Patrick Vernon

Tributes pour in for Dr Aggrey Burke, Windrush elder and champion of black mental health justice

LONDON: The death of Dr Aggrey Burke aged 82 last month marks a profound loss, not only to Jamaica and Britain, but to all of us committed to justice, equity, and humanity. Aggrey was a Windrush elder, a pioneering psychiatrist, a fearless anti-racist campaigner, and for me personally, a friend and mentor whose life’s work shaped how I understand mental health, racism, and responsibility.

Aggrey was part of a generation that came to Britain with qualifications, optimism, and a deep commitment to public service, only to encounter institutions shaped by colonial thinking and structural racism. As one of the first black consultant psychiatrists in the NHS, he did not simply seek to survive within the system, he challenged it, relentlessly and courageously.

When I got to know Aggrey more closely, he often spoke about growing up in Jericho, Hanover, Jamaica. That created a special bond between us because Jericho is also the birthplace of my father. It gave our conversations an added depth, about roots, migration, and the responsibilities we carry from the communities that shaped us. For Aggrey, Jamaica was never just a place of origin; it was a moral and cultural foundation that informed his work throughout his life.

His parents, Rev Eddie Burke and Pansy Burke, named him Aggrey, that name proved prophetic. Hilary Robertson-Hickling captured this beautifully:

“When Rev Eddie Burke and Mrs Pansy Burke gave their son the name Aggrey, which means powerful and complete in the Fante language of Ghana, they prepared him for his life’s work as a psychiatrist in the Caribbean and Britain. The elder Burkes contributed to Jamaica Welfare, a national organisation prior to Independence.”

The family later moved to Britain to work within the community after periods of unrest and racial violence. Aggrey carried that ethos of service throughout his life, working in prisons and mental hospitals, in courts and across the NHS. He was indefatigable, generous, and deeply principled. As Hilary continues:

“Aggrey served the community as a psychiatrist, advocate, and researcher. He worked in prisons and mental hospitals, in the courts and the NHS. He did groundbreaking research about racism and related matters and was also a committed pan-Africanist. Let us celebrate his life by continuing the work of anti-racism and creating a better world for generations to come.”

Aggrey’s brother, Syd Burke, made his own important contribution to black British life. Syd worked for the BBC and co-hosted the influential radio programme, Rice ’n’ Peas, and then Black Londoners with Alex Pascall and Mike Phillips, helping to shape political and cultural debate within black Britain. Together, the Burke family exemplified public service across different fronts.

POWERFUL TESTAMENT

I first met Aggrey in 1986 in Wolverhampton, when he spoke powerfully about the misuse of racialised diagnoses, such as so-called “ganja psychosis”. Black men were being pathologised rather than understood, detained rather than supported. That intervention helped inspire the work of what became the African Caribbean Community Initiative (ACCI), now one of the longest-running black mental health charities in Britain. Aggrey was a lifelong patron of ACCI, alongside myself, offering guidance long after retirement.

Alicia Spence, chief executive of ACCI, reflects: “The passing of Aggrey Burke is a profound loss to our community and to humanity at large. He was a remarkable and compassionate psychiatrist who touched the lives of so many people and their families. Aggrey was grounded and deeply understood the political landscape in which psychiatry operated, and the impact of racism and colonialism on the very soul of our community, resulting in the disproportionate numbers of black people caught up in the mental health system. On a personal note, I will miss our extended conversations and his words of wisdom.”

Aggrey was unselfish with his time and knowledge. Even after retirement, he continued mentoring black professionals, advising grassroots organisations, and contributing to academic debate. He worked both on the frontline and in research, often without recognition.

Alongside Suman Fernando and Sashi Sashidharan, Aggrey was among a small group of pioneers in the 1980s who challenged racism in psychiatry when it was deeply unpopular and professionally dangerous to do so. His perspective was shared by fellow Caribbean psychiatrists, including Fred Hickling, whose work on cultural therapy and post-colonial psychology closely aligned with Aggrey’s thinking.

