Betty Campbell MBE

Why not celebrate a great Welsh woman during International Women’s Month?

Who Was Betty Campbell?

Betty Campbell will forever hold the distinction of being Cymru’s first black head teacher, in addition to being an activist and leader in racial education. She was born Rachel Elizabeth Johnson in Tre-biwt, Caerdydd, in 1934.

Betty’s mother, Nora, was a Welsh Barbadian while her father, Simon Vickers Johnson, was a Jamaican who came to the United Kingdom at just 15 years of age. He was killed at sea aboard the torpedoed Ocean Vanguard during the Second World War. I did some research and found that this particular ship was torpedoed on September 13, 1942, at which time Betty would have been approaching 8 years of age. The family was already living in poverty and, no doubt, this did not help matters.

From childhood, Betty had one dream: to become a teacher. Yet, she was often told that young, black, working-class girls like her didn’t succeed. It further crushed her when one of her own teachers was the one to tell her this. She would, however, go on to prove this teacher (and any other naysayer) wrong. Betty would also overcome the stigma of being a teenage mother when, at 17 years of age, she became a mother for the first time. She would drop out of school to marry Rupert Campbell. Despite all of this, Betty still never gave up on her dream.

It was in 1960 when Betty, then a 26 year old mother of three, learned that Cardiff Teacher Training College had started to enrol female students and, soon after, she became one of just six female students enrolled that year. Soon after, she would qualify as a teacher and land a job at Mount Stuart Primary School, in her hometown of Tre-biwt, Caerdydd. She would teach at the school for 28 years and, in 1970, would make history by becoming Cymru’s first black head teacher.

Betty was inspired by the likes of Harriet Tubman, the Civil Rights and Anti-Apartheid Movements and regularly raised awareness to her race and culture. After retiring from teaching, she worked as an independent councillor Tre-biwt for both Cardiff and Cardiff City councils. She was actually unseated from Cardiff City Council in a hotly contested election between herself and Vaughan Gething, who would become Cymru’s first black First Minister.

Betty also served on the Home Office’s race advisory committee. In addition to this, she was also a part the Commission for Racial Equality. In 2003, Betty was awarded an MBE for services to education and community life. Lastly, for her efforts and contribution to the the cause of both Welsh education and black history, Betty was awarded a lifetime achievement award by Unison Cymru’s Black Members’ group in 2015.

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