Gee Bernard

{{Short description|British politician}}

Gwendolyn Enid "Gee" Bernard{{cite web |title=Trustees |url=https://cacfouk.org/trustees/ |website=Croydon African Caribbean Family Organisation UK |access-date=11 February 2024 |date=2 January 2017}} (1934 – 6 December 2016) was the first Black councillor for Croydon in London for the Labour Party.{{cite news |title=Hon Alderwoman Gee Bernard |url=https://news.croydon.gov.uk/hon-alderwoman-gee-bernard/ |access-date=11 February 2024 |work=Your Croydon |date=9 December 2016}}{{cite web |author=Simon |title=Gee Bernard: Croydon's great Black activist dies |url=https://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/gee-bernard-croydon-s-great-black-activist-dies |website=Operation Black Vote |access-date=11 February 2024 |date=8 December 2016}}

Bernard was born in 1934 in Jamaica. She later moved to England and studied at the University of North London and East London College, qualifying as a social worker. In 1980, she worked in the education department of Tower Hamlets Council and was elected a member of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) in 1981.{{cite interview |last=Bernard |first=Gee |interviewer1-last=Reid|interviewer1-first=Hayley|title=Interview with Gee Bernard |url=https://collections.blackculturalarchives.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/1784 |access-date=16 February 2023 |work=Oral Histories of the Black Women's Movement: The Heart of the Race Project |date=March 2009 |publisher=Black Cultural Archives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230216145422/https://collections.blackculturalarchives.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/1784 |archive-date=16 February 2023 |location=London, UK |url-status=live}} In 1996, she was elected to Croydon Council for West Thornton ward, and was its councillor for 16 years. She was founder of the Croydon African Caribbean Family Association in 1993.{{cite news |title=Croydon pioneer Gee Bernard will be sorely missed |url=https://insidecroydon.com/2016/12/10/croydon-pioneer-gee-bernard-will-be-sorely-missed/ |access-date=11 February 2024 |work=Inside Croydon |date=10 December 2016}}

She died on 6 December 2016.{{cite news |last1=Sinclair |first1=Leah |title=Croydon's First Black Councillor Passes Away |url=http://voice-online.co.uk/article/croydons-first-black-councillor-passes-away |access-date=11 February 2024 |work=The Voice |date=14 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216140455/http://voice-online.co.uk/article/croydons-first-black-councillor-passes-away |archive-date=16 December 2016}}