older {?} they will call you blackly but not in a malicious way it was almost like a curiosity that is what I experience, I mean the..., I was very bright and I got through each year you have to take an exam, you have the first year exam and you had to pass it in a practical and a written way and if you passed you got some money from the GNC. And the second year it was the same thing as well, and in the third year that is when you're qualified as a State Registered Nurse so I passed that too, and I was the third year nurse with the highest mark, so I have got an award on a prize giving day that it was done by some lady, I have forgotten her name, and that you would have to wear gloves and it was afternoon tea, and it was I have got photographs of that. It was very exiting and very pleasant to receive this award which you kept for a year, and you have to hand it back to the school.
A wonderful achievement as well, So far from home
Yes, very proud
So, you were in Wallingford, you presumable you stayed there and went home on weekend as well?
Oh no, I was full resident
You stayed in a residence
I didn't go to weekends to spent weekends with my friends. So I go back there, and then we went to house parties or parties or just to go. So, I wasn't isolated at all, and when I had holiday I went down to visit my friends as well, and one of the things we used to do, we used to take buses and go into Oxford, and see the Oxford University and spent the day there. It was quite fun doing that, so we did things, we weren't isolated and would come in to Reading on the bus and we used to thumb lifts on the road, but now you wouldn't do that, and we used to be picked up and given lifts to where-ever you wanted to go. But we always went in twos, we never thumbed lifts alone. So, in all those days, you know you were almost novelty, you know so you would find people pick you up and ask you where you have been, and then you getting invited into tea. I had very good experiences as a student because we used to get invited by the Bensen Royal Air Force when they were having functions they would send a letter to matron and a bus would come and pick us up, and then we would be escorted, and we would be brought back to the nursing home in due core time, and we would be treated quite well.
What sort of functions were there?
There were dinner dances, that sort of functions. And obviously there were all men and we're all girls, so there were quite a few girls that went up, you know going out with some of the airmen, and end up marrying them as well. Yes, that was very fun too.
What was your first impression of Reading?
When I came to Reading, I moved into Reading in 1965. I came to the Royal Berkshire hospital seconded from Fairmile to do my general nursing. I did that for two years. Then I passed that first time as well. And the there was another prize giving, and then that was my first impression, and then I was also living in the nursing home on Craven Road. This is where they have now got the car park. It used to be called the "Virgin's Retreat", because when we went out at night we had to be in by before twelve midnight. And if you weren't, then you would be locked out the main door, and the night-sister on duty would take your name, and in the following morning you were lined up outside Matron's door. The Matron then was called, Miss Aldwinkle, and then again while you were training at Reading Royal Berkshire you would also used to get invited out to does at Ald...
Aldermaston?
No, not Aldermaston, Arbourfield where the soldiers were as well and we used to laugh because sometimes the letters came it would be addressed to Dear Miss Old Winkle, and I don't know if that was meant to be funny or they just got it wrong.
So this was in 1965
Yes, I think yes.
Ok, so you have got your career in nursing, and you have achieved all that. When did you meet your husband?
Well, I was staying at Fairmile hospital. I met him at the Majestic ballroom, and we used to come down, we have got a friend who is a district nurse (she was a district mid-wife), and she had a little Mini, and we used the six of us used to pile in that Mini. And we used to sort of pay each four shillings each for the petrol, because it was a district mid-wife, and she could use the car outside hours, and then we go there you line upon the wall and the men came to ask for the dance and then my husband was a soldier serving in the army, and it was at Brock Barracks so we started to court.
Was he English?
Yes he was English he come from Felixstowe where he was recruiting officer at The Butts at the time, so we started see each other so he use to came and visit and I think we got, oh yes we got engage! No, no, no, I thing we got engage when I was at the Royal Berks hospital doing my two year training there, so and we got married a year after in Wallingford Baptist church, yes we did.
Did you have children?
No we didn't have any children cause he was a divorcee, well no children came along shall we say we didn't do anything about it.
Ok, so how would you sum up your experiences from being younger in Jamaica, come to England, achieved what you've achieve, yes? How would you to sum it up?
I was very ambitious girl and I had a focus when I was younger because the wanting to develop my career, because my aims at the time was I wanted to travel, and then I was told that so the whole idea of when I did my training join the WRAC the women nursing corps travel over the world so that was my aim and objective, had no idea to get married and then to go back home and to be a nurse you know by nice things for my mum and stuff like that, so then , but on my third year while I was here she, I had, a telegram came to say that she was in a coma she was ill and by the time I got the flight which was about three days or so they said she died, cause she died from undiagnosed diabetes, so she went into a coma, went to the hospital and they couldn't bring her around, so that was the first blow, that throw my ideas of going back in five years.
