Patrick Philip VernonOBE[1] (born 1961)[2] 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. 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" campaign.[3][4] He is also an expert on African and Caribbean genealogy in the UK.[5][6] He was appointed a
Clore Fellow in 2007,[7] an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the
2012 Birthday Honours for "services to the Reduction of Health Inequalities for Ethnic Minorities",[8] and in 2018 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the
University of Wolverhampton.[9]
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,[10][11] which was officially backed by the British government in 2018.[12]
In 2019, he was appointed Associate Director of Communities at the Centre for Ageing Better,[13] a
National Lottery Community funded charity looking to improve the lives of those approaching later life.[14]
Vernon initially worked in health and social care, where he was a manager for
Citizens Advice Bureau 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. He later worked in the third sector for a number of organisations focussing on the mental health of refugees, immigrants and prisoners.[23][18]
He was associate member for the Department of History of Medicine at
Warwick University,[24] an advisory board member for the mental health campaign
Time To Change, and a former ministerial adviser for mental health.[23] He was a member of the independent
Metropolitan Police inquiry on Mental Health and Policing.[25][26]
Every Generation Media and family history work
In 2002, Vernon founded Every Generation Media[27] to develop education programmes, publications and films on cultural heritage and family history,[6] with the Every Generation website becoming one of the main sites on family history for African and Caribbean communities in Britain.[16] In 2003, he launched the successful "
100 Great Black Britons" campaign, in response to a television series broadcast by the BBC called 100 Greatest Britons (a list topped by
Winston Churchill through public nomination), in order "to raise the profile of the Black contribution to Britain and to challenge the notion of Britishness."[28]
The campaign received wide coverage in the national print and television media, with
Mary Seacole eventually announced as having been voted the greatest Black Briton.[29] In 2019, the decision was taken to relaunch and update the poll,[30] 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.[31][32]
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, bringing the first big group of post-war migrants from the West Indies to Britain.[10][33][34] He was appointed an
OBE in 2012, in recognition of his work to promote health equality for Black and minority ethnic communities.[15]
In 2017, Vernon was elected to Fellowship of the
Royal Historical Society (RHS)[35] and he is a member of the RHS's Race, Ethnicity and Equality Working Group,[36][37] which in 2018 published Race, Ethnicity & Equality in UK History: A Report and Resource for Change.[38]
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.[39][40][41] 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."[12][42]
In April 2020, after his sister's partner died from the
COVID-19 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.[43]
Vernon featured on the August 2020 cover of
British Vogue as one of 20 activists "ready to change the world".[44]
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.[45] The plaque was launched with campaigners including
Claire Darke at the Wolverhampton Heritage Centre.[46] The Centre is a cornerstone of the area’s local Caribbean community and was formerly the constituency office of
Enoch Powell where the infamous
Rivers of Blood speech was written.[47]
Political career
Vernon served for eight years as a
Labour councillor for the
Queensbridge ward in the
London Borough of Hackney, stepping down in May 2014, when the ward was abolished.[18][48] He was appointed as chair of the Labour Party's Race Equality Advisory Group in December 2015.[49]
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.[50][51] 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."[52]
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, focusing on Jamaican ex-serviceman Eddie Martin Noble.[33][53][54][55]
2009: a community space in the Chalkhill Health and Community Centre, near
Wembley Stadium, was named "Vernon Hall" in 2010, in recognition of his work locally as a former senior NHS manager in Brent.[6]