Betty Campbell
Rachel Elizabeth "Betty" Campbell MBE (1934 - 2017) was a Welsh educator and community activist. She was the first Black head teacher in Wales.
Betty was born in Butetown, Cardiff. Her early life was filled with difficulties - Butetown (Tiger Bay) was a poor area with a large immigrant community. She lost her father, Simon Johnson, in 1942 when his merchant ship, the Ocean Vanguard, was topedoed by a U-boat. Johnson had come to Britain from Jamaica in 1915. Betty's mother, Honora (Nora) was of Barbadian descent. After her father's death money was hard to come by. But Betty excelled at school, winning a scholarship to the Lady Margaret High School for Girls and inspiring her desire to be a teacher. At age 17, however, during her A Levels, Betty became pregnant. By 1960 she had three children.
Then, Cardiff Teacher Training College began admitting women, and Betty's life changed.
After training, Betty began teaching in Llanrumney, but then returned to Butetown, to Mount Stuart Primary School. She was to teach there for 28 years.
Betty was inspired by the American Civil Rights Movement. She encountered hostility from parents in Cardiff, and decided to take the lessons of a visit to America. When she became head teacher at Mount Stuart in 1970 she began to teach the pupils about issues of Black History. This included not only slavery, but contemporary issues such as Civil Rights and Apartheid in South Africa.
Betty Campbell was one of the creators of Black History Month.
She made Mount Stuart Primary School a model for multi-cultural education in Britain.
For a Black woman from Butetown with four children - one with special needs - who had such a hard start in life, her achievements stand as a beacon to all from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Betty continued her activism, becoming an independent councillor on Cardiff Council.
She became a member of the Commission for Racial Equality, meeting Nelson Mandela on his visit to Wales in 1988, as well as serving on the board for BBC Wales and becoming honorary fellow of Cardiff Metropolitan University. She was appointed MBE in 2003.
A statue of Betty Campbell is due to be erected outside the BBC Headquarters in Cardiff, after coming top in a public vote during the BBC's "Hidden Heroines" campaign. It will be Cardiff's first statue of a named woman.