You been back to see her in the training didn't you?
No I hadn't go back since, I hadn't go back, cause then you didn't get much money then, cause you are full time you're living in a nursing home and I think at the end of the month you may get about four pounds, after deduction I think, so I didn't it save for like two years plus and I did go back then so that was....and then my father then remarried, she didn't and my father died, he died.. in..(I got married in 1967) I think he died in 68, so newly married, we just bought a house didn't have a penny to go but anyway I was much closer to my mum, you know after the split so we sent what money we had.
Do you travel back and forwards to Jamaica now presumably
Oh yes I do, my family always still there
Are you a British citizen or...
Well I got dual Nationality, I am British citizen cause when I came here I came up here with a British passport, Jamaica had not yet got its independence we didn't get our independence until 1961 so we were still under colonial rule.
Can you remember that at all?
Oh yes!
Were there huge celebrations?
There were celebrations more there than here, I think the mission would've put on and we celebrated amongst ourselves but I think that, you know the actual celebrations...I was then here...
[inaudible]
Yes was actually there.
Just one last question, where was the first house that you bought in Reading and stayed in Reading?
That was in Tilehurst, City Road, that was our first house we tried to rent an apartment but we didn't like what we saw you know, cause they were like attics room and rooms with not much space so I saved, we had enough money saved, well I had more money save than he did, cause they tend to spend their money, English men you know they just spend their money at the week end you know, when they when we get paid, we tend to save a bit so that was enough to I said if you don't mine... so, put on a deposit on our first house, and then for about four years, and he came out of the army he was made redundant, he had a choice of being made redundant in terms of his promotion cause he had a road traffic accident while in the army so he took it, I thought what we could do together you know I was then a ward sister, a ward manager at Battle hospital cause I went back from Royal Berks to Fairmile then I was made a ward-sister but you still have to get up and catch the six o clock bus to go in to Wallingford to start the seven o clock sift and after a while it was not funny so then I applied I got the position as rheumotologist sister at the Prospect Park Hospital, where there use to be the medical ward then that was transferred to the Battle when the maternity unit moved to the Royal Berks
Did you have much to do with the West Indian community in Reading as such?
Interestingly enough not a lot only the ones that I met in my training in my hospital training, the one we meet became friends, and I use to come to their house for weekends or when they had parties they'd invited me so or to come shopping you know, shopping on a bank holiday so in that regard yes in a way but it was just the people who worked in the hospital environment.
You mean your friends basically
No necessarily friend, people who I meet in the ward cause we use to have domestic ...we use to have night nurses, and so it didn't matter what their role was but the fact that they, came from the same place you came from or they...you could identify with them because or their ethnicity then you just automatically drawn to them because ..that feeling I had a lot of friends from Barbados or from Trinidad it didn't matter what part of the Caribbean you just had something in common, so I worked in nursing since 1961. I have just retired, I have achieved quite a lot in my career, I have done, I've been to... after got my general nursing and during the general nursing I did obstetric nursing and I liked that, so then I left as a ward sister and open the nursing home at Western Elms Avenue called Courtney House and this was a rest home for the elderly cause we thought this was something we can do together with my husband when he left the army so we did that and we kept it for about five years and we thought we would look at it again in another five years and we sold it, it was sold. While we were there we bought this house cause we sold that one by the big, cause that is a six bedroom house and we got it registered and then, I was then only about thirty so they said what this is not normally taken on by a much older person but I saw it as funny because before long we got really established because I was in the Reading profession, and well known. While I was there I miss the institution all the people because you got to be isolated and I went and did my midwifery training so I was the oldest one in the midwifery class at the Royal Berks.
How old were you then?
Thirty something, and then got that and started to do that and I got a little bit bored went off to Jamaica back for another five years and then I was doing midwifery training out there then I came back here and then by this time my marriage had broken down, we separated looking at divorce and I thought what can I do? as you get older you don't know how long you going to be on your own and I started to look at counselling cause it is related to psychiatry in terms of mental health. I got a place at Reading University. Now the fact that I didn't have any academical A and O levels, in those days the fact of my ability to looking at my professional training I was successful throughout and that acted as statement to account of my education my ability that I got. I did that and while I was there counselling I did a placement and this is how I became introduced to the drug scene because by then I was divorced, so stayed there after I qualified and I got a job and I stayed in that job until 2003
This was a drug rehabilitation centre?
This is the drug, no it was a drug service where we did treatment
Class A users?
