Edith
Edith was awarded and MBE for her charity work
Edith was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She was one of six children. Her mother was a nurse, and her dad was a director at a shipping company.
She had a good childhood and remembers all the fresh food and beautiful weather in Freetown. When she was small, she loved playing sports, especially tennis.
One of her earliest memories is of her mother making her a makeshift tennis racquet by affixing a piece of board to a stick so Edith could play.
Edith and her sisters came to the UK with their mum, who had decided to take her nursing skills to the UK and had a job waiting for her at Newcastle Hospital.
Upon arriving in England, she attended school in Sunderland and then at Monkwearmouth College. She remembers that people were curious when they saw a black person and would stare when they saw her in her hot pants. However, she does not recall experiencing any racism. Everyone was friendly to her.
Edith in her hotpants when she lived in the north of England.
She studied law at Newcastle University, which was much more cosmopolitan as it had international students from all over the world. Edith enjoyed her time there and made lots of friends.
Once she had completed her degree, Edith came to London. Her first job was as a court clerk at The Old Bailey.
She then saw an advert looking for someone to work in the legal department at the Union of Communication Workers (originally the Post Office Workers Union). She didn't expect to get the job as she was the only non-white candidate, but she got the highest marks in the exam and was successful.
She enjoyed the job and did well. After working there for a few years, a vacancy opened up for a Legal Administrator in the Legal Services Department at the CWU. Edith had to go to the TUC head offices (Trade Union Congress) and take another exam, which she passed. After an interview, she got the job. Edith went on to work there for 44 years and was given an Honorary Member of the Union for her Long Service.
Through her work at the union, Edith would attend Labour Party conferences and became a member herself. She started canvassing for the party and, on the recommendation of the local MP, stood as a councillor. Edith won and became the councillor for Lavender Fields Ward in Merton in 1998.
She must've made a good councillor because, in 2002, she was elected as Merton's first black female Mayor. This was the Queen's Golden Jubilee year, so Edith and all London Mayors were invited to a banquet at Addington Palace, where she met Queen Elizabeth.
Edith met the Queen again in 2012 when Edith was awarded an MBE for her charity and community work - Edith also works as a Magistrate. (Edith was surprised when the Queen remembered her back from the banquet despite it being ten years previous)
In her spare time, Edith loves to swim. She’s been a member of the David Lloyd Leisure Club for over 25 years and has raised thousands of pounds doing sponsored swims for all the Mayor of Merton’s Charities.
Edith still loves tennis. Although she had to give up playing singles due to tennis elbow, she still plays doubles whenever she gets the time.
When she was Mayor in 2002, she was invited to Wimbledon to watch the tennis in the royal box and was seated next to the Duke of Kent. Tennis legend Venus Williams was on the court at the time, and her sister Serena and mum were watching in the box with the chairman of Wimbledon Tennis; she asked him, 'Who is that black lady sitting next to royalty?' He replied, 'She's the mayor of Merton.'
Serena was surprised that a black woman was Mayor and went to talk to Edith. They had a long chat and became friends. Since then, Edith and the Williams sisters have met for lunch whenever they come to Wimbledon. Whenever avid tennis fan Edith goes to watch the US Open in Flushing Meadows, New York, they take Edith out to dinner.
When 4-year-old Edith was in Sierra Leone playing tennis with a racquet made from a piece of board attached to a stick, who could have imagined that she would go on to become a Mayor and magistrate, get an MBE, meet the Queen of England, and become friends with two of the world's greatest tennis players?
