EULAC_6624 Dominica "" This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 693669. eulac3d Site TEXT University of St Andrews EULAC "" "Queens Council and joint first black woman peer, Patricia Scotland was born in Dominica in 1956, and arrived in Britain at the age of 2 along with 10 other siblings. As she grew she took a liking for dance and wanted to be a modern expressionist ballet dancer at 16. She later attended university and distinguished herself as a lawyer before entering the political arena in 1977, where she was called to the bar and served two terms of government for Labour firstly in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as Foreign Office Minister working for the home department at the Lord Chancellor's Office. There she is effectively number two to Lord Irvine of Largs and the lead minister on immigration and asylum matters, legal aid, legal services and the development of Civil Law in the UK\r\nIn 1991 she made legal history becoming the first black female QC (Queens Counsel) at the age of 35. She was made a bencher of the Middle Temple in 1997, becoming a judge in 1999, and raised to the Privy Council in 2001. She is also a member of the bar in Antigua and Dominica. \r\nIn 1997 she was created a peer as Baroness Scotland of Asthal, in the County of Oxfordshire. \r\nBaroness Scotland has received numerous awards and commendations including an honorary degree from the University of Westminster for services to law, government, social justice and International affairs. \r\nAmong her other accomplishments is or has been Chair of HMG Caribbean Advisory Group; Dominican Representative of the Council of British Commonwealth Ex-Services League; Member of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship; Member of the BBC World Service Consultative Group Lifeline (Trinidad & Tobago); Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, Member of The Millennium Commission; Patron of the Women and Children's Welfare Fund. \r\nShe has specialized in family and public law and has chaired and represented parties in a number of major inquiries relating to Child Abuse, Mental Health and Housing." Person "Asquith Camile Xavier was a West Indian-born Briton who ended a colour bar at British Railways in London by fighting to become the first non-white train guard at Euston railway station in 1966. \r\nTrevor Phillips, when chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said in 2006: "Asquith's stand against discrimination brought to light the inadequacy of early race discrimination laws and persistent widespread discrimination faced by ethnic minorities." A plaque at the station commemorates his achievement.\r\nXavier was born on 18 July 1920 in Dominica, which was then a British colony. He was a member of the Windrush generation of British African-Caribbean people who migrated to the United Kingdom after the second world war to fill vacancies in service industries.\r\nXavier joined British Railways. In 1966 he was working as a guard at Marylebone station in central London. He applied for a promotion and transfer to work at Euston, but was rejected. A letter from a staff committee at Euston\u2014which was dominated by members of the National Union of Railwaymen\u2014explained it was because of his colour. Unions and management had informally agreed in the 1950s to ban non-white people from jobs at Euston that involved contact with the public; they could be cleaners and labourers, but not guards or ticket collectors." Person 15.424558071072397 -61.34250640869141