Allan Glaisyer Minns

Allan Glaisyer Minns (1858 – 16 September 1930) was a medical doctor, and the first black man to become a mayor in Britain.

Early life
Born in the island of Inagua in the Bahamas, Minns was one of the nine children and the youngest son of John Minns (1811–1863) and Ophelia ( Bunch) Minns (1817–1902).

His grandfather, also called John Minns, had emigrated about 1801 from England to the Bahamas, where he married Rosette, a former African slave.

Education and medical career
Minns was educated at Nassau Grammar School and Guy's Hospital in London. He was registered with the British Medical Association on 14 February 1884; his qualifications were MRCS (1881), and LRCP (1884).

He was based in Thetford from 1885 until 1923, when he moved to Dorking. His eldest brother, Pembroke Minns (1840–1912), was already in medical practice in Thetford when he moved there.

Political career
In 1903, Minns was elected to the town council of Thetford, Norfolk, and the next year was elected as mayor, serving two one-year terms as mayor, the first known black mayor in England. John Archer, who was elected mayor of Battersea in 1913, had initially been thought to be the first black British mayor. However, in reporting Archer's election, the American Negro Year Book 1914 noted that "[i]n 1904, Mr. Allen Glaser Minns [sic], a colored man from the West Indies, was elected mayor of the borough of Thetford, Norfolk."

Personal life
Minns was twice married, first in 1888 to Emily Pearson (1859–1892) and then to Gertrude Ann Morton in 1896. He had two daughters and one son with his first wife, and two daughters with his second.

His son Allan Noel Minns (1891–1921), also a doctor, was one of the few black officers to serve in the British Army during the First World War.

Death
Allan Glaisyer Minns died in Dorking on 16 September 1930, leaving a legacy as a trailblazer in both medicine and local government.