During the early twentieth century, London became an important meeting place for African and Caribbean students, doctors, lawyers, writers and political organisers. Although Britain was the centre of a vast colonial empire, Black people living or studying there frequently experienced discrimination in employment, housing and public life.
Among the prominent figures within this emerging network were Stella Jane Thomas of Lagos and Dr Harold Arundel Moody of Jamaica.
Thomas travelled to Britain to study law and became the first West African woman called to the Bar of England and Wales. Moody travelled to Britain to study medicine and later founded the League of Coloured Peoples, one of the most significant Black civil rights organisations in interwar Britain.
Their work connected the development of Nigerian legal history with the wider struggle against racial discrimination in Britain.
Stella Thomas’s early years
Stella Jane Thomas was born in Lagos in 1906. She came from a commercially prominent family. Her father, Peter John Claudius Thomas, was a successful businessman who became the first African to lead the Lagos Chamber of Commerce.
Thomas received part of her education at the Annie Walsh Memorial School in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She later travelled to Britain in 1929 to continue her education and prepare for a career in law.
Her decision to enter the legal profession came at a crucial moment. The Sex Disqualification Removal Act of 1919 had formally allowed women to become lawyers in Britain. However, the removal of the legal restriction did not immediately end the social and professional barriers facing women.
Thomas also had to contend with racial prejudice and the attitudes directed towards people from Britain’s African colonies. She entered a profession that remained overwhelmingly white and male.
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Admission to Middle Temple
After arriving in Britain, Thomas matriculated at the University of Oxford and applied to join the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court responsible for admitting barristers in England and Wales.
Her application showed that she had passed the Cambridge School Certificate in July 1929. She was formally admitted to Middle Temple on 12 December 1929 and became one of the earliest Black women to enter the institution.
Thomas completed her legal training and was called to the Bar on 10 May 1933. She became the first West African woman called to the Bar of England and Wales.
Her achievement represented more than personal academic success. Law was closely connected to colonial administration, political authority and public life. Thomas’s entry into the profession demonstrated that an African woman could reach a position previously considered beyond the limits imposed on women and colonial subjects.
Harold Moody’s journey from Jamaica
Harold Arundel Moody was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1882. He grew up in a religious Congregationalist family and was the son of a successful retail chemist.
In 1904, Moody travelled to Britain to study medicine at King’s College London. He completed his medical qualifications but encountered racial discrimination when seeking professional employment.
Unable to secure the hospital appointment he wanted, Moody established his own medical practice in Peckham, south London, in February 1913. The practice became successful, and he earned respect as a physician and community leader.
His experiences gave him direct knowledge of the obstacles confronting Black professionals in Britain. His Christian faith also influenced his opposition to racial prejudice, which he regarded as incompatible with human dignity and Christian teaching.
Moody increasingly became involved in efforts to assist Black residents, students and colonial visitors who faced discrimination in housing, employment and public services.
The League of Coloured Peoples
In March 1931, Moody founded the League of Coloured Peoples in London and became its president. He remained the organisation’s leader until his death in 1947.
The League was established to protect the social, educational, economic and political interests of people of colour. It also sought to improve relations between racial groups and to cooperate with organisations supporting racial equality.
Its membership included Africans, Caribbean people, Black residents of Britain and white supporters. The League addressed discrimination in employment, accommodation, education and public life.
Its methods included public meetings, petitions, letters, negotiations and educational campaigns. Although its early programme was reformist and strongly influenced by Moody’s Christian beliefs, its activities challenged the racial inequalities present in British society and throughout the empire.
The League became one of the leading Black civil rights organisations in Britain during the years between the two world wars.
Stella Thomas and the League
While studying in Britain, Thomas participated in the West African Students’ Union and became a founding member of the League of Coloured Peoples.
Her involvement placed her within a growing network of African and Caribbean students, professionals and organisers. Although they came from different territories, many shared similar experiences of racial exclusion and political inequality under British colonial rule.
Thomas’s participation also shows that women played an important role in the development of early Black political organisations in Britain. The League’s history was not shaped only by its male leaders. Women contributed to its formation, administration and public activities.
As a West African law student, Thomas brought a distinctive perspective to the organisation. She understood the importance of legal institutions and recognised the limitations of a colonial system that often excluded Africans from decisions affecting their societies.
The importance of The Keys
The League expanded its public influence through its journal, The Keys, which first appeared in July 1933.
The journal reported on racial discrimination in Britain, political developments in colonial territories and the experiences of African and Caribbean communities. It provided Black writers, students and campaigners with a platform for challenging racial stereotypes and responding to public events.
The publication addressed employment discrimination, education, colonial government, racial hostility and the treatment of Black people in British institutions.
The journal’s name reflected the League’s belief that racial cooperation and understanding could help create a fairer society. Through The Keys, the organisation connected local struggles in Britain with wider questions of colonial government, citizenship and racial equality.
Challenging colonial authority
Thomas did not limit her public activity to student associations and civil rights organisations.
