Barbara Burford

Barbara Yvonne Veronica Burford (9 December 1944 – 20 February 2010) was a British medical researcher, civil servant and writer. She was born in Jamaica and moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 10. Burford attended Dalston County Grammar School and studied medicine at the University of London.

Biography

Early years

Burford was born in Jamaica on 9 December 1944 and was raised there by her grandmother until the age of seven. In 1955, Burford moved to London with her family, where she attended Dalston County Grammar School, which later became Kingsland Secondary School. The school is now known as Petchey Academy and specialises in health, care and medical science. Burford described herself as a "descendent of three different diasporas: African, Jewish and Scots", as well as claiming her lesbian identity. Burford was open about being a lesbian, although this was not widely known until Stephen Maglott (1953–2016) published a biographical tribute to Burford, describing her as a "distinguished LGBTQ person of color/African descent.

Medical career

Burford joined the National Health Service in 1964 as a specialist in electron microscopy at postgraduate teaching hospitals. She later began working at the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital in a team with Sheila Haworth. Haworth was a professor of developmental cardiology at the Institute of Child Health and was in 2006 appointed Commander of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to the National Health Service.

Writing

Burford was an active writer, having written plays, short stories, poems, and science fiction stories. The 1980 anthology ''A Dangerous Knowing: Four Black Women Poets'', to which Burford was a contributor, was the first anthology to be published in the field of black British women's writing. The anthology was described in the academic journal ''Hecate'' as "a gift" and a "testimony to the depth of Black feeling and the complex power inherent in Black love".

Burford's 1984 play ''Patterns'' was commissioned by Changing Women's Theatre. The play focused on women's labour and was performed at the Oval Theatre in London.

''The Threshing Floor'' (1986), an eponymous novella and collection of short stories, features in many school and college reading lists across the United Kingdom, and individual works from the collection have been republished in other anthologies. Burford's writing was included in the anthology ''Daughters of Africa'' (ed. Margaret Busby, 1992).

Burford's works were selected multiple times by the journal ''The Women's Review of Books'' as works that readers of the journal might find interesting.

Equality and diversity

In 1999 Burford was appointed Director of Equality for the Department of Health, a post she held until 2002.North of England Commissioning Support (June 2014)
"Diversity E-Newsletter, No 4"
Retrieved 2018-08-01.

University of Bradford

Burford assisted with the creation of Bradford's healthcare apprenticeship scheme, led by Bradford University, which is credited with helping transform the diversity of the city's healthcare workforce.

Burford was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2001 from the University of Bradford to recognise her contributions to equality and diversity. After her retirement in 2005, Burford became the first deputy director of the university's Centre for Inclusion and Diversity.

Death and legacy

Burford died of respiratory failure on 20 February 2010.

The University of Bradford set up an annual lecture in memory of Burford known as the Barbara Burford Annual Memorial Lecture, given as part of the international annual Making Diversity Interventions Count conference. The lecture is given each year by one of her colleagues from the field of equality and diversity who had direct links to Burford and her work.

The Barbara Burford Honour (Excellence in STEM) was founded in 2017 by British magazine ''Gay Times'' as part of the Gay Times Honours, a series of honours to recognise LGBT individuals who have made a difference in their field. The inaugural Barbara Burford Honour was won by Rachel Padman, a transgender astrophysics lecturer from the University of Cambridge.

Publications

;Plays
* ''Patterns'' (1984)

;Poems
* ''A Dangerous Knowing: Four Black Women Poets'' (1980)
* ''Dancing the Tightrope: New Love Poems by Women'' (1987)

;Short stories
* ''The Threshing Floor'' (1986)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burford, Barbara
1944 births
2010 deaths
20th-century British women writers
20th-century Jamaican poets
21st-century British LGBTQ people
21st-century Jamaican LGBTQ people
21st-century Jamaican women writers
21st-century Jamaican writers
Alumni of the University of London
Black British health professionals
Black British LGBTQ people
Black British women writers
Black British writers
British lesbian writers
British LGBTQ poets
British medical researchers
Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom
Jamaican lesbians
Jamaican LGBTQ poets
Lesbian poets