Making a difference: the power of the personal

Have you heard of Ivor Cummings? Until recently, most people probably hadn’t. Ivor Cummings is one of the five LGBT historical figures highlighted by this year’s LGBT+ History Month, and is also known as ‘the gay father of the Windrush Generation’. Born in 1913 in Hartlepool, he went on to be the first Black British official in what was then the British Colonial Office.

Cummings was the official representative who met the famous Empire Windrush ship when it docked in Essex, and went above and beyond to help the West Indian immigrants who were aboard to find housing and jobs in the weeks and months that followed. He could even be credited with Brixton becoming the cultural hub it is today, as this was where many of the Windrush’s occupants found temporary housing when they arrived in the UK.

He was also a gay man in a time when this could have cost him everything. He began working at the Colonial Office in 1941, 26 years before the Sexual Offences Act 1967 which ended the criminalisation of homosexual acts between adult men over 21 in England and Wales. Despite this, he is reported to have not hidden his sexuality, and also to have used his position in the Colonial Office to advocate for an end to racist rules such as the Colour Bar in boxing.

Reading his story now, I’m struck by the impact that one person can have, even when they don’t have the power of a political movement or corporate network behind them. Ivor Cummings made the choice to recognise the needs of the new arrivals on the Empire Windrush, to help them, and in doing so sowed the seeds of a more diverse United Kingdom. He also advocated for what he knew to be right, despite his unusual position as a gay, black man in the Colonial Office.

When we are designing the built environment, diversity is a fact – the UK is made up of many communities with differing and specific needs. This might be a need for accessibility, for particular types of housing, or for workforce planning which accounts for groups which are currently under-represented in the construction workforce. The choice we have is whether to recognise and respect this difference, and to design and deliver the built environment inclusively.

To do this, we don’t always need national policy or political support behind us. We have the power collectively and as individuals to choose, like Ivor Cummings, to affect change and be more inclusive in how we behave and the decisions we make. This could be at the level of one project, one building, or one community, or across many – we all have the opportunity to have a positive impact.

This LGBT History month, my hope is that in the future, we can look back at the decisions we’re making now, and feel proud of the choices we made.

You can read more about Ivor Cummings at Ivor Cummings – The National Archives