Claude Nelson-Williams
Thomas Claudius Nelson-Williams, MBBS, commonly known as Claude Nelson-Williams was a Sierra Leonean medical doctor, politician, and civic leader who was active in the politics of Sierra Leone between the 1960s and 1980s.
Born into a professional family that was active in colonial politics in Sierra Leone, Nelson-Williams was among the early postcolonial professionals to participate in Sierra Leonean politics and he was active in SLPP politics and on the Freetown City Council. Alongside other professionals such as Gershon Collier and Raymond Sarif Easmon, he was among a small group of Creole professionals active in the political scene from the 1960s.
He served as Chairman of the Management Committee of the Freetown City Council and ran for Parliament on at least three occasions. He also served as a director of the Bank of Sierra Leone in the 1960s.
His assassination in early 1989 reverberated across West Africa and sent shockwaves in Sierra Leone, especially in the Creole community and among his professional and political peers.
Background and early life
Claude Nelson-Williams was born on 30 May 1927 at 37 Percival Street, Freetown, Sierra Leone. He was registered at birth with the full name of "Thomas Claudius Nelson-Williams." However, from an early age, he was simply known as "Claude Nelson-Williams" and officially as "Thomas Claude Nelson-Williams."He was the second of five children born to Thomas Edward Nelson-Williams, a barrister, and Malphina Dorothea Nelson-Williams, née Jenkins-Johnston, a teacher and nurse. Although the family subsequently immigrated to Nigeria in 1939, all of his four siblings were born in Freetown and three qualified as professionals namely as lawyers and in the teaching profession. The family resided at Murray Town on the family estate called "Dorolene" which is where Claude Nelson-Williams and his siblings grew up during their childhood in Sierra Leone. His parents belonged to the Creole ethnic group, the descendants of free and formerly enslaved people of African descent and came from prominent Freetown families engaged in colonial politics. Thomas Edward Nelson-Williams was a Wesleyan Methodist and was affiliated with Wesley Church, Freetown. Malphina Nelson-Williams was born into an Anglican family and was affiliated with St George's Cathedral in Freetown.
Thomas Edward Nelson-Williams was a lawyer who studied and qualified as a barrister in Britain. He was a contemporary of Sierra Leonean professionals and politicians including Claude Emile Wright, Ernest Samuel Beoku-Betts and Salako Benka-Coker. He was a close friend of both Claude Emile Wright and Salako Benka-Coker both of whom distinguished themselves at the Sierra Leone Bar. Thomas Nelson-Williams served as a city councillor on the Freetown City Council and subsequently was elected as an Unofficial Member to the Legislative Council of the colony. Thomas Edward Nelson-Williams was also a prominent freemason, which was an important pastime among Creole men, although his son, Claude Nelson-Williams did not participate in freemasonry.
Malphina Nelson-Williams was a teacher who taught at several schools in Freetown. She subsequently qualified as a Registered Nurse in England and was also actively involved with the women's movement in Sierra Leone alongside other Creole political and civil leaders such as Constance Agatha Cummings-John.
Education
Nelson-Williams was educated at Bathurst Street Primary School and subsequently at Samaria Church School and the Government Model School in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Samaria Church School was affiliated to Samaria Church which had been established by Liberated Africans. The Government Model School was operated by the British colonial government. In colonial Sierra Leone, education was predominantly provided by local church schools at the primary school level in addition to government operated schools. The religious schools were predominantly Anglican or Methodist but also included schools provided by the Countess of Huntingdon Connection. These schools were largely attended by the small Creole population based in the former Colony of Sierra Leone.When his family immigrated to Nigeria in 1939 where his father practiced as a lawyer and judge, Nelson-Williams was educated at Igbobi College in Lagos, Nigeria. Igbobi College was an elite school that attracted prominent members of the Lagosian Yoruba middle class. Nelson-Williams attended this school alongside his older brother, Horatio James Edward Nelson-Williams, who subsequently proceeded to study law at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford and qualified as a barrister. His three other siblings would also study in Sierra Leone or Britain for higher education.
Medical studies
Following his studies at Igbobi College, he proceeded to Durham University in England in 1948, where he completed the MBBS degree in Medicine, graduating in 1955 as a member of King's College, which was the medical college at Durham University that eventually formed the Newcastle University. The MBBS degree was a six-year medical qualification that provided students with the qualifications to complete a house residency in medicine.Durham University had a long-standing relationship with Sierra Leone through its affiliation with Fourah Bay College in 1876. The provisions of this arrangement provided Sierra Leoneans with the opportunity to complete a Durham University degree at Fourah Bay College. Thomas Edward Nelson-Williams, the father of Nelson-Williams, had completed his first degree at Fourah Bay College. Several other prominent Sierra Leoneans including Sir Milton Margai, the first Prime Minister of Sierra Leone, Robert Wellesley-Cole, the first West African to qualify as a surgeon at the Royal College of Surgeons in England, and Raymond Sarif Easmon a medical doctor and accomplished playwright, completed their medical studies at Durham University which was affiliated to Fourah Bay College until 1960.
