The first black police-officer in Britain

John Kent (1805 to 1886), nicknamed ‘Black Kent’, is considered the first Black police officer in Britain. He was a watchman and a parish constable in Maryport, near Carlisle and a constable in Carlisle, Cumbria.

The first black Shakespearean actor

Ira Aldridge (1807 to 1867), born in New York, USA, started acting at 14. Meeting racial discrimination, he moved to England at age 17. He performed in Sunderland and at the Theater Royal in Newcastle in 1827. He was the first Black Shakespearean actor, famous for his performance of Othello.

Britain’s first black queen

Queen Charlotte was the wife of George III. She was a princess from Germany who became a British Queen after marrying King George III – many historians believe Queen Charlotte had African ancestry.

It’s been argued that despite coming from Germany, Queen Charlotte was descended from a black branch of the Portuguese royal family. King Afonso III of Portugal conquered the city of Faro from the Moors – Muslims from North Africa who lived in modern-day Spain and Portugal during the Middle Ages. Afonso was thought to have had three children with the city governor’s daughter. One of their sons, Martim Afonso Chichorro, is also said to have married into a family with black ethnicity. He and his wife had many descendants, including Queen Charlotte whose great granddaughter was Queen Victoria.