Aggrey Burke, Jamaican-born British psychiatrist and academic, died on December 21, 2025, at the age of 82.
Burke spent much of his medical career at St George’s Hospital in London, where he specialised in transcultural psychiatry and wrote on changing attitudes towards black people and mental health. He carried out extensive research on racism and mental illness and was the first black consultant psychiatrist appointed by Britain‘s National Health Service.
His early work included studies on the mental health of repatriates at Bellevue Hospital in Jamaica, as well as research on attempted suicide among immigrant Irish, West Indian and Asian people in Britain.
Aggrey Washington Burke FRCPsych (13 May 1943 – 21 December 2025) was a Jamaican-born British psychiatrist and academic, who spent the majority of his medical career at St George’s Hospital in London, England, specialising in transcultural psychiatry and writing literature on changing attitudes towards black people and mental health. He carried out extensive research on racism and mental illness and was the first black consultant psychiatrist appointed by Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).