#connie mark

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Today In 1894: Connie Mack gets his first major league managerial win as the skipper of the Pittsburg Pirates! - Fun Fact: Pittsburgh was spelled without the "h" from 1891-1911.

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Connie Mark Wikipedia, Biography, Age, Husband, Death Cause, Google Doodle

Connie Mark Wikipedia, Biography, Age, Husband, Death Cause, Google Doodle

Connie Mark Wikipedia, Connie Mark Bio

Connie Mark Wiki: Connie Mark, MBE, BEM (née McDonald, previously Goodridge; 21 December 1923 – 3 June 2007) was a Jamaican-born community organizer and activist. Connie Mark served as a medical secretary in the Auxiliary Territorial Service in World War II. After moving to England in the early 1950s, Connie Markbecame an activist for West Indians in London,…

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Connie Mark’s 95th Birthday

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Born and brought up in Kingston with her sister, mother and father, Connie Mark (nee McDonald) was 16 when World War Two was declared. At the age of 21 she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), and served in Jamaica as a medical secretary to the assistant director of medical services.

She said it was a difficult job because she had to be on call 24 hours a day. As a child she had always hated hospitals, and found working in one initially off putting. Her duties included typing up the medical reports of those people who had been injured in the war, documenting the horrific injuries sustained from bombings and combat. She remembered, “Having to type the medical reports really brought home what war was to me – I was 21; I was still in my formative years.” After six months, she was promoted to Lance Corporal, and six months after that to Corporal.

The women in the ATS didn’t have to live in barracks; living at home meant that Connie didn’t experience the military life in its entirety, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have to march every day before doing their duties. The general mood was that Britain would win the war.

Connie also remembered the day the war ended as a great relief. “VE Day was marvellous, everybody was happy, ‘cause as far as we were concerned, the war was finished. Everybody was happy. Everybody just jumped up and down; the war was over, and it meant that no more of our people would be killed. We had parties, and everybody took it as an excuse to have a party, a drink up and get stone-blind drunk. I didn’t use to drink those days; I just went to all the parties that there were.

She settled in Britain during the 1950s, and worked as a Medical Secretary. One of the highlights in her community work was the outstanding contribution she made for keeping alive the memories of Mary Seacole.

Profile from The Windrush Foundation - which I deliberately chose over Wiki, because of utter bullshit of this Government’s behaviour to the Windrush Generation in this country. 

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Lance Corporal Connie Mark 1923 - 2007

Connie Mark (nee Macdonald) on 21 December 1923 in Rollington Town, Kingston, Jamaica. Her heritage came from all over the world; she was part Scottish, part Indian, part Lebanese, and part Jamaican. Connie was well educated, and came from a family that strongly supported the royal family. When she left school she trained as a secretary.

In 1943, at the age of 19, Connie joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) of the British Army. Connie worked as a medical secretary in the British military hospital with the Royal Army Medical Corps. She achieved the rank of lance-corporal, but felt she was not paid correct wages due to racial discrimination.

Connie retired from military life in 1955, but continued to fight throughout the rest of her life for the role of Caribbean servicewomen to be properly recognised. She moved to Britain in 1954 where she became active in her West London community; she formed the Gladiola Community Club, was treasurer to the Commission for Racial Equality, and was a member of the Mary Seacole Association. She received a British Empire Medal for meritorious service in 1991 and an MBE in 1993.

(Photographs courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)