Connie Mark

Constance Winifred Mark, MBE, BEM (née McDonald, previously Goodridge; 21 December 1923 – 3 June 2007) was a Jamaican-born community organiser and activist. She served as a medical secretary in the Auxiliary Territorial Service in World War II. After moving to England in the early 1950s, she became an activist for West Indians in London, after being denied her British Empire Medal. She worked to gain recognition for Black service personnel who were overlooked for their services and co-founded the Mary Seacole Memorial Association to bring recognition to the accomplishments of the noted Jamaican nurse.

Early life

Constance Winifred McDonald was born on 21 December 1923 in Rollington Town, Kingston, Jamaica, to Mary Rosannah (née Fyfe) and Ernest Lynas McDonald. In her youth, she was known as "Winnie" but in later life was known as "Connie". She was of mixed ethnicity, her background including a paternal grandmother from Jamaica and grandfather from Scotland, as well as a maternal grandmother of Lebanese heritage and a paternal grandfather who had been an indentured labourer from Calcutta, India. In spite of her diverse ancestry, the family considered themselves British, largely because Jamaica was a British colony at the time. She was raised in Kingston and attended Wolmer's Girls' School.

Career

In 1943, McDonald was recruited to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) because of her bookkeeping expertise. She worked in the British Military Hospital of Kingston, as a medical secretary, typing reports of battle injuries. Upon completing six months of service, she was promoted to lance corporal and applied for her additional pay as provided for in the British Army regulations. The War Office turned down her request, stating that ATS soldiers were not entitled to the increase. Six months later, McDonald was promoted to full corporal and her pay increase was still denied. McDonald viewed the policy as racist, feeling that as she was in a British regiment of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) she ought to be treated like other such personnel. She said, "We were British! England was our mother country. We were brought up to respect the royal family." She fought for, but never received, what she considered the king owed her as back pay.

When the war ended, McDonald's commanding officer put in for her to receive the British Empire Medal, but her recognition was denied. She believed the denial was because she had refused to clean British officer personnel's private quarters. In 1949, when the ATS was merged into the Women's Royal Army Corps she signed up for further service. In 1952, she married Jamaican fast bowler Stanley Goodridge, and they subsequently had a daughter, Amru Elizabeth. Soon thereafter, Stanley won a contract to play cricket in Durham and he moved to England. After completing a decade of service with the RAMC, McDonald-Goodridge joined her husband with their daughter in England, where she gave birth to their second child, Stanley, in 1957.

Once the family was settled in Britain, McDonald-Goodridge returned to her work as a medical secretary. She also became involved in charitable works, community service and educational projects. The Goodridges divorced and she married Michael Mark. She joined the West Indian ex-Servicemen's Association and pressed for them to add women to the title of the organisation, continuing her fight for the recognition of women's contributions to the war effort.

In 1980, Mark founded an organisation called the Friends of Mary Seacole, which was later renamed the Mary Seacole Memorial Association. Marking the centenary of Seacole's death, a memorial service was held on 14 May 1981 and since that time, the Memorial Association has maintained the grave site. In 1989, when preparations were being made to celebrate the contribution of servicemen and women on the fiftieth anniversary of the war's outbreak, Mark began lobbying for the inclusion of West Indians and women. In an interview conducted by Jacqui Harper for the BBC
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