Mina Smallman is a retired Anglican priest and former Assistant Principal of John Kelly Girls’ Technology College. She studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She was ordained in 2006 at St Paul’s Cathedral, and served as the Archdeacon of Southend in the Diocese of Chelmsford from 2013-2016. In recognition of her work, she was awarded the title of Emeritus the Venerable.
In 2020, two of Ms Smallman’s daughters – Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry – were found murdered in a park in north London. Ms Smallman and her husband Chris have criticised the Metropolitan Police Service for being initially dismissive and mishandling the missing persons investigation, questioning whether the murder of women of colour is treated differently by police and society at large. In December 2021, two Metropolitan Police Officers who took photographs of the murdered sisters and shared the images to WhatsApp – conduct described by Ms Smallman as “a betrayal of catastrophic proportions” – were convicted and jailed for 33 months.
Mina Smallman was included in the BBC’s 100 Women List for 2021, for her trailblazing work as the first female Church of England archdeacon from a black or ethnic minority background, and for her campaigning work to make UK streets safer and to reform the police. She is an Honorary Fellow of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, and the author of a memoir A BETTER TOMORROW: LIFE LESSONS IN HOPE AND STRENGTH (Ebury, 2024).
