Patrick Philip Vernon (born 1961)"Patrick Vernon"
, Sankofa 2013: Teachers' Resource Pack, p. 41. 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 The London Borough of Hackney ( ) is a London boroughs, London borough in Inner London, England. The historical and administrative heart of Hackney is Mare Street, which lies north-east of Charing Cross. The borough is named after Hackney, Lond ...

. 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 amateur 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 ''100 Great Black Britons'' is a poll that was first undertaken in 2003 to vote for and celebrate the greatest Black Britons of all time. It was created in a campaign initiated by Patrick Vernon in response to a BBC search for ''100 Greatest Brito ...

" campaign."Every Generation Media Timeline".
/ref> He is also an expert on African and Caribbean genealogy in the UK. He was appointed a Clore Fellow in 2007, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the

2012 Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours List 2012 was released on 16 June 2012 in the United Kingdom, on 11 June 2012 in Australia on 4 June 2012 in New Zealand,University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university in Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, England, located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Originally founded in 1827 as the Wolverham ...

. 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, which was officially backed by the British government in 2018.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. In 2019, he was appointed associate director of Communities at the Centre for Ageing Better, a National Lottery Community funded charity looking to improve the lives of those approaching later life.

Biography

Education and early years

Patrick Vernon was born in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

(now in the West Midlands), England, to Norris and Avis Vernon,"Patrick Vernon"
, Black History & Heritage Wolverhampton. who had migrated to the UK from

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

in the 1950s. Vernon traced his lineage as far back as the 1800s, to a village in

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

called

Kédougou Kédougou ( Wolof: Keédugu) is a town in the Kédougou Region of south-eastern Senegal near the border with Mali and Guinea. It lies at an elevation of above sea level. Founded by the Malinké people, Kédougou means the "Land of Man". The t ...

. He grew up in the All Saints and Penn Fields areas of Wolverhampton, attending Grove Junior School, Colton Hills, and Wulfrun College, before going on to study law at

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Education ...

. He later undertook postgraduate studies at

Warwick University The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of a ...

. He moved to London in 1989.

Health and social care work

Vernon initially worked in health and social care, where he was a manager for

Citizens Advice Bureau Citizens AdviceCitizens Advice is the operating name of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, which is the umbrella charity for a wider network of local advice centres. The abbreviation CitA is sometimes used to refer to this natio ...

and a civil servant at the Department of Health and Local Government Association. He later served as director of the Brent Health Action Zone (Brent Primary Care Trust), and Regional Director for charity

MIND The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

. He later worked in the third sector for a number of organisations focussing on the mental health of refugees, immigrants and prisoners.Patrick Vernon profile
at ''The Guardian''. He was associate member for the Department of History of Medicine at

, an advisory board member for the mental health campaign Time To Change, and a former ministerial adviser for mental health. He was a member of the independent Metropolitan Police inquiry on Mental Health and Policing.

Every Generation Media and family history work

In 2002, Vernon founded Every Generation Media to develop education programmes, publications and films on cultural heritage and family history,"Patrick Vernon OBE"
Specialist Speakers. with the Every Generation website becoming one of the main sites on family history for African and Caribbean communities in Britain. In 2003, he launched the successful "

" campaign, in response to a television series broadcast by the BBC called ''

100 Greatest Britons ''100 Greatest Britons'' is a television series that was broadcast by the BBC in 2002. It was based on a television poll conducted to determine who the British people at that time considered the greatest Britons in history. The series included i ...

'' (a list topped by

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

through public nomination), in order "to raise the profile of the Black contribution to Britain and to challenge the notion of Britishness." The campaign received wide coverage in the national print and television media, with

Mary Seacole Mary Jane Seacole (;Anionwu, E. N. (2012), "Mary Seacole: nursing care in many lands". ''British Journal of Healthcare Assistants'' 6(5), pp. 244–248. 23 November 1805 – 14 May 1881) was a British Nursing, nurse and Women in business ...

eventually announced as having been voted the greatest Black Briton. In 2019, the decision was taken to relaunch and update the poll, and the results of the updated poll were revealed in a new book entitled ''100 Great Black Britons'', written by Vernon with Angelina Osborne, that was published on 24 September 2020.

