{{Short description|British politician}} '''Gwendolyn Enid''' "'''Gee'''" '''Bernard'''<ref name="cacfouk.org">{{cite web |title=Trustees |url=https://cacfouk.org/trustees/ |website=Croydon African Caribbean Family Organisation UK |access-date=11 February 2024 |date=2 January 2017}}</ref> (29th December 1934 – 6th December 2016) was the first Black councillor for Croydon in London for the Labour Party.<ref name="news.croydon">{{cite news |title=Hon Alderwoman Gee Bernard |url=https://news.croydon.gov.uk/hon-alderwoman-gee-bernard/ |access-date=11 February 2024 |work=Your Croydon |date=9 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Simon <!-- Last name not provided --> |title=Gee Bernard: Croydon's great Black activist dies |url=https://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/gee-bernard-croydon-s-great-black-activist-dies |website=Operation Black Vote |access-date=11 February 2024 |date=8 December 2016 |archive-date=10 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231110164607/https://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/gee-bernard-croydon-s-great-black-activist-dies |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Bernard was born on the 29th of December, 1934 in Jamaica. She later moved to England and studied at the University of North London and East London College, qualifying as a social worker. In 1980, she worked in the education department of Tower Hamlets Council<ref name="news.croydon" /> and was elected a member of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) in 1981.<ref>{{cite interview |last=Bernard |first=Gee |interviewer1-last=Reid|interviewer1-first=Hayley|title=Interview with Gee Bernard |url=https://collections.blackculturalarchives.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/1784 |access-date=16 February 2023 |work=Oral Histories of the Black Women's Movement: The Heart of the Race Project |date=March 2009 |publisher=Black Cultural Archives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230216145422/https://collections.blackculturalarchives.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/1784 |archive-date=16 February 2023 |location=London, UK |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1996, she was elected to Croydon Council for West Thornton ward, and was its councillor for 16 years. She was the founder of the Croydon African Caribbean Family Organisation (CACFO), which was established in 1993 and is still active to date.<ref name="news.croydon" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Croydon pioneer Gee Bernard will be sorely missed |url=https://insidecroydon.com/2016/12/10/croydon-pioneer-gee-bernard-will-be-sorely-missed/ |access-date=11 February 2024 |work=Inside Croydon |date=10 December 2016}}</ref>
She died on the 6th of December in 2016.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sinclair |first1=Leah |title=Croydon's First Black Councillor Passes Away |url=http://voice-online.co.uk/article/croydons-first-black-councillor-passes-away |access-date=11 February 2024 |work=The Voice |date=14 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216140455/http://voice-online.co.uk/article/croydons-first-black-councillor-passes-away |archive-date=16 December 2016}}</ref>
== See also == * Jay Bernard (writer), grandchild of Gee Bernard
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Gee}} Category:1934 births Category:2016 deaths Category:20th-century British women politicians Category:Councillors in the London Borough of Croydon Category:English people of Jamaican descent Category:Women councillors in England
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