Author: roots1937

An Equiano engraving and a mysterious poem

Behind the scenes the Historycal Roots team have been doing work recently on behalf of the Equiano Society. Over the next few weeks we will bring you some of the fruits of our labour.

As part of our work Bill Hern visited the National Portrait Gallery in London where he had arranged to see the engraving used as the frontispiece  for Equiano’s ‘Interesting Narrative’. Parts of his story make uncomfortable reading.

The print isn’t on display but is stored in the archives at the gallery, anyone can make an appointment to see it.

The first thing one notices is how small the picture is – 156mm x 95mm.

The original artist is W Denton. Denton is little known, but the man who carried out the stipple engraving of Denton’s print, Daniel Orme, was more celebrated.

Orme was born in Manchester on 25 August 1766. His mother, Margaret Walmsley was the third wife of his father, Aaron Orme. Orme lived in London from 1785 to 1814 and studied at the Royal Academy before becoming a painter and engraver. The Dictionary of National Biography records him as portrait painter and engraver to George III. As late as August 1861 Orme (deceased) is described on his son Frederick’s wedding certificate as ‘engraver to George III’. He was clearly a talented and high profile artist.

While the National Biography cites several of Orme’s works, there is no mention of the Equiano engraving. This suggests it was not one of his major pieces.

Orme returned to Manchester in October 1814 before dying of ‘paralysis’ in Liverpool on 8 February 1837.

The Equiano engraving is one of Orme’s earliest works. He tended to focus on naval characters such as Admirals Duncan and Nelson and the lesser known Jack Crawford, the ‘Hero of Camperdown,’ a naval battle of 1797.

One significant and perhaps relevant exception,  was his painting of  George Alexander Gratton – The Spotted Boy:

George Alexander (Gratton), a black boy with white markings. Engraving by P.R. Cooper, 1809, after D. Orme. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

George was born on the Caribbean island of St Vincent. He had a skin condition, almost certainly, Vitiligo, which meant his black skin had white markings. In approximately September 1809, when he was 15 months old he was purchased for the sum of £1,000 by a travelling showman called John Richardson and transported to Bristol. It is said that Richardson treated George like a son. Certainly George proved a lucrative source of income for his ‘owner’.

Orme painted George ‘from life’ and the painting was published on 11 November 1809. This means Orme must have met George shortly after his arrival in England. He would also have spent considerable time with the young child who no doubt would prove a restless model.

The painting was later engraved under Orme’s direction by his then pupil, P R Cooper. The writing beneath the painting shows that it was published by Richard Gratton Esquire, London. Gratton was the name of the overseer or owner on the plantation where George’s parents were enslaved, it is likely Richard Gratton Esquire is the same person. The painting was sold by Orme from his address at 368, Oxford Street, London.

Copies of the engraving were later sold as souvenirs to those who visited the exhibitions to stare at poor George.

Sadly George was to die on 3 February 1813 aged only four years old.

Evidence that Richardson did care for George can be found in the fact that he had him baptised in Newington, Surrey shortly after his arrival in England. In death, he kept his body safe from thieves by having him buried in a brick vault in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire.

Richardson later donated a portrait of George to All Saints Church, Great Marlow and erected a monument to him, also in Great Marlow.

The monument reads:

TO THE MEMORY

OF

GEORGE ALEXANDER GRATTON,

THE SPOTTED NEGRO BOY,

 From the Caribbee Islands, in the West Indies, died February 3d, 1813, aged four years and three-quarters.

This tomb, erected by his only Friend and Guardian, Mr John Richardson, of London.

Should this plain simple tomb attract thine eyes,

Stranger, as thoughtfully thou passest by,

Know that there lies beneath this humble stone,

A child of colour, haply not thine own.

His parents born of Afric’s sun-burnt race,

Tho’ black and white were blended in his face,

To Britain brought, which made his parents free,

 And shew’d the world great Natur’s prodigy.

Depriv’d of kindred that to him were dear,

He found a friendly Guardian’s fost’ring care,

But, scarce had bloom’d, the fragrant flower fades,

And the lov’d infant finds an early grave,

 To bury him his lov’d companions came,

And drop’t choice flowers, and lis’d his early fame;

And some that lov’d him most, as if unblest,

Bedwe’d with tears the whice wreath on his breast.

But he is gone, and dwells in the abode,

Where some of every clime must joy in God!

