Aggrey Burke was the first black consultant psychiatrist in the NHS in the UK, appointed in 1976 or the late 1970s. He was born in Jamaica in 1943, where he completed his medical training, specializing in psychiatry, and came to the UK in 1959. In 1986, he collaborated with Joe Collier on a study which revealed racial and sexual discrimination in the admissions of students to London medical schools, including St George's Hospital Medical School. This study led to an investigation by the Commission for Racial Equality and changes to the admissions process. Burke has researched the impact of racism, poverty and inequality on minority mental health, including a comparison of suicide rates between the Irish, West Indian and Asian communities. In 1981, he supported the families of the victims of the fire in New Cross, where 13 young black men died. In 2020 he received the President's Medal from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and in 2023 the two-year Aggrey Burke Fellowship for black medical students was established. He died on December 21, 2025 at the age of 82.