Agnes longed to see her big brother George again. He’d left Guyana for the UK when she was 11. So in 1959, when Agnes was 19, she boarded the SS Venezuela and set sail for England.
Agnes remembers the boat was filled with people from all over the West Indies, Jamaicans, Barbadians, St Lucians, amongst others. Some were going to meet their parents, their partners or other relatives. Some were going to study and some to work.
Agnes enjoyed the journey; she was a friendly and sociable 19-year-old and exchanged many backstories with those she met while crossing the Atlantic. She shared a cabin with a girl her age, Velma, from Guyana. Velma was to become her best friend, and they remained so for over 60 years until Velma recently passed away. When she arrived in London, her brother George was waiting for her at Victoria Station. Although she had not seen him for eight years, she recognised him immediately.
George, his wife, and their children would share their home in Balham with Agnes for 11 years.
Within a week of arriving in England, Agnes was escorted by her Sister-In-Law to the Labour Exchange in pursuit of a job. Agnes’s first job was in a laundry operating the steamer. This did not last long, as she was terrified of the vast machinery. Her next role was in a factory, assembling parts for things like irons and toasters. While working at the factory, she made another of her lifelong best friends, Lucille, aka ‘Miss Lou’. Now deceased.
Agnes then wrote a speculative job letter to The Fountain Hospital. A small hospital for children with mental disorders. She secured a position as a Nurse. The Fountain Hospital became the vast St George’s Teaching Hospital that dominates Tooting today.
After a few years, Agnes took her nursing skills to St James’ Hospital in Balham, where she worked in an operating theatre.
At first, she found seeing the operations hard to take, “It was a bit frightening, but eventually I got used to it.”
During the ’60s, West Indian immigrants would host parties in one another’s houses. At a house party, Agnes met her husband, Marvin. A qualified teacher from Guyana, he, owing to the discrimination in England at the time, only secured building work.
Unbeknownst to Agnes, Marvin had noticed her back in Guyana while she was out with friends. He liked her immediately and could even recall her pink dress, but he didn’t make his feelings known at the time, as she was only 17.