 The good news in this message is that George’s parents gained their freedom because of George,  although they would have seen nothing of the £1,000 which Richardson paid for the child. The other good news is that George was clearly cared for by Richardson no matter how repulsive and cruel his treatment was.

Students of Equiano will recognise many of the words in the epitaph. If you are trying to recall where you have seen them before let us remind ourselves of the words on the plaque at St Andrew’s Church, Chesterton in Cambridgeshire commemorating Anna Maria Vassa the daughter of Equiano:

Should simple village rhymes attract thine eye,

Stranger, as thoughtfully thou passest by,

Know that there lies beside this humblest stone,

A child of colour haply not thine own.

Her father born of Afric’s sun-burnt race,

Torn from his native field, ah foul disgrace:

Through various toils, at length to Britain came

Espoused, so Heaven ordain’d, an English dame,

And follow’d Christ; their hope two infants dear,

But one, a hapless orphan, slumbers here.

To bury her the village children came.

And dropp’d choice flowers, and lisp’d her early fame;

And some that lov’d her most, as if unblest,

Bedew’d with tears the white wreath on their breast;

But she is gone and dwells in that abode,

Where some of every clime shall joy in God.

Apart from some customisation to reflect different individual circumstances the words commemorating Anna Maria and George are remarkably similar.  Yet Anna Maria died in July 1797 almost 15 years before George.

It had been thought that Anna Maria’s poem had been written by Martha Ferrar Peckard the wife of the Peter Peckard the Dean of Peterborough and a friend of Equiano. That may still be the case of course as Martha was known to be a poet. Indeed one of her poems ‘Ode to Spring. By a Lady’ can still be found on the poetical scavenger website

http://poeticalscavenger.sfsuenglishdh.net/poems/anonymous-ode-to-spring-by-a-lady/

But would her words have spread almost 100 miles from Cambridgeshire to Great Marlow and still be used so long after Anna Maria’s death? Someone must have written these words and Martha remains the most likely author.

However, let us return to Equiano’s print. The small writing at the foot of the print tells us that W  Denton was responsible for the print and D Orme was the ‘sculptor’ – in other words the engraver. We are also told that the print is of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African and it was published on March 1 1789 by G Vassa, some 3 weeks before the first edition of The Interesting Narrative was published.

The Bible that Equiano is holding is open at Acts Chapter 4 Verse 12 which reads:

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

It is likely that, like the engraving of George, Equiano would have run off many copies of the print to distribute during his tours around Great Britain.

The original engraving is in very safe hands at the National Portrait Gallery and can be viewed by appointment at the Gallery’s archives.

Pilot Officer Winston Kitchener ‘Pony’ Hynam DFC DFM

This contribution to Historycal Roots is written by Audrey Dewjee, who has been researching British Black and Asian history for the last 45 years.

It is not generally well-known that men from Africa and the Caribbean volunteered to serve in the RAF in World War 2.  About 5,500 served as ground crew and over 500 more flew in bomber and fighter aircraft.  A new movie features some of the men who risked their lives to help Britain beat the Nazi regime.  Hero: Inspired by the Extraordinary Life & Times of Ulric Cross, directed by Frances-Anne Solomon, is a must-see film with an important message for people of today.[1]

Every film needs a ‘bad guy’ to enhance the narrative.  In Hero this role is assigned to “James  Macfarlane,” a fictional character given the nickname “Pony”.  It is unfortunate that this purely fictional character is portrayed in the film as being the warden of the West Indian Students Centre and is known to all by the nickname “Pony”.  I worry that some filmgoers may not realise that James Macfarlane is a fictional character – especially as all the other main characters in the film are real historical personalities – and that this may result in confusion between the fictional character (a ‘baddy’) and the admirable real historical person nicknamed “Pony,” who ran the Centre from 1954 until its closure in 1978.

Who was Pony Hynam? 

