Omo-Oba Adenrele Ademola first arrived in the UK in 1935, staying at the West African’s Students’ Union hostel in Camden Town. She attended a school in Somerset for two years and by January 1938 started training as a nurse at Guy’s Hospital where she became a registered nurse in 1941. She later also gained Central Midwives Board qualifications, and worked at Queens Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital and New End Hospital. Omo-Oba Adenrele Ademola became a subject of a film, Nurse Ademola, made by the Colonial Film Unit. It is unfortunately now considered lost.
1916
Nigeria
Black British
1930s – training as a nurse in London
1937 – attended royal appointments with her brother and father
January 1938 – began training as a nurse at Guy’s Hospital
Omo-Oba Adenrele Ademola was born on 2 January 1916. She was the daughter of Ladapo Ademola, the Alake of Abeokuta.
In 1937 she attended Royal appointments in Britain with her father and brother, Adetokunbo Ademola. She attended a school in Somerset for two years, and by January 1938 had started training as a nurse at Guy’s Hospital. In 1941 she became a registered nurse at Guy’s. She later also gained Central Midwives Board qualifications, and worked at Queen Charlotte’s Maternity hospital and New End Hospital. She remained in London throughout World War II.
In the mid-1940s a film called Nurse Ademola was made by the Colonial Film Unit to promote the efforts of people across the then British empire. The film was said have inspired many African viewers at its screenings across West Africa. The last record of Ademola was as a nurse living with her husband in Limpsfield, Surrey before moving to the Balmoral Hostel in Queensgate Gardens, South Kensington in 1949.
https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/second-world-war-service-and-sacrifice/second-world-war-service-and-sacrifice-princess-ademola/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omo-Oba_Adenrele_Ademola
https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/
