Eastenders’ Mona Hammond passed away at the age of 91.
She was born on January 1, 1931, in Clarendon, Jamaica as Mavis Chin to a Chinese father and Jamaican mother. She came to Britain in 1959 on a scholarship to work with an architectural firm but was soon involved in black theatre productions with contemporaries such as Lloyd and Barry Reckord and Charles Hyatt, under the name Mona Chin. In 1959 she won a scholarship to RADA. Initially known as a stage actress – she played Lady Macbeth in an all-black version of the Shakespeare play at London’s Roundhouse in 1970 – she went to co-found the Talawa Theatre Group with fellow actresses Yvonne Brewster and Carmen Munroe. The group performs black versions of plays written for whites as well as staging original Afro-Caribbean productions. In 2005 she was awarded an O.B.E. for services to drama. Having played in the TV soap ‘Eastenders’ for some years she has a recurring occasional role as a white vicar’s outspoken ex-mother-in-law in radio soap ‘The Archers.’
Hammond died on July 4, 2022, leaving behind her son Matthew Paul Saunders. She played Blossom Jackson on Eastenders from 1986 – 2010. May she rest in peace!
Rest in peace, Aunty Doreen!