Some time in the late 1970s, I went with a friend called Audrey Elcombe to interview an ex-RAF Pilot Officer.  Audrey was doing research for a book she was writing about Black aircrew in the Second World War.[2]  I didn’t make any notes at this meeting but, on hearing his story, I felt very privileged to meet Winston Kitchener Hynam.  I have taken the following information about him from various websites, principally from http://www.caribbeanaircrew-ww2.com – the website founded by ex-Flight Lieutenant Cy Grant.  More pictures and 32 of Pony’s log books are available to view at  http://www.caribbeanaircrew-ww2.com/index.php?s=hynam&Submit=Search

Winston Kitchener Hynam, known to everyone as “Pony”, was born in Bridgetown, Barbados in 1917.  When World War 2 began, he enlisted in the RAF to help fight Nazi tyranny.  He started his career as a Sergeant in 103 Squadron where he served as a Front Gunner and a Wireless Operator on Wellington bombers, and later as an Air Bomber on Halifaxes.  David Fell comments “He was awarded a well deserved DFM (Distinguished Flying Medal) for his excellent work in three separate aircrew trades during the same tour which must be unusual if not rare.”[3]  Being a front gunner was especially dangerous as he would be a prime target for attacking enemy fighters. 

Once, when he was flying as Front Gunner on a bombing raid to Paris, the Wellington he was in was hit by flak at 2,000 feet.  The plane’s intercom and hydraulics systems stopped working and the crew knew that the pilot would have to make a crash-landing back at base.  Throughout the return trip ‘Sergeant Hynam remained outstandingly cool and alert…setting a fine example [to the rest of the crew].’

His Wing Commander, in recommending Pony for his DFM, wrote the following about him:

‘Sergeant Hynam has taken part in 30 operational sorties of which 9 have been as 1st Wireless Operator, 15 as Front Gunner, and 6 as Bombardier.

In each capacity he has proved himself to be extremely competent and reliable.  During these trips he has crashed twice and been hit in the back by shrapnel once.  Despite these setbacks he has maintained a high standard of morale in himself which has set a fine example to the rest of the Squadron.

In concentrated flak, in bad weather and dangerous situations, he has at all times displayed outstanding coolness and complete disregard for danger, which, coupled with his accuracy at shooting has inspired the greatest confidence in his numerous captains….

Since becoming a Bombardier in a Halifax aircraft, this N.C.O. has shown the greatest enthusiasm and aptitude for his new task, which has largely been responsible for the excellent bombing and photography of the target area that his crew have obtained.‘

Having survived his first tour of 30 operations, Pony was (like all air crew) entitled to step down from further active service and he went on to spend some time as an instructor.  However, he then volunteered to return to active duty and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer as a member of 100 Squadron.  While flying with this squadron, he received a second award for bravery, this time the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross).  He was the only West Indian to hold both medals.

On the night of 17-18 August 1943, whilst flying with 100 Squadron, Pony took part in the famous Peenemunde raid.  This was one of the biggest and most dangerous bombing raids ever carried out by the RAF.  The target was the launch site and testing ground of V2 rockets then being developed by the Nazis, which in 1944 would start raining down on London with devastating consequences.  British intelligence had discovered the site’s importance and the raid was carried out by moonlight (something which was always avoided because of the added risk to planes and crew) in order to assist with accuracy.  The bombing resulted in a delay in the development of these weapons and the removal of the test facility further into German territory.  The air crew casualty rate on this raid alone was enormous, and Pony was extremely fortunate to be alive at the end of the War, after taking part in a total of 50 bombing missions during his RAF career. 

From 1954 to 1978 Pony Hynam was the Warden of the West Indian Students Centre at 1 Collingham Gardens, Earls Court, living in a flat on the top floor with his wife Doris, known as “Molly”.  [I think that their flat is probably where our interview took place.]  Under his able management, the Centre provided a very important meeting place for Caribbean and African people.  Politicians from the West Indies came to speak at the Centre and influential organisations such as the West Indian Standing Conference and the Caribbean Artists Movement held their meetings under its roof.

Pony Hynam died in 1991, leaving his wife (who died in 2008) and two daughters.

Footnotes

[1] Squadron Leader Ulric Cross DSO DFC was the most senior ranking West Indian officer in the RAF in WW2.  After the war he studied law and then had a career as an esteemed Judge in West and East Africa and in his homeland, Trinidad.  From 1970 to 1973 he was Trinidadian High Commissioner here in Britain combining the post with Ambassador to Germany and France.  He died on 4 October 2013, aged 96.  

[2] Unfortunately Audrey Elcombe died before she found a publisher and her manuscript disappeared.

[3] David Fell (webmaster), https://www.northlincsweb.net/103Sqn/html/john_kennard_and_crew_103_sqn.html  [accessed 09/10/2019]

Racism in Football and Yeovil’s 1st Black Player – Abdelhalim el-Kholti

A shameful piece of football history was made on Saturday 19th October 2019 when an FA Cup tie between Haringey Borough and Yeovil was abandoned after both teams walked off in protest at alleged racist abuse from a tiny minority of Yeovil fans directed at black players on the Haringey team.

