Black History Month Spotlight

In celebration of Black History Month this year we are acknowledging one of the oldest WWII veterans: Ena Collymore-Woodstock.

Ena left native Jamaica in 1943 to join the British Army as the first group of women to leave the West Indies and volunteer to go to war. Initially allocated a clerical role, Ena eventually requested a more challenging role and wrote to the War Office. She was then promoted to become a radar operator in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and served some time in Belgium. While her military career ended in 1946, Ena became the first black woman to train at Gray’s Inn in the UK then becoming a barrister. Acknowledging her amazing work the following years after, Ena was awarded an MBE in 1967.

She is 105 years old today.