BBC’s first Black woman producer to get a blue plaque

Una Marson was the first Black woman to become a programme producer at the BBC and is thought to be the first Black female playwright to be performed on the London stage.

She was living at The Mansions in Mill Lane during the Second World War when she started working for the British broadcaster.

While living there she devised and made radio programmes such as Calling the West Indies, which connected Caribbean servicemen in Britain with their families back home, and Caribbean Voices, which was a platform for emerging writers until 1958.

The blue plaque is on the wall of The Mansions in Mill Lane. (Image: English Heritage) An English Heritage blue plaque has been unveiled on the mansion block to commemorate Una’s achievements, which included campaigning for racial and gender equality.

Howard Spencer, senior historian at English Heritage, said: “Una Marson was a true pioneer, breaking barriers, making an important wartime contribution, and forging new paths for Black women in Britain and beyond.

“This blue plaque is a well-deserved recognition of her extraordinary contributions to broadcasting, literature, and social justice. Her legacy serves as an inspiration to all who strive for a more just and inclusive world.”

Una Marson lived in the block from 1939 until at least 1943 while she was working for the BBC. (Image: English Heritage) The Mansions holds special significance as a hub for Una’s personal and professional life. It was there that she hosted, journalists, writers and West Indians on military service in what her biographer, Delia Jarrett-Macauley, described as a warm, welcoming environment filled with parties, sing-songs, and intellectual debates.

Born in Jamaica in 1905, Una Marson worked as a secretary for The Salvation Army before embarking on a career in journalism as assistant editor of Jamaica Critic.

She became Jamaica’s first female editor, and publisher of her own magazine, The Cosmopolitan, which ran feminist-angled articles, and poetry by her fellow members of The Jamaican Poetry League.

She also published two volumes of poetry and a play At What A Price about a Jamaican stenographer from the country who moves to Kingston and falls in love with her white boss.

When Una moved to London in 1932, it was staged at the YWCA Central Club Hall, and in early 1933 at the Scala Theatre in Charlotte Street.

During her time in Britain she became a cultural pioneer, fostering Caribbean voices, but also took part in activism for racial and gender equality, writing articles on both women’s roles and the issues faced by Black people in Britain, and editing The Keys, the journal of the League of Coloured Peoples.

She returned to Jamaica after the Second World War but travelled widely, and lived for a time in the US before her death in 1965.