Fair play to the Yeovil players for supporting the stand taken by Haringey. As the manager of Haringey, Tom Loizou,  explained ‘Yeovil’s players and manager were different class. Their team tried to calm their supporters down, they tried their best and they supported us – they said “if you’re walking off we’re walking off with you”.’ Such solidarity between opposing teams is the silver lining in the otherwise dark cloud that engulfed the game at Coles Park that afternoon.

The incident reminded me of a sunny afternoon a year or so earlier when I interviewed Abdelhalim el-Kholti (Abdou), the first black player to represent Yeovil in a football league game.  Abdou has more decency in his little finger than the racists who claim to support the club could muster between them. Here is the story of my chat with Abdou.

I am sitting in the Grateful Kitchen in Canary Wharf, London. Outside, the waters of the old dock are twinkling in the afternoon sun (difficult to imagine now that this was built to service the slave trade), inside, I am talking with the proprietor Abdelhalim el-Kholti (Abdou). My wife is chatting to Emily, Abdou’s charming wife, about things that only women can talk about, the shared experience of childbirth gives them a common ground that I am only too happy not to be part of. I am talking to Abdou about football, he was Yeovil’s first black player in the football league. While we talk Abdou and Emily’s young son, 18 month-old Sami, is playing at our feet (‘he is already kicking a ball,’ says Abdou proudly).

Abdou was born in Annemasse, France, in an area close to the Swiss border. His parents, both originally from Morocco, had settled in the area, his mother was a house worker and his father worked in a factory.  As a boy, Abdou was mad about sport, any sport, by the age of eleven it was football that won the tussle for his affections. But when he told his teachers that he wanted to be a footballer they were very negative ‘you should be a plumber’ they told him. He played in local junior teams and then from the age of 16 or 17, semi-professionally, for a team across the border in Geneva. His first professional club was in his parents’ homeland, Raja Casablanca, in the top division. It was good experience for him: ‘the manager there was coach of the national under-21 team and he wanted to promote young players but, when he got sacked, somebody from the local town took charge of the team and wanted local guys. So, in April, I left and went back to France.’ This story shows the delicate thread by which an aspiring footballer’s career hangs.

Back in France and at a loose end, an uncle working in Bristol was able to help Abdou fix up a trial with Rovers. It seemed he might be offered a contract but once again fate intervened as Garry Thompson, the manager, was almost immediately sacked (he was only in the post for four months). That is the roundabout route that led Abdou to Yeovil. He wasn’t quite their first black player as Abdelaye Demba (who would go on to earn seven international caps with Mali) was already at the club. Demba made his debut on 17th August 2002 when he became the first black player for Yeovil in any league. Abdou comments that ‘he only stayed a few months but scored some goals and was popular with the fans,’ but Demba left Yeovil at the end of the season leaving the way open for Abdou to become the first black player to appear for Yeovil in the Football League.

Abdou describes himself as a hard working left back or left sided midfielder. Not especially tigerish in the tackle he compensated by being quick, having good technique and ‘a good engine’ as they say. It was a good time to join Yeovil as they were having an outstanding season, playing good football and scoring goals for fun. Abdou’s first game was against Torquay and he scored twice. They gained promotion to the Football League for the first time in the club’s long history. Abdou played a full part, making a total of 36 appearances and scoring 3 goals, earning a champion’s medal in his first season in English football.

Following their elevation Abdou was offered a new contract and he appeared in Yeovil’s first ever League game, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 3-1 away win at Rochdale in August 2003. But he was hampered by needing to have a hernia operation and didn’t play many games during the first half of the season. Later he played more often and made a total of 26 appearances, helping Yeovil to a creditable 8th place finish.

Injured towards the end of the 2003-4 season he needed to have a second hernia operation. His career at Yeovil never quite regained its momentum and it was time to move on. He spent 2004-5 with Cambridge (15 appearances) and 2006-7 with Chester, still in the league in those days, (22 appearances). Subsequently he played for a string of non-league clubs but, although he loved playing football, he knew he was never going to make the big time: ‘if you aren’t playing in the Premiership or Championship by the age of 23 or 24 then I don’t think it’s ever going to happen. It’s tough in the lower leagues. Yeovil played good football, on the ground, but not many teams do, it’s boom, boom, boom, long ball all the time. You get kicked a lot,’ he adds ruefully. ’The money isn’t great in the lower divisions and you need to think about how you are going to make a living after football.’ Abdou decided to set up business in the world of catering: ‘my mother was a good cook and it was something I’d worked at in France, you do what you know.’ He continues: ‘it’s tough going, the hours are long, most mornings I’m up at 5.30 to be here by 6. It’s very stressful, and sometimes you wonder if it’s worth it.’ One thing that is clear from our conversation is that Abdou is a very hard worker.