Medical career
Following his studies at Durham University, Nelson-Williams entered his house residency at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead where he was senior house officer and casualty officer. It was at this time that he was listed on the Medical Register of physicians qualified to practice medicine.After his house residency at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Nelson-Williams returned to Freetown, Sierra Leone where he served as medical officer at Fourah Bay College Hospital.
He subsequently entered private practice as a physician at 33 Pultney Street, Freetown where he held retainers with several corporate companies including the United Africa Company and the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank.
Nelson-Williams served as president of the Sierra Leone Medical Association between 1958 and 1959. The Medical Association was one of several professional bodies such as the Sierra Leone Bar Association that had been established by professionals in Sierra Leone.
Political life and career
Nelson-Williams and his younger brother, John Arnold Nelson-Williams, were active in Sierra Leonean politics. John was elected to the Sierra Leone Parliament and held a cabinet position as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Although Claude was never elected to Parliament nor held a cabinet position, in comparison to the small number of Creole professionals actively involved in postcolonial politics, he had a significant degree of influence in Sierra Leonean politics during the 1960s and maintained some political clout from then onwards.The participation of the Nelson-William brothers in politics was part of a lengthy tradition of Creole professionals participating in politics. Several Creole politicians and political commentators such as Albert Whiggs Easmon, Emmanuel Cummings, Herbert Bankole-Bright, Ernest Beoku-Betts, and Eustace Henry Taylor Cummings were also accomplished medical and legal professionals who studied in Britain. This Creole political elite largely dominated institutions such as the Freetown City Council and the Legislative Council of the colony.
The Nelson-Williams and Jenkins-Johnston families also had a storied tradition of participation in the colonial politics of Sierra Leone namely on the Freetown City Council and on the Legislative Council of the colony. Thomas Edward Nelson-Williams, the father of the Nelson-William brothers, served as a councilor on the Freetown City Council and subsequently served on the Legislative Council. James Jenkins Johnston, the father of Malphina Nelson-Williams, also served as a councilor on the Freetown City Council, and Malphina's younger brother, James Jenkins-Johnston served on the Freetown Council as well. James Blyden Jenkins-Johnston, a cousin of the Nelson-Williams brothers, was a City Solicitor or Legal Adviser to the Freetown City Council and also served as a Member of the Freetown City Council Committee of Management between 1983 and 1989.
SLPP Member and founding member of the PNP
The politics of the decolonization era and immediate postcolonial era were characterized by a dichotomy between the inhabitants of the Colony of Sierra Leone and the peoples of the Sierra Leone Protectorate. Although the colony was inhabited by the Creoles and the Okus and the Protectorate comprised several ethnic groups including the Mende, Temne, and Limba, scholarship largely focuses on the political cleavage between the Creoles and the inhabitants of the Sierra Leone Protectorate more generically. However, despite the politically intractable positions between segments of the Creole community and the ethnic groups in the hinterland, younger Creoles such as Claude Nelson-Williams and John Nelson Williams, without compromising their position as part of the Creole professional upper class, sought to participate in national politics from a more inclusive angle than that of some of their older Creole professional counterparts.Young Creole intellectuals and professionals such as Raymond Sarif Easmon, Thomas Decker, Noah Arthur Cox-George, alongside the Nelson-Williams brothers, although part of the Creole upper and middle classes, engaged with other political groupings from different position than the older generation of Creole politicians such as Herbert Bankole-Bright and the grassroots movements such as the Settlers Descendants Union.
Although initially affiliated with the UPP and then the Sierra Leone Peoples Party or SLPP Party, Claude Nelson-Williams, was a founding member of the People's National Party or PNP in the late 1950s and 1960s. Claude Nelson-Williams served on the Executive Council of the PNP alongside his close friend, Gershon Collier. The PNP was a radical element of the SLPP party composed of more youthful members including a younger generation of Creoles who were aligned with Sir Albert Margai, a lawyer who was the younger brother of Sir Milton Margai. However, the PNP subsequently merged into the SLPP and Claude Nelson-Williams also returned to the SLPP.