Florence Nankivell

Florence Nankivell (8 June 1901–1993, born as Florence Muysken) was a welfare advocate best known for raising awareness of conditions under British colonialism in the West Indies and for organising a Kindertransport to rescue Jewish children from pre-war Berlin. She later became active in the field of archaeology.

Early life

Nankivell was born in 1901 in Amsterdam to parents Joan Muysken and Elizabeth van Duers. She studied social work in the UK and later worked to support young female migrants whose employment was precarious. In 1930, she met Noel Howard Nankivell, the British Colonial Secretary in Trinidad. They married in Port of Spain in 1932 and had children, Selma and Edmund. Florence was involved in creating the Tourist Inquiry Bureau and was its honorary secretary in 1933.

International welfare work

Florence Nankivell did social work in Trinidad with the families of people employed on sugar plantations and by oil companies. In the late 1930s, Nankivell offered her diaries as evidence that the terrible conditions were caused by poverty wages to the Moyne Commission, and also spoke out publicly. Nankivell's husband also supported the workers involved in the Butler Riots and condemned colonial business practices: he was removed from his role and posted to Cyprus. Nankivell travelled to England with their two children in June 1938, where they were delayed from going on to Cyprus because one of the children had to quarantine.

In late 1938, Nankivell, who spoke fluent German, worked with a Quaker organisation and travelled to Berlin to organise transportation and help Jewish children, many of whom were orphans, to escape the city. She faced unwanted attention from the police, but on 1 December, a train carrying 196 children departed the city, with the refugees then travelling by boat to reach the UK. This was the first of what became known as Kindertransport.

UK work

Nankivell moved to Oxford with her children in the early 1940s, following the death of her husband. She volunteered for the Admiralty at the Bodleian Library and for the Land Army.

In 1947 Nankivell moved to Polzeath in Cornwall. She helped to develop the Cornwall Archaeological Society in 1961 and was its secretary for 13 years.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Collections Online: Mrs Florence Nankivell". British Museum. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  2. ↑ Manley, Elizabeth S.; Manley, Elizabeth (2025-05-13). Imagining the Tropics. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-1-9788-2693-9.
  3. 1 2 Samaroo, Brinsley (2015). The Price of Conscience: Howard Noel Nankivell and Labour Unrest in the British Caribbean in 1937 and 1938. Hansib.
  4. 1 2 Gupta, Devyani; Hossain, Purba (2023-02-09). Across Colonial Lines: Commodities, Networks and Empire Building. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-32703-0.
  5. ↑ Brereton, Bridget (1999). Yelvington, Kevin A. (ed.). The colonial Caribbean in transition: essays on postemancipation social and cultural history. Barbados: Press Univ. of the West Indies. p. 228. ISBN 978-976-640-030-9.
  6. ↑ Chronicle of the West India Committee. West India Committee. 1939.
  7. ↑ Letters (2015-07-03). "Forgotten heroes of the kindertransports". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-11-09.
  8. ↑ "Kindertransport and KTA History". The Kindertransport Association. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  9. ↑ "JEWISH CHILD REFUGEES REACH ENGLAND – FIRST CONTINGENT FROM GERMANY". The Daily Telegraph. London. 3 December 1938. pp. 14 to 16.
  10. ↑ Jones, Andy M. (2018-06-30). An Intellectual Adventurer in Archaeology: Reflections on the work of Charles Thomas. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-78491-862-0.
  11. ↑ Current Archaeology. A & W. Selkirk. 1984.