Ivor Gustavus Cummings (10 December 1913 – 17 October 1992) was a British civil servant of

Sierra Leonean The demographics of Sierra Leone are made up of an indigenous population from 18 ethnic groups. The Temne in the north and the Mende in the south are the largest. About 60,000 are Krio, the descendants of freed slaves who returned to Sierra L ...

ancestry, in 1941 he became the first black official in the British

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created in 1768 from the Southern Department to deal with colonial affairs in North America (particularly the Thirteen Colo ...

. He has been dubbed the "gay father of the

Windrush generation British African-Caribbean people or British Afro-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens or residents of recent Caribbean heritage who further trace much of their ancestry to West and Central Africa. ...

Life

Ivor Cummings was born in

West Hartlepool West Hartlepool was a predecessor of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It developed in the Victorian era and took the name from its western position in the parish of what is now known as the Headland. The former town was originally formed ...

, England, on 10 December 1913. His father, Ishmael Cummings, the son of a wealthy merchant from

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

, was a doctor. His mother, Johanna Archer, was an English nurse. The couple had met when working together at the

Royal Victoria Infirmary The Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) is a 673-bed tertiary referral hospital and research centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with strong links to Newcastle University. The hospital is part of the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation T ...

. Ivor Cummings grew up with his mother in

Addiscombe Addiscombe is an area of south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. It is located south of Charing Cross, and is situated north of Coombe and Selsdon, east of Croydon town centre, south of Woodside, and west of Shirley. ...

, where the family befriended the widow of the composer

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 18751 September 1912) was a British composer and conductor. He was particularly known for his three cantatas on the epic 1855 poem ''The Song of Hiawatha'' by American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Coler ...

, to whom they were related by marriage. After being bullied at

Whitgift School Whitgift School is an independent day school with limited boarding in South Croydon, London. Along with Trinity School of John Whitgift and Old Palace School it is owned by the Whitgift Foundation, a charitable trust. The school was prev ...

, Ivor tried joining his father in

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

. However, feeling an outsider there, he returned to England, where he showed academic strength at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

. The family did not have funds to support Cummings training as a doctor. After briefly working in Freetown as a clerk for the

United Africa Company The United Africa Company (UAC) was a British company which principally traded in West Africa during the 20th century. The United Africa Company was formed in 1929 as a result of the merger of Royal Niger Company, The Niger Company, which had b ...

, he returned to England looking for medical scholarships. Abandoning those plans, in 1935 he became warden of

Aggrey House Aggrey House was a hostel established in London, England, in 1934 to cater for African students and students of African descent. It was named after James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey. It was located at 47 Doughty Street – next door to what had once b ...

, a government-run centre for colonial students, arranging meetings, lectures, dances and social events there. There was competition between Aggrey House and the hostel of the

West African Students' Union The West African Students' Union (WASU), founded in London, England, in 1925 and active into the 1960s,"History o ...

(WASU). In August 1937, Cummings even informed the police that two Aggrey residents had taken girls to spend the night at the WASU hostel.Matera, Marc (2008)
"Black Internationalism and African and Caribbean Intellectuals in London, 1919–1950"
PhD thesis,

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. Aggrey House closed in 1940, after reports that communists had come to dominate the House Committee and that one student had brought a sex worker into the hostel. Cummings himself enjoyed London's 1930s night life, as a gay member of "the group", a set of African intellectuals in London that included the American singer John Payne and the British composer

Reginald Foresythe Reginald Foresythe (28 May 1907 – 28 December 1958) was a British jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. Early life Foresythe was born and died in London. His father was a West African barrister of Sierra Leone Creole descent and ...

. Cummings joined the

in 1941, and by 1942 its new public relations office was heralding his appointment as evidence against the existence of

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their Race (human categorization), race, ancestry, ethnicity, ethnic or national origin, and/or Human skin color, skin color and Hair, hair texture. Individuals ...

in Britain. He served as secretary of a new Advisory Committee on the Welfare of Colonial Peoples in the United Kingdom, a Colonial Office initiative to assume direct responsibility for housing colonial students. After the war, he worked to recruit African nurses for the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

. In 1947, Cummings visited

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

, Nigeria, on official business. When the Greek proprietor of the Bristol Hotel there refused him a room because of his race, the scandal hit the British press. Cummings was awarded the

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the

1948 Birthday Honours The 1948 Birthday Honours were appointments by George VI, King George VI to Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the Commonwealth Realms. The appoint ...

. In June 1948, he was the Colonial Office's official representative who met the West Indian immigrants arriving on the HMT ''Empire Windrush'', the beginning of the

, helping them to find accommodation and jobs. His choice of a former air-raid shelter beneath

Clapham Common Clapham Common is a large triangular urban park in Clapham, south London, England. Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, it was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. It is of gr ...

as temporary accommodation for ''Windrush'' arrivals lacking prearranged accommodation resulted in

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

becoming a permanent centre for the African Caribbean community in Britain. Cummings visited the United States on a fellowship, co-authoring a survey of colonial students. He was invited to become Colonial Secretary in Trinidad, but in 1958 resigned from the Colonial Office to work for

Kwame Nkrumah Francis Kwame Nkrumah (, 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained ...

, training diplomats in post-independence Ghana. He was posted to the Ghana High Commission in London to recruit West Indian professionals, including

Ulric Cross Philip Louis Ulric Cross (1 May 1917 – 4 October 2013) was a Trinidadian jurist, diplomat and Royal Air Force (RAF) navigator, recognised as possibly the most decorated West Indian of World War II. He is credited with helping to prevent som ...

. Cummings later worked as a training officer for Yengema Diamond Mines in Sierra Leone, and as a public relations adviser to the London-based distillers Duncan, Gilbey and Matheson. Cummings died of cancer in

Westminster Hospital Westminster Hospital was a hospital in London, England, founded in 1719. In 1834 a medical school attached to the hospital was formally founded. In 1939 a newly built hospital and medical school opened in Horseferry Road, Westminster. In 1994 the ...

, on 17 October 1992, aged 78.

References

External links

Cummings, Ivor, 1913-1992(13) - Black Studies , Alexander Street
* Boston, Nicholas
"Ivor Cummings: the forgotten gay mentor of the Windrush generation"
''

The Conversation ''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert who faces a moral dilemma when his recordings reveal a potential ...

'', 7 June 2023. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cummings, Ivor 1913 births 1992 deaths 20th-century English LGBTQ people Black British LGBTQ people Civil servants in the Colonial Office English civil servants English gay men English people of Sierra Leonean descent People from West Hartlepool Sierra Leone Creole people