Connie Mark – Tribute

How do you define a life? How do you sum up a vibrant, life loving person?
At the end of an 83 year journey, what words can convey what Connie Mark did, who she was, what she achieved, and the people who’s lives she touched?
She was different things at different stages in her life.
A daughter, a sister, a student, a soldier, a mother, an aunt, a medical secretary, a community activist, a teacher.
All these things, and more, at different points in her life. But these just describe the roles she played, not how she played them.
Today is a time to reflect on that. Not just what she did, but on whom she really was. A time to reflect on what she meant to all of us here today.
For me, this was a woman who gave abundantly. She believed in the importance of communities, and put in the effort to build them.
She also believed in the importance of ones history and heritage, and did much to pass on the heritage she was so proud of.
There were so many dimensions to this remarkable woman, and all I can hope to do today is to allude to them.
The Connie Mark I knew was tough… and sensitive.
She was loyal…and had a rebellious streak.
She was a fighter…who hated violence.
Born Connie MacDonald in Kingston, Jamaica, on the 21st December 1923, she grew up in a loving and, for those times, comfortable middle class home.
Surrounded by loving, doting females, and a strict father, she described a childhood that left her feeling at ease with herself and the world around her.
At the age of almost 20, on the 21st November 1943, she embarked upon one of many significant life battles.
For that was the day when, much to the surprise and annoyance of her parents, she enlisted into the Auxilary Territorial Service, which was the women’s branch of the army.
This was Britain’s hour of need, when it turned to the loyal Empire to assist in the fight for survival during the second world war.  And the Caribbean responded unhesitatingly. As Connie would say later:
‘England was the Mother Country, and if your mother is in trouble, you have to help.’
The war years in the Caribbean were harsh ones. It’s often forgotten how harsh they were.
Working in the medical service, she saw some of the terrible physical scars that war produced on injured service personnel and civilians.
Nine years after the war, in November 1954, Connie travelled to Britain to be with her professional cricketer husband, and carried their baby daughter with her.  

For her, another of life’s battles was fought in those early years in England, as cramped living conditions and racism in the employment market made life particularly difficult for London’s black community.
Six years of long working hours and cramped living conditions took its toll, and Connie returned to Jamaica with her children in 1960. Fortunately, she came back to Britain after a period of recuperation – for we would have been a poorer community without the likes of Connie.

I first met Connie Mark in 1989, when my late good friend Ben Bousquet and I started work on our book about the role of West Indian Women in the second world war. Connie featured prominently in the book.
There are a number of colleagues from the West Indian Ex-Servicemen & Women’s Association here today who can describe, much better than I, the role she played in raising the profile of the contribution of West Indians to the armed services of this nation.

Like so many West Indian women of her generation, she had the strength and resilience to withstand the slings and arrows of life, whilst enjoying its pleasures.
She would not be told what she could and could not do. She would push boundaries, and prise open doors that should never have been shut to her.
For a woman whose childhood hero was Frank Sinatra, she could look back on her life and say ‘I did it my way.’
God’s peace to be with you, Connie.

Colin Douglas