In 1934, she attended a lecture by Margery Perham, a prominent scholar of British colonial administration in Africa. Frederick Lugard, the former Governor General of Nigeria, was also present.
During the discussion, Thomas challenged approaches to African government that excluded Africans from meaningful consultation. She rejected the belief that European officials and scholars were uniquely qualified to determine the political and social development of African societies.
Thomas argued that educated Africans were capable of contributing to the development of their own institutions and determining what was appropriate for their communities.
Her intervention was particularly significant because Lugard was closely associated with indirect rule, the system through which Britain governed many Nigerian communities by working through selected traditional rulers.
Thomas’s response showed that her legal education had strengthened her ability to confront influential defenders of colonial government.
Return to West Africa
After completing her legal training, Thomas returned to West Africa.
She registered as a barrister at the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone in October 1935 and at the Supreme Court of Nigeria in November 1935. She became the first woman lawyer known to practise professionally in West Africa.
In December 1935, Thomas established a legal practice in Lagos Island. Her work included criminal cases, family matters and other areas of law.
The courts and legal chambers of colonial West Africa were dominated by men. Thomas’s appearance as a qualified barrister challenged long established assumptions about the positions women could occupy in public life.
Her career did not immediately remove the obstacles confronting other women. Access to advanced education remained limited, and professional institutions continued to reflect wider social inequalities. Nevertheless, her achievements created an important precedent for later generations of Nigerian and West African women lawyers.
West Africa’s first woman magistrate
In 1943, Thomas became West Africa’s first woman magistrate.
Her appointment moved her from representing clients before the courts to exercising judicial authority within them. She served in different courts during a long career that extended across Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
The appointment was especially important because judicial office was closely connected to colonial authority. Thomas had earlier challenged colonial administrators for excluding Africans from decisions concerning their own societies. She later entered the judicial system and exercised legal authority as an African woman.
Her presence on the bench marked another major breakthrough in a profession shaped by racial and gender restrictions.
Thomas continued working in the judiciary for several decades. She retired in 1971 while serving as a magistrate in Sierra Leone.
Richard Bright Marke and Sierra Leone’s judiciary
Thomas later married fellow legal professional Richard Bright Marke.
Marke developed a distinguished judicial career in Sierra Leone. In 1968, he became Acting Chief Justice of Sierra Leone. He died in August of that year after serving briefly in the position.
His career formed part of the couple’s wider contribution to West African legal history. However, Thomas had already established her own importance before Marke reached the highest level of the Sierra Leonean judiciary.
She had entered Middle Temple, been called to the Bar, established a legal practice and become West Africa’s first woman magistrate through her own professional achievements.
A Black international network in London
The association between Thomas and Moody reveals the importance of London as a meeting place for Black professionals during the interwar period.
African and Caribbean students arrived in Britain from territories separated by geography and political experience. In London, many discovered that they faced similar restrictions because of their race.
Organisations such as the West African Students’ Union and the League of Coloured Peoples enabled them to exchange ideas, support one another and organise against discrimination.
Moody contributed his experience as a doctor, church leader and community organiser. Thomas contributed the perspective of a West African woman entering the legal profession and questioning colonial authority.
Their activities formed part of a wider international movement connecting campaigns against racial discrimination in Britain with demands for political participation, colonial reform and self government in Africa and the Caribbean.
The lasting significance of Stella Thomas
Thomas died in 1974 at the age of 68. By the end of her life, she had crossed several major professional boundaries.
She had entered Middle Temple when Black women were almost entirely absent from British legal institutions. She became the first West African woman called to the Bar of England and Wales, the first woman lawyer to practise professionally in West Africa and the region’s first woman magistrate.
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She also participated in organisations opposing racial discrimination and publicly challenged prominent defenders of colonial government.
Moody died in 1947, but the League of Coloured Peoples helped establish a lasting tradition of organised Black civil rights campaigning in Britain. Its members drew public attention to racial discrimination long before Britain introduced major legislation against unequal treatment.
The connection between Thomas and Moody represents more than the meeting of two successful professionals. It reflects the development of a Black international network through which Africans and Caribbean people challenged the racial and political inequalities of their time.
Author’s Note
Stella Thomas transformed access to the legal profession for women in West Africa through determination, education and public service. Her work as a barrister, civil rights organiser and magistrate challenged both racial discrimination and the restrictions placed on women. Harold Moody’s leadership of the League of Coloured Peoples helped connect her achievements to a wider movement in which African and Caribbean professionals worked together to confront inequality in Britain and across the colonial world.
References
Middle Temple Archive. “From the West Indies to the East Riding: Black History Month at the Inn.”
The Inner Temple. “Stella Thomas.”
Women’s Legal Landmarks, University of Kent. “Stella Thomas.”
SOAS Special Collections. “Black History Month 2018: Harold Moody.”
British Newspaper Archive. “An Introduction to The Keys.”
British Newspaper Archive. “The Keys.”
Institute for African Women in Law. “Stella Jane Marke.”
Judiciary of Sierra Leone. “About Us: History of the Judiciary.”