Windrush Day and community activism

Vernon was among 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 Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a Tilbury Fort, 16th century fort ...

, bringing the first big group of post-war migrants from the West Indies to Britain. He was appointed an

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 2012, in recognition of his work to promote health equality for Black and minority ethnic communities. In 2017, Vernon was elected to Fellowship of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

(RHS) and he is a member of the RHS's Race, Ethnicity and Equality Working Group, which in 2018 published ''Race, Ethnicity & Equality in UK History: A Report and Resource for Change''. 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 22 June as a national day to commemorate and celebrate migration and migrant communities in Britain. It was later 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." In April 2020, after his sister's partner died from the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

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. Vernon featured on the August 2020 cover of British ''Vogue'' as one of 20 activists "ready to change the world". Vernon played a pivotal role in obtaining a Blue Plaque in memory of British immigrant rights activist Paulette Wilson, a member 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. ...

. The plaque was launched with campaigners including Claire Darke MBE at the Wolverhampton Heritage Centre. The centre is a cornerstone of the area's local Caribbean community and was formerly the constituency office of

Enoch Powell John Enoch Powell (16 June 19128 February 1998) was a British politician, scholar and writer. He served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South West for the Conservative Party (UK), Conserv ...

where the infamous

Rivers of Blood speech The "Rivers of Blood" speech was made by the British politician Enoch Powell on 20 April 1968 to a meeting of the Conservative Political Centre in Birmingham. In it Powell, who was then Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in the Shadow Cabi ...

was written.

Political career

Vernon served for eight years as a Labour councillor for the Queensbridge ward in the

, stepping down in May 2014, when the ward was abolished. He was appointed as chair of the Labour Party's Race Equality Advisory Group in December 2015.

Controversy

In 2015, Vernon was caught up in controversy after he asserted that the design of the flag of the Black Country, which features a chain motif, was offensive and insensitive. Vernon has claimed that 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 The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

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 II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, focusing on Jamaican ex-serviceman Eddie Martin Noble. Among the outlets for which Vernon writes are ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', '' The Voice'', and

Media Diversified Media Diversified was a UK-based nonprofit media and advocacy organisation for writers and journalists of colour, founded by filmmaker Samantha Asumadu in 2013. It published nonfiction articles by a variety of writers at its website, which was updat ...

. In 2017, the 30th anniversary of

Black History Month Black History Month is an annually observed commemorative month originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the Af ...

in Britain, he was appointed as guest editor for ''Black History Month Magazine''. As MC Patrick Vernon, he presents ''Museum of Grooves'', a podcast that explores

Afrofuturism Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technoculture ...

Publications

Books

* With Angelina Osborne, ''100 Great Black Britons'', Robinson Press. 2020; . * Editor, with Yansie Rolston, ''Black Grief and Healing: Why We Need to Talk About Health, Inequality, Trauma and Loss'', Jessica Kingsley Publishers, September 2024, .

Selected articles

"Charmed life"
''The Guardian'', 4 November 2009. * "Windrush Day: a fitting way to celebrate our immigrant population", ''The Guardian'', 25 January 2010.
"Put race equality in mental health back on the agenda"
''The Guardian'', 1 March 2011. * How I Tried To Trace My Roots Back To Africa, ''The Gleaner'' (Jamaica), 18 May 2011.
"Why we must tackle racial inequality in mental health services"
''The Guardian'', 18 January 2012.
"Pieces Of The Past?"
''The Voice'', 26 June 2012.
"The problem of Black ephemera"
''Operation Black Vote (OBV)'', 29 June 2012.
"Obama Puts Black Britain In The ‘Yes We Can’ Mood"
, ''The Voice'', 28 January 2013.
"Windrush Day: Time For A Public Holiday To Celebrate"
''The Voice'', 22 June 2013.
"Origins Of Black History Month In Britain"
''The Voice'', 10 October 2013. * "Remembrance Sunday: Don't Forget Our West Indian Heroes", ''The Voice'', 10 November 2013.
"How Nelson Mandela Inspired Black Britain"
''The Voice'', 9 December 2013.
"What 12 Years a Slave tells us about 21st century black mental health"
''The Guardian'', 5 February 2014.

