Tributes to Bristol Royal Infirmary’s first black ward sister

A private funeral service will be held later to celebrate the life of a city hospital’s first Black ward sister.

May Tanner came to the UK as part of the Windrush generation in 1956 before working at the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI), where she remained for 20 years.

She died of a stroke in January at the age of 93.

Her husband of 65 years, Michael Tanner, said he was “very proud”, adding: “She got to the top of the BRI, with the professors. That’s very, very unusual for a black woman at that time, you have to remember that.”