As SOAS marks Black History Month we
will be highlighting a number of historical collections held by SOAS Archives, and which reveal the long-standing Black presence in the UK,
as well as the contributions and achievements of Black peoples in local,
national and international arenas.
"Robert Benjamin Ageh Wellesley Cole (1907-1995): the first
African and first Black person to be elected a Fellow of the Royal
College of Surgeons of England". "Whilst in England, amongst other
involvements Wellesley Cole became
President of the Newcastle International Club; President of the Society
for the Cultural Advancement of Africa; Director of the West African Students Union (WASU);
President of the League of Coloured Peoples of Great Britain and
Ireland; founder member of the West African Society and editor of its
journal Africana,
and member of the Advisory Committee of the Colonial Bureau of the
Fabian Society from 1943 to 1950. From 1942 to 1958 he was a member of
the Colonial Office Advisory Committees on the Welfare of Colonial
Peoples in the United Kingdom, the Colonial Advisory Medical Committee
and the Colonial Economic and Development Council"...
Joanne Anthony Acting Deputy Head of Archives & Special Collections SOAS Library SOAS, University of London Thornhaugh Street Russell Square London WC1H 0XG