For any type of drug abuse whether they were smoking cannabis or, mostly in those days they were taking heroin and amphetamines.
Where was this?
This was on the Oxford Road, 156 Oxford Road and then we moved to 159 Oxford Road. I was the senior person there and I was the drug specialist nurse practitioner so I had a very wide role because of my nursing background and all the clinic person there. Then started to experience racism issues as the staff got bigger then what was happen was all the roles in my job description that I use to do, the person in charge use to give them to other people so I have lessened my role.
This was down to racism you say?
This was down to discriminatory unequal opportunities
Did you deal with it?
Oh yes I deal with it, that was the first time in all the years I've lived in England I've ever...
Is this recent?
It is quite recent and quite raw because as a result of that I took out grievance issue against the Trust and I asked to be move from there because what happen I became too, I had all the information I was more trained than the manager that it was there and then I was the only sort of black person there. I was well know cause I've been in the service there since 92 and so the service grow and helped developing the service and with my nursing background with my multi skills, my midwifery, general nursing and counselling and psychiatry so I was multi skilled so that made me very sort of rounded person. The new staff came in they did not like that so I was saw as at some sort of a sibling rivalry where I was the important person.
But this was dealt with and it was resolved amicably?
Well it was resolved yes, I took action about it made me ill I was seeing a psychologist for a year, then I asked to be transferred. For eighteen month I went to Prospect Park as coordinator for the care programme so CP coordinator and also was a member for the diversity group and launched the Diversity for the Berkshire Health Care Trust, so and I was lecturing in orientation classes for new staff and doing clinical update and use to go to senior managers I acted as operational manager down there so I got in that situation so I got into at the same sort of position there so, yes, I had a very good manager supervised and worked with me ... good result
A very good your career
Yes, I came out, if I would stayed there I think I would end and didn't move out of there but taking on of this new role and seen my ability, the occupational health suggested that I need to be doing meaningful jobs you know, not deliberately taking away my job and actually said I was too important in the job I was too high in a pedestal I needed to be brought down this was the statement feedback ...it was a plan that they, you know, some of this was not very overt some of it was covert, they where still smiling but them I was over thing that I need to do but they started to given to other people to do, in spite of my job description that said that this is what I do, so that was resolved
Ok, we have 44 min we are nearly out of tape, we will stop the interview, I just want to thank you...
Before I stop I must tell you that I had to stop when I went I was having psychological support I was doing my MAH Masters of Art Research at Reading University and I had to take a year out because I just couldn't cope and then, so the year that I asked to leave I got my Master of Arts degree and I retired the same year, I also went to Saint Georges Medical School to do a Diploma in Addictive Behaviour, psychological medicine and addicted behaviour.
So you did your Masters at Reading University?
Yes I have
Did you enjoy that?
I enjoyed it was fun and I enjoyed my graduation and had a ball and I was surrounded by my friends and then I came out and retired from the NHS feeling good about myself and my contribution because that is awful but from 1961till 19...2005 and I think that is a good...
And the fact that you still achieving as you are retired is absolutely wonderful
Yes, and you know although I am retired I am still giving back something to the community in that I am on the panel of the YOT the Youth Offending Team I am also Director and Trustee for the Princess Royal Trust also a mental health manager at Broadmoor, I sit at the board to review to the people who are held at there, so I am still contributing I am still enjoying my job.
So and I glad that you added that I was just about to say that is the end of the interview and you've just added out all this wonderful information.
And of course I remarried again in 1995 to Lloyd and we use to know each other in Jamaica when we were kids, when we were teenagers, and then we met up. We were both here for thirty years, and while we were married to our partners we never met until when I was divorced, and his wife died. And then we get together, and within three months he asked me to marry him, and I then we are married within a year. Since that it is now eleven years plus since we are married, and we share the same friends because we use to move in the same circle and we never met.
Right
[Laugh], So you know, there is a lot of history there. I had a lot of positive things, but it was a steep-learning curve, you had your peer groups coming from the same situation to give you support, and then I used to be very outspoken and I used to go to Matron and complain if things weren't going right, you know in those days. Matron would came and sort of deal with it. But I wasn't ...for sort of being black, I didn't see black and white, because I was that outgoing type of person that when you start to look at things when you think: oh why is that happening to me? Oh because I am different, but I didn't think I was different, that is why it was happening in the first place, I don't know if that... makes sense, If something wasn't going right, I didn't think of going there and picking it because I am black.
No you think that it kept happening because...
So, I thought, oh I have been treated differently because you started to observe and note just how other people are treated.