His understanding of community trauma was profound. He consistently linked mental distress to the legacy of enslavement, colonialism, migration, and structural racism. This perspective shaped his response to the New Cross Fire of 1981, when 13 young black people lost their lives. While institutions hesitated, Aggrey acted, helping to establish counselling support for bereaved families and survivors.

Brenda Dacres, Mayor of Lewisham and recently appointed Labour Peer, captured this legacy: “Aggrey Burke’s work after the New Cross Fire stands as a powerful testament to the healing power of community-centred care and courageous advocacy. At a time of deep trauma and injustice, he stood with bereaved families, survivors and the community, offering care, dignity, and support when it was most needed.”

Each January, Lewisham continues to host remembrance services honouring the victims and families of the New Cross Fire, a reminder that the trauma Aggrey responded to is not historical, but living memory.

Aggrey Burke also drew a clear line from New Cross to later injustices, including the Windrush scandal. He saw Windrush not as an administrative failure, but as another expression of institutional racism, one that retraumatised an ageing generation who had already endured discrimination upon arrival in Britain. The fear, depression, and anxiety experienced by Windrush victims, he argued, were predictable outcomes of systemic hostility and historical erasure.

In 2020, Aggrey was rightly featured in the 100 Great black Britons book and campaign. In his interview, he reflected:

“We need to restore some sense of balance in our relationship with Britain, one based on equality and not imposed racial injustice.”

He rejected individual hero narratives, saying: “I see myself as part of a movement, a movement that has been there for a long time, challenging systems that are sometimes abusive.”

And he never lost sight of whom the struggle was for: “The people who are really suffering often have very little support, and some succumb to the pressures of society.”

INSPIRED GENERATIONS

For decades, Aggrey exposed racism in medical school admissions, demonstrating how black and ethnic minority students were systematically excluded despite equal qualifications. That work damaged his career. He should have been a professor, even a dean. Instead, he was marginalised. It took the Black Lives Matter movement and the murder of George Floyd in 2020 for the establishment to finally acknowledge what he had been saying for over 40 years. In 2023, the Royal College of Psychiatrists recognised his contribution with a fellowship in his name, long overdue. Also in that same year he was presented with The Weekly Gleaner Honour Award Certificate for Health and Wellness for his years of extensive research on racism and mental illness.

Steve Stephenson MBE, former manager at Ashanti House Mental Health Services for African Caribbean and Asian people in Luton, said of Aggrey’s passing: “I am deeply saddened by the passing of my colleague Aggrey, who was a great inspiration to me and my colleagues in social work, especially mental health. The last time I saw the great man was at the Weekly Gleaner Honour Awards in London when we were honoured in 2023. Aggrey was a true pioneer and he is a significant loss to our community.”

Linton Kwesi Johnson, co-founder and Trustee of the George Padmore Institute, paid this powerful tribute: “Dr Aggrey Burke was one of the pillars of Britain’s black communities. We at the George Padmore Institute are saddened by the loss of one of our founding trustees.

“He was committed for decades to our struggle for racial equality and social justice. As a pioneering consultant clinical psychiatrist, Dr Burke worked tirelessly to combat racism in the NHS, especially in mental health. He supported the New Cross Massacre Action Committee’s campaign for justice, providing counselling for survivors and bereaved families. That work later became institutional practice. That is his legacy as both activist and psychiatrist. We will miss him.”

As we mourn Aggrey, we must also be honest. More needs to be done. While recent mental health legislation promises reform, it still fails to address structural racism and the legacy of enslavement that continue to shape black mental health outcomes. Aggrey would have welcomed progress, but he would also have warned us not to confuse reform with justice.

Aggrey Burke inspired generations of clinicians, researchers, activists, and community workers. His legacy must be recorded permanently, not just as remembrance, but as a guide for the ongoing struggle to build mental health services rooted in dignity, equity, and humanity.

To honour Aggrey Burke is to continue his work.

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