This is the fourth and final article I have written for Nurses Month 2025. It is my hope that their difficult career paths and perseverance will be reminder of the many local nurses who contributed to making our island home a better place.

Nurse Alice Scott stands out as one of Bermuda’s pioneering nurses. One hundred and thirteen years ago, in 1912, she is recorded as the second Bermudian to complete her training at the Lincoln Hospital in New York — the first being Mabel Crawford, who graduated in 1911.

Alice was one of ten children born to Mary and John Scott in March 1887. At that time they lived just behind St James Church overlooking Scott’s Bay and owned property as far as the beach, which took the family name of Scott’s Bay. Little is known of her early education, but it is believed that she was encouraged to do nursing by her father, who was employed in an unknown capacity at the Royal Naval Hospital under Dr Reece, the Chief Surgeon. There were no training facilities for Black nurses in Bermuda during that era, which led her father to investigate facilities abroad and send her to study at the Lincoln Hospital in New York.

When Alice Scott returned to Bermuda, the racial atmosphere regarding nurses of colour had not changed. She was a determined woman who remained undaunted by the situation, and immediately went into midwifery and private duty nursing until 1921 when she established the Shady Rest Nursing Home in the family homestead on the corner of Church Valley and West Side Road, in Somerset. She managed the home for 40 years and ran a small clinic downstairs where she administered first aid and attended to the community’s requests for treatment of various ailments, as well as suturing injured patients when required.

Ms Scott was a woman short in stature but a giant in her determination to make change, and she became involved in many aspects of community life. She felt that women should take an active part in the change she envisioned, and fearlessly pursued every aspect of the adjustments she felt should be made in Bermuda.

She believed that educating young people was the key to progress, and in 1935 she, along with other notable Somerset residents such as Henry T. Cann, Frances Ratteray and Portia Bean formed the Young People’s Association, the precursor to the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Association.

Ms Scott was one of the few Black women to join, with Gladys Morrell, of the Bermuda Suffrage Society, serving on its executive. These women fought for the right of women to vote, and in 1944 their persistence was rewarded.

In 1948, she was nominated by Ms Morrell, her good friend, to run for Parliament and became one of the first Black women in Bermuda to take on this challenge. Regrettably, she was not successful but she continued to fight politically in other ways.

Ms Scott was an extremely health-conscious woman and in an effort to inspire other women to keep fit, she encouraged them to play tennis, the sport she loved. There was a concrete tennis court at the Victoria and Albert Lodge, where she often played and taught others to play until she decided to build her own lawn tennis court overlooking Scott’s Bay and founded the Shady Rest Lawn Tennis Club. She was also a founding member of the Somers Isle Tennis Club, and competed in oversees tournaments.

Following the example of her father, she became an ardent member of the Victoria and Albert United Order of Odd Fellows Lodge, which was a part of the friendly society movement. They provided financial and moral support, and encouraged the educational and cultural pursuits to enlightenment for its members within the Black community. She worked tirelessly to strengthen the lodge and the progress of its members.

This lodge attempted to open a Sandys high school near her home. There were just a small number of students and, despite employing a headmaster trained in England, the school survived for only three months. Ms Scott, who was described as an energetic, strong-willed woman, was determined to reopen a secondary school in Somerset. In 1927, she along with several Somerset residents opened a school in Portland Square, but because of financial constraints the school struggled to remain open and moved several times.

Despite the financial difficulties and mortgaging her own home to support the school, the vision of Ms Scott was unwavering until 1963 when the Bermuda Government began to fully fund her determined efforts to have a secondary school in Sandys.

Today we know it as the Sandys Secondary Middle School.

In 1954, Alice Scott was awarded the British Empire Medal for her contribution to Bermuda.

Upon her passing on April 18, 1968, a special assembly was held at her beloved Sandys Secondary School. On that day, the students and faculty were informed that one of Bermuda’s leading citizens and most dedicated daughters had died, and as a mark of respect the school closed for the day.

Today, one of the four Sandys Secondary Middle School house teams bears her name, and I am pleased to report that both my granddaughters are proud graduates of the school that Nurse Alice Scott fought so valiantly to make a reality.

References:

Mind the Onion Seed (Nellie Musson, 1976)

Heroines in the Medical Field of Bermuda (Ira Philip, 1994)

The History of Sandys Secondary Middle School

• Cecille Snaith-Simmons is a retired nurse, historian, writer and author of The Bermuda Cookbook. This is the last of a four-part spotlight on Bermudian nurses for Nurses Month. With thanks to Norbert Simmons and Barbara Bean, sister of Alice Scott