I asked him whether he had experienced much racism during his time in the game. He said that he had often felt a bit of an outsider. As someone who doesn’t drink, the culture at many clubs was difficult for him. At Yeovil, for instance, ‘I was there to play football, not to go out socialising. After training I just wanted to go home, eat good food, rest and look after myself. When I went out I felt I was cheating.’ He says there was ‘banter’ and that sometimes, because of the language barrier, it was difficult to tell how serious it was. But ‘you can’t let it affect you.’ He continues ‘one manager told me that if I didn’t play well he would send me back to Azerbaijan but he was smiling as he said it. Banter? Sometimes it’s hard to know.’

Abdou is fortunate to have the support of a young woman who he has known for about ten or eleven years. He met Emily ‘through a friend’ and they have been together through many ups and downs, marrying in 2015, in her native Ireland. The strength of their relationship is there for all to see. Her parents were fine (‘very open minded’), his less so, his mother in particular thought he should marry ‘a nice Moroccan girl.’ But the presence of a grandchild can have a powerful healing influence in situations like this and it seems that everyone is happy now.

You don’t often read a love story in a book or article about football but this is one. Abdou and Emily are a lovely couple, obviously devoted to each other. They are living proof that Bill Shankly got it wrong all those years ago. Not only is football not more important than life and death as he claimed, it is clear that there are many things in life far more important than football, no matter how it may sometimes feel at five o’clock on a Saturday afternoon.

In October 2019, more than sixteen years after Abdou became the club’s first black player, Yeovil found themselves in the headlines for the wrong reasons.  The chairman of Haringey Borough summed up when he said ‘racism is in society but that doesn’t mean we have to accept it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a little club or England, what we both did is how all the game needs to respond.’

Being for the benefit of Mr Kite

Here at Historycal Roots we often say that Black History is all around us, we just need to know where to look.

Bill Hern was wandering around the Victoria and Albert Museum last week, he writes that he came across a display of old posters from the entertainment industry. One was advertising a circus in 1843. There was no commentary attached to it, it was simply an interesting old poster. Yet if we delve slightly more deeply, we will learn about a black circus owner and even make an unlikely link between him, his circus and a Beatles’ record from 1967.

Most people of my age can remember the very first LP they bought. Younger readers may not know what an LP is (it is an acronym for Long Player as in long-playing record) and in this age of digital streaming, some may not even know what a record is! The first LP I purchased was in 1967 and cost all of 32 shillings and 6 pence (about £1.63). It was called Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band by a group called The Beatles. Yes, bands were called groups in those days. The album cover (below) became iconic.

What has this got to do with Black History you may be wondering? You might hazard a guess that it must be connected to the black boxer in the silk dressing gown on the left hand side of the cover. The boxer is former World Heavyweight Champion Sonny Liston but this story isn’t about him.

Let us go further back to February 1843 and Rochdale, Lancashire. Pablo Fanque’s famous Circus Royal is in town. Posters like the one below are displayed everywhere.

The local people are eagerly awaiting sight of the celebrated horse Zanthus and Mr Kite himself appearing on the tight rope. Mr Henderson the celebrated somerset thrower, wire dancer, vaulter and horse rider would carry out his extraordinary trampoline-leaps over men and horses, through hoops, over garters and lastly through a hogshead of real fire. What a talented and versatile man he seems to have been.

The owner of the circus, Pablo Fanque, was, as can be seen from his photograph below, a man of colour.

Born as William Darby in 1810 in Norwich, Norfolk, he changed his name as a young adult.

So successful was Pablo that he went on to become the first non-white owner of a circus. His circus was one of the most famous in Britain for over 30 years during a time that was considered the golden age of the circus. He is an important figure in British Black History particularly given that he achieved all that he did only a few years after slavery had been abolished.

You might now be thinking ‘yes, we now know the link to Black History but where do The Beatles fit into this story?’

