Catford Girls' School

First Experience of England by Bianca Matthias

Sybil Phoenix MBE

Life in the Shoes of Sybil

A Profile of Sybil Phoenix

MBE for Sale

Helping Build a Better Millennium

Sybil's Faith

Marsha Phoenix House

Poems on Homelessness

Tragedy Strikes

The Deptford Fire

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Sybil's First Experience of England

In March 1956 Sybil Marshall arrived by boat at Southampton with her fiancé, Joe Phoenix. Sybil was astonished when she saw a white woman sweeping the platform. "Back home," she said to herself, "a white woman did not sweep platforms or anything else."

Sybil and Joe thought it was going to be easy to get a job in Britain but, obviously, they were wrong. A few months after they arrived it was hard for them to settle in because they encountered racism.