''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 12 March 2014. * ttps://mediadiversified.org/2014/03/28/the-price-tag-on-slavery-is-beyond-pounds-and-dollars/ "The Price Tag on Slavery is Beyond Pounds and Dollars" ''Media Diversified'', 28 March 2014.
"The Words 'Lest We Forget' Are Not Always Enough"
''The Voice'', 15 March 2015.
"Protecting The Legacy Of The Windrush Generation"
''The Voice'', 17 June 2015.
"Where are all the Black historians?"
''Media Diversified'', 30 March 2016.
"Rubbishing Mary Seacole is another move to hide the contributions of black people"
''The Guardian'', 21 June 2016.
"Black History Month: A Time To Celebrate"
''The Voice'', 8 October 2016.
"We hoped to see more black lives on our screens. Our hopes were dashed"
''The Guardian'', 18 November 2016.
"Is 2017 The Year Of Action For Black Britons?"
''The Voice'', 7 January 2017. * "The Windrush shaped Britain. Why not recognise that?", ''The Guardian'', 9 May 2018.
"Scandals Like Windrush Show Why Black History Month Must Be Celebrated"
''HuffPost'' (UK), 5 October 2018.

Selected awards and recognition

*2003: CRE Race in the Media Awards for New Media *2003:

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

recognition as "Pioneer of the Nation" for Cultural History *2004: Windrush Awards winners for Internet and Technology and Community Champion *2005: National Ethnic Minority Social Enterprise Award *2006: CRE Race in the Media Awards runner-up in New Media *2007: Clore Leadership Fellow *2009: a community space in the Chalkhill Health and Community Centre, near

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

, was named "Vernon Hall" in 2010, in recognition of his work locally as a former senior NHS manager in Brent. *2012: awarded

Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the King's Official Birthday, reigning monarch's official birthday in each realm by granting various individuals appointment into Order (honour), national or Dynastic order of knighthood, dy ...

for services to the reduction of health inequalities in ethnic minorities *2013: Visiting Fellow, Centre for History of Medicine,

*2014: ''

Health Service Journal ''Health Service Journal'' (''HSJ'') is a news service that covers policy and management in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. History The '' Poor Law Officers' Journal'' was established in 1892. In 1930, it changed its name after ...

'', BME Pioneer for 2014 *2014: ''Jamaica Times'' UK, Political Representative of the Year *2017: Elected to Fellowship of the

*2018: Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters,

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university in Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, England, located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Originally founded in 1827 as the Wolverham ...

"University announces honours list"
University of Wolverhampton, 9 August 2018.

Other

* "Letter to My Brother" in ''Encounters with James Baldwin: Celebrating 100 Years.'' London: Supernova Books. 2024.

References

External links

Patrick Vernon
official website.
"Articles by Patrick Vernon"

Journalisted The Media Standards Trust is a British media think tank formed in 2006. It carries out research on issues in the media sector. It also advocates for press freedom as well as industry quality, transparency and accountability. It is a registered cha ...

.
"Interview with Windrush Justice Fund Founder Patrick Vernon OBE on new Generation Windrush Podcast"
''Alt A Review'', 6 May 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vernon, Patrick 1961 births Alumni of the University of Manchester Alumni of the University of Warwick Black British activists Black British politicians Black British writers British anthologists British documentary film directors Councillors in the London Borough of Hackney English genealogists English health activists English male journalists English people of Jamaican descent Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Wolverhampton Publishers (people) from London Windrush