09/09/2025
Cecile Yvonne Conolly CBE (1939 – 27 January 2021) was a Jamaican teacher, who became the United Kingdom's first female black headteacherin 1969, aged just 29-years-old. She arrived in the UK in 1963, as part of the Windrushgeneration, and went on to have a career in education that spanned over 40 years.
Yvonne Conolly died of myeloma, an incurable blood cancer she had been fighting for more than 10 years, on Wednesday, 27 January 2021, at the Whittington Hospital, Islington, aged 81 years. She is survived by her daughter and grandson.
The UK's Department of Education described her as a “history maker” and “an inspiration [who] leaves a lasting legacy.”
A former Times Educational Supplement editor hailed Conolly a “remarkable trailblazing educator and a wonderfully supportive woman.”
In October 2020 Conolly was honoured for her services to education with the Honorary Fellow of Education award from the Naz Legacy Foundation. HRH Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, who announced Connolly's award, said that she had “character and determination” which helped her break barriers for black educators.
In the Queen's Birthday Honours in October 2020, Conolly was made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services to education. In receiving the award, she said: "I am delighted, and feel profoundly honoured to be receiving a CBE for the recognition of my work in education over many years. I am most grateful to my nominees and to the Honours Committee for this prestigious award which I am proud to share with my community.“
Yvonne Conolly is also remembered in Islingtonwhere, near to her home in Finsbury Park, the 'Yvonne Conolly Garden' in Wray Crescent Park was dedicated to her in 2019. In 2021, she was posthumously award the Freedom of the Borough of Islington Award "for her contributions to education and to recognize her trailblazing role for young Black women in Islington."
