All members of the University of Oxford community are warmly invited to join us for The Lady Ademola Lecture to be given online by Sir Geoff Palmer OBE, entitled: ‘The Education I Nearly Missed”, on Thursday 9 June 2022, 6pm-7pm (UK time).
When Geoff migrated from Jamaica to London in 1955 to re-join his mother who had migrated in 1951, he then had an elementary education. On his arrival his mother had secured him a job in a local shop. Although designated educationally sub-normal by a school, he often reflects now on the education that gave him BSc, PhD, DSc degrees, allowed him to teach the owners of successful businesses and invent the barely abrasion process. He was a consultant for large brewing companies and advises widely on equality and the history of slavery. Geoff, whose real name is Godfrey, has gained various awards including honorary degrees, professorships, a knighthood, the first honorary consul for Jamaica in Scotland and Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University. He states that race is an invention and that a diverse society needs diverse management to be fair and efficient. He will outline how he nearly missed the education that changed his life
