May Mackintosh was born in Cave Hill, St. Lucy, Barbados, and in 1956 left home to train as a Nurse in the UK. This group, now known as the Windrush Generation, has been recognised latterly for the contributions they made to Britain.
In 1956, May McIntosh travelled on the MV Franca C from Genoa to London for $315. This journey was likely distressing for her, as she had to leave her three young daughters behind in Barbados. Upon her arrival in London in 1956, she travelled to Bristol to start work at the Bristol Mental Hospital. She recalled how drab and lonely Bristol seemed compared to rural Barbados, with its open spaces. Smoke coming from the houses reminded her of factories. Most of her colleagues were Irish, but she was focused and determined to achieve her goal and kept herself to herself. In 1959, she qualified as an RMN (Registered Mental Health Nurse).
She cared for a woman from Horfield, whose son Michael had just begun his national service, and formed a connection with the family.
“I nursed his mum, and I think she liked me because I was kind to her,” said May.
“She invited me for tea, and I went along and in came Michael in his army uniform. He was only about eighteen, much younger than me. I would’ve been twenty-two. I think it was his attitude I liked. He was very forthright.
“He said first thing, straight out – ‘so are you coming to the cinema with me tonight?’,” she laughed.
She had known Michael before, but his persistent and forthright attitude won her over, even when she briefly moved to London. In 1962, she moved to London’s Mile End Hospital, where she qualified as an SCM – State Certified Midwife- and an SRN – State Registered Nurse.
She married on August 17th, 1963, in Reading, Berks. This was where her sister, Ruby Philo, lived.
She recalled, “It was a few days before Martin Luther King made his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. We felt connected to that when we heard it.”
Her son Derek said, “My mother has no MBE, but was a true pioneer in a city scarred by the history of slavery. My parents’ love, a white man and a Black woman in 1950s Britain, plot the extraordinary integration story that lies behind the transformation towards a multi-racial Britain.”
The following year, in 1964, she returned to Bristol with her new qualifications and found work at the Bristol Maternity Hospital. The next year, in 1965, May transferred to the Bristol Royal Infirmary, where she ultimately spent a major part of her nursing career. The BRI, founded as a charity in 1735, was Bristol’s elite training hospital attached to Bristol University and was internationally respected, traditional, and an exemplary research-based medical facility.
In 1966, May’s promotion to Ward Sister—the first Black person to achieve this role in Bristol—was not straightforward. Though always the most qualified, she was first passed over. However, the vacancy returned. A special meeting of senior medical professionals followed. With the intervention and endorsement of senior professors, my mother was appointed the clear best candidate, regardless of her skin colour.
This was truly pioneering recognition of her abilities as a leader and a nurse, achieved entirely on merit and without any tokenism. She served as a sister on Ward 12 until her retirement in 1990.
The story of May Tanner came to light after the BBC and her local newspaper, the Bristol Post, named another black nurse, Princess Campbell, as the first Black Ward Sister while celebrating the NHS. Her family felt this error needed to be corrected.
May Tanner can be described as modest and unassuming: “I just got on with doing my job.” Living in Southmead, she was away from St. Paul’s, where most Black people lived.
On reflecting on her life in Bristol. She has one son, Dereck, and three grandchildren, all of whom are qualified professionals.
“I’m the type of person not to push myself forward,” she said. “In Bristol, I was busy working. I was going to work and coming home, and I was in a professional team, and I was part of that.
“I found everybody supportive. In the hospital at least, I didn’t have any animosity,” she added.
“I think one of the reasons would also be that I was married already, I was living initially at Michael’s house in Horfield, and then we moved to Southmead. I was away from St Paul’s, I never went to City Road, maybe that’s why I’ve gone unnoticed by the majority of Black people, I don’t know,” she added.
“I just did my job and went home to my family, which was it,” she said.
Her son Derek said, “As a child, I remember this trunk in the house. Curiosity often got the better of me, so on occasion I would peek inside. It was full of scrolls. Only later did I appreciate that the trunk held a record of her dedication and labour, as she achieved multiple nursing qualifications to become her best.”
May Tanner is modest about her achievements. On a visit to the Bristol Royal Infirmary after retirement, she was surprised by how much had changed.
“Everything is computerised, and all the staff seem huddled at the Nurse Station,” she said. She had also noted that the personal side of nursing seems to have disappeared.
May Tanner has adjusted to her new recognition, with a local council reception in her honour that included colleagues, friends, and dignitaries. This included the then-Barbados High Commissioner, HE Guy Hewitt.
In February 2025, she was among those present when HRH Princess Anne visited the Glenside Hospital Museum, where an exhibition on the NHS in Bristol was held—another moment in her life that she felt honoured to be part of.
Nursing was May Tanner’s life and passion, and what she knew best
