Ralmeta Gayle, first Jamaican in Bolton, dies at 92

The first Jamaican to settle in England’s north-western city of Bolton during the 1960s has lost her battle to live.

Ralmeta Gayle died of heart failure, age 92, on February 12, 2025. The mother of three sons also had an 18-month battle with cancer.

The charismatic Jamaican, who would become the first to experience many aspects of life in Bolton, arrived in the United Kingdom (UK) during 1958, when she was 26 years old. Her first son, Donald Gayle, recalled that his mother encountered a hostile reception during her initial years in the UK.

Recounting his mother’s encounters while being interviewed by The Bolton News, Donald said: “It was very hard for her, coming to the UK on her own. But it was common for women to emigrate first.

“When she came, she found out she was pregnant with me, her eldest. It was hard enough for a white woman to be pregnant and alone in the 1960s. It was ten times harder for a black woman. She told me when she first came to London, there was a lot of racism.”

Gayle’s life changed for the better after a few years in London when she received a housing transfer to Bolton and worked in the cotton mills.

According to Donald, his mother made an immediate and positive impact on the northern city, whose residents were more welcoming towards people from the Caribbean.

Apart from warming the hearts of British northerners with kind words, Gayle also made friendships with her hospitality. Her son recollected: “Ever since I can remember, she was always cooking Jamaican food and handing it out to people. For many, it was their first taste of it. She would cook it for ‘blues’, which were places where house parties took place in the 1970s. Black people couldn’t get into clubs at the time and created their own.”

VARIOUS CHARITIES

Two years after Ralmeta moved to the UK, her husband, Joshlin Gaylem joined her. The couple married at Bolton Parish Church and had two more sons.

Donald said: “My parents worked hard, 12 hours a day. My mum made sure we wouldn’t work in a cotton mill and would get an education. She was our family’s anchor, a straight-talking woman and a very hard worker. You wouldn’t get any nonsense.

“Everything my parents did was the first. They were the first black people in Bolton to buy a plot of land in Breightmet and build their house on it from the ground up.

“And before that, they were the first to have a colour television. At the time, it was like having a Porsche. People would look at it through the window.”

He added: “They were showing people what could be done. Sometimes people need to be encouraged, and my parents made them think, ‘If they can do it, I can do it.’”

After 20 years of working in the mills, Gayle turned her attention to selling Caribbean clothes and artefacts as a stall trader in Bolton, Farnworth, and Bury Markets.

The Jamaican was the only person of colour trading on markets stalls in Bolton during the early 1980s. Eventually she became the longest-standing businessperson in these markets and would encourage fellow traders to expand their trade.

Donald said: “There is a man who sells African food at the market. My mum brought him Jamaican dumplings to sell and showed him how to cook [the cuisine]. That’s how he built his business up.

Another of the May Pen-born woman’s passions was raising funds for various charities, including sickle cell anaemia and the British Heart Association.

She stopped working as a stall trader when the pandemic began in 2020. In 2023, she was diagnosed with cancer, and it was estimated by doctors that she would live for one year. She lived for one and a half years.

According to Donald, his mother was a “natural-born leader,” and her attitude filtered down to her children.

He added: “When I left school, my mother made sure I went to university and got a degree.

I ended up being the first black British man to get a BA Honours in social work in the University of Salford. In a class of 35, I was the only Jamaican man. That is thanks to her. It’s what she did - she made you believe in yourself.

“I’d worked with young offenders in the Greater Manchester Probation Service and wanted a degree to enhance my career. I saw that young black, white, and Asian people need more role models. They need to see someone who’s been through what they’ve been through and achieved. That’s my mum in me.”

Ralmeta Gayle is survived by three sons, eight grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.