Merle Pearline Grant
Premium memorial FeaturedLovingly known as “Sister Grant”
18 June 1934 — 23 November 2019 · aged 85
Windrush-generation nurse, ward sister and alto in the front row of Brixton Hill Methodist
London, United Kingdom Born in Mandeville, Jamaica Resting at Lambeth Cemetery, Tooting, LondonAbout Merle
Merle Grant kept her landing papers in a Huntley & Palmers biscuit tin on top of the wardrobe for sixty-three years, and she never once had to open it for anyone who doubted she belonged. She knew how lucky that made her, and she spent a good part of her later life making sure others were not left to prove it alone.
Born in Mandeville, Jamaica, the third of seven children of a schoolmaster and a seamstress, Merle sailed to Southampton in 1956 at the age of twenty-two with a letter offering her a place as a student nurse. She trained at St Thomas' Hospital, across the river from Parliament, and in 1964 became a ward sister at Lewisham Hospital, where she stayed until she retired in 1996. Colleagues remember a woman who could silence a busy ward with one raised eyebrow, then sit for an hour with a frightened patient at three in the morning. She trained generations of junior nurses, many of them as newly arrived and homesick as she had once been, and kept a flask of ginger tea in the sluice room for anyone who needed it.
She married Cecil Grant, a London Transport fitter, at Brixton Hill Methodist Church in 1960, and they raised three children in a terraced house off Acre Lane, where Sunday meant church, rice and peas, and a front room full of neighbours. Merle sang alto in the choir for fifty-seven years and was never, her family insists, quite on the note, only quite magnificent. She loved Test match cricket on the radio, Sam Cooke on the record player, and arguing happily with her grandchildren about whose patois was the more authentic.
When the Windrush scandal broke in 2018, she wrote letters, accompanied two neighbours to their appointments and refused to call it politics. 'It's people,' she said. 'It's only ever people.'
Merle died peacefully at home in Brixton on 23 November 2019, her children beside her and the cricket highlights murmuring on the radio. She leaves her son Delroy, her daughters Pauline and Claudette, six grandchildren, and a Nine Night that one neighbour predicted 'the whole road will talk about for years'.
“Wash your face. Tomorrow you start being good at this.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Mandeville, Jamaica
- Resting place
- Lambeth Cemetery, Tooting, London
- Passed away
- 23 November 2019, London
Thanksgiving Service
Thursday, 5 December 2019 at 11:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Merle Grant Nursing Bursary
Help the family with funeral and Nine Night costs, with any surplus given to a bursary for Caribbean-heritage student nurses at Lewisham.
$2,104.25 raised of $4,500
47%18 recent contributions
- DB
Dr Sophie Baan gave $47.50 · 6y ago
- MP
Marc Perrin gave $475 · 6y ago
“In honour of a wonderful woman.”
- PA
Padre Lúcio Andrade gave $47.50 · 6y ago
“For the children's school fees.”
- PF
Pr Cheikh Fall gave $142.50 · 6y ago
- LH
Lorraine Hayward gave $475 · 6y ago
Life journey
Sailed from Jamaica to Southampton
1956 · Southampton
Arrived on a cold September morning with one suitcase and a nursing place waiting.
State Registered Nurse training
St Thomas' Hospital1956 – 1959 · London
Trained on the wards opposite the Houses of Parliament.
Staff Nurse
St Thomas' Hospital1959 – 1964 · London
Night shifts, borrowed gloves and her first lifelong friendships.
Married Cecil Grant
Brixton Hill Methodist Church1960 · London
A marriage of forty-four years until Cecil's death in 2004.
Ward Sister
Lewisham Hospital1964 – 1996 · London
Thirty-two years leading the same ward and training its nurses.
Alto in the church choir
Brixton Hill Methodist Church1962 – 2019 · London
Fifty-seven years, never missed a Sunday she could walk to.
NHS Long Service Award
NHS Lewisham1996 · London
Presented on her retirement after forty years in nursing.
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Family & connections
Merle is survived by
- Delroy Grant· Son
- Pauline Grant-Reid· Daughter
- Claudette Grant· Daughter
- 6 grandchildren· Grandchildren
- Icilda Brown· Sister
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Merle.
Knew Merle? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- AR
Former student nurse, Lewisham Hospital
I was nineteen and had cried in the sluice room during my first week. Sister Grant handed me a mug of ginger tea and said, 'Now wash your face. Tomorrow you start being good at this.' I nursed for thirty years. I still don't know how she knew.
- CW
Cousin in Toronto
Every Christmas a barrel arrived in Scarborough packed with Marmite, tea and knitted hats she was certain we needed for the Canadian winter. She was right. I wore the last one to the airport on my way to her funeral. It still smells of her house.
- DC
Neighbour on Acre Lane for forty years
She fed half this street and never mentioned it. When my wife was ill, a covered plate appeared on our step every day for three weeks, and Merle would only say it had been 'just lying around'. Nothing in her kitchen was ever just lying around.
- RO
Minister, Brixton Hill Methodist Church
For fifty-seven years she stood third from the left in the alto row and set the pitch for the whole church, whether the organ agreed or not. On the Sunday after she died the altos left her place empty and sang 'Blessed Assurance' around it. The sound was enormous.
- DA
Consultant at Lewisham Hospital
Sister Grant taught me to take a pulse properly on my second night as a house officer, then watched me do it six more times until she was satisfied. 'Doctor,' she said, 'the patient has a face.' I have repeated that sentence to every trainee since. She never knew how far it travelled.
- BT
Nursing friend since the voyage to Southampton, 1956
We shared a cabin and one good coat. Merle gave the coat to a girl who was crying on the dock and told me it was only fair because we had each other. Sixty-three years later I am the one still here without her. Lord, I will miss that laugh.
