Kofoworola Abeni Pratt

Chief Kofoworola Abeni Pratt Hon. FRCN (1915 – 18 June 1992), a Nigerian-born nurse, was the first black nurse to work in Britain's National Health Service. She subsequently became vice-president of the International Council of Nurses and the first black Chief Nursing Officer of Nigeria, working in the Federal Ministry of Health.

Pratt, daughter of Augustus Alfred Scott and Elizabeth Omowumi (née Johnson), was educated at St John's Secondary School and Lagos CMS Girls' Grammar School, then studied to be a teacher at the United Missionary College in Ibadan, after her father discouraged her from her wish to be a nurse. From 1936 to 1940 she taught at a Church Missionary Society girls' school in Nigeria. She married a Nigerian pharmacist, Dr. Olu Pratt, who subsequently obtained British medical qualifications at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London.

After moving to England in 1946, Pratt studied nursing at the Nightingale School at St Thomas' Hospital, in London. During her time at St Thomas' Hospital, Pratt experienced racial discrimination, when a patient refused to be treated by a black nurse. Pratt passed her preliminary state exams in 1948 and her finals in 1949, qualifying as a State Registered Nurse in 1950. It was unusual for a married woman to be allowed to take up nursing at that time, and Pratt was also the first qualified black nurse to work for the NHS. During her time in London, she was active in the West African Students' Union, an association of students from various West African countries who were studying in the United Kingdom, and which, in 1942, had called for the independence of Britain's West African colonies.

Pratt returned to Nigeria in 1954, after 4 years working for the NHS. Although she was initially denied a post as ward sister – a position only open at the time for British expatriates – she was appointed Matron of the University College Hospital in Ibadan within ten years. Pratt was the first Nigerian to hold that position. She created a school of nursing at the University of Ibadan in 1965. Pratt was also a founder and leader of the Professional Association of Trained Nurses in Nigeria and founder and co-editor of the journal Nigerian Nurse.

Pratt was chief nursing officer to the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria and then appointed Commissioner of Health for Lagos in the 1970s. In 1971, Pratt became the President of the National Council of Women's Societies in Nigeria.

In 1973 she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The citation described her as a:

State Registered Nurse and Midwife. Certificate in Tropical Nursing. Teachers Diploma. Hospital Nursing Administration Certificate. Chief Nursing Officer, Federal Ministry of Health, Lagos.

The award was presented to her by the President of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Sir Adetokunbo Ademola, on 21 December 1973. In 1975, she was awarded a chieftaincy title – that of the Iya Ile Agbo of Isheri – for services to the nation. In 1979 she was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Nursing.

She died on 18 June 1992.