One hundred and twenty three years after the Rochdale extravaganza the Beatle, John Lennon, saw the poster in an antique shop in Sevenoaks. It obviously made a big impression as he bought it.

Not only did he buy it, he also used it to compose a song. The last track on side one of the Sergeant Pepper LP (yes, kids, you played both sides of an LP, turning it over half way through) is called Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite and the words of the song drew heavily on the poster advertising Pablo Fanque’s Circus. Apart from the song’s title, the lyrics refer to many of the acts on the poster including Mr Kite and the Hendersons although Zanthus becomes ‘Henry the Horse’ presumably because it scans better. The song also mentions the throwing of somersets, trampolines and a ‘hogshead of real fire’. Pablo himself also gets a mention.

Pablo Fanque was a highly skilled horseman both in terms of training and riding. He was also a successful business man becoming the owner of a major circus. He had many celebrity friends including the boxer Jem Mace, indeed he may have learned some tricks of the trade from his pugilist friend. In Manchester in March 1852 Pablo found a man called Ratcliffe sticking posters over adverts for the circus. When Goodwin refused to desist Pablo beat him with a stick. A passer-by named Goodwin interceded. Pablo threw down the stick and resorted to using his fists giving Goodwin ‘a very beautiful pair of black eyes’ according to the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser. Pablo had to appear before the Borough Court but after much toing and froing, the bill-sticker Ratcliffe agreed to accept one sovereign from Pablo and the case was dropped.

Pablo died in 1871 and is buried in what was once Woodhouse Lane Cemetery in Leeds. He rests alongside his first wife Susannah Darby who died in 1848 in Leeds when the building in which the circus was performing collapsed, crushing her to death.

So, there you have it, an important figure in British Black History and his link with The Beatles almost 100 years after his death.

A gravestone for Sarah Bonetta Forbes-Davies

Bill Hern writes: Just over 12 months ago we gave an update on Sarah Bonetta Forbes-Davies, the African Princess who was treated as a goddaughter by Queen Victoria and is buried in the British Cemetery in Funchal, Madeira.

We won’t repeat Sarah’s amazing story again here, you can read it elsewhere on the site (just use the ‘search’ function) but we do have welcome and exciting news to convey.

One hundred and thirty nine years after her death, Sarah finally has a gravestone!

Much of the thanks for this great news is due to a lady called Taiwo Olaiya who raised almost £1,000 in sponsorship when she completed the Hackney half-marathon in 2017. The rest of the cost was met by the people of Madeira via The Diocese in Europe (Church of England).

After learning of this most welcome and overdue development I went to see the caretaker of the Cemetery and asked if I could see Sarah’s burial record. He took me to the interior of the Chapel and unlocked the door of a huge safe. Taking a ledger from the safe we leafed through the records until we came to August 1880. There we saw the entry for Sarah. She is shown as the wife of I P L Davies of Lagos, West Africa. She died on 15 August aged 37 and was buried on the following day as was normal in those days. This of course meant that she almost certainly had no friends or members of her family at her funeral. We know for certain that her eldest daughter, Victoria, was not there as Queen Victoria noted in her diary: ‘saw poor Victoria Davies, my black godchild who learnt this morning of the death of her dear mother.’

After 139 years visitors to the British Cemetery will now be able to see that what was previously shown simply as Plot 206 is the resting place of a Princess – and not before time! Well done to Taiwo and the people of Madeira.

Windrush before the Windrush

Bill Hern writes: History is all around us and sometimes becomes apparent in the most unlikely of places and circumstances.

The Madeira Story Centre in Funchal tells the story of Madeira from its formation to the present day. It is an excellent museum and one I would recommend highly should you ever visit the island.

As you move between displays showing Madeira’s volcanic origins, its superb flora and fauna, sugar and rum production, explorers and warfare the last thing you expect to stumble across is a piece of iconic British Black History.

Madeira has long been a destination for those seeking a healthy and temperate climate. In the 19th century it was common for wealthy Britons suffering from health problems such as Tuberculosis to move to the island in order to recover. This was the case for Sarah Bonetta Forbes-Davies the African Princess who was ‘given’ to Queen Victoria who treated her like a goddaughter. Sadly the healthier climate didn’t help Sarah who died in 1880 and is buried in Funchal’s beautiful British Cemetery.

But Sarah is not represented in the museum. The unexpected piece of history is however, related to Madeira’s climate and attraction as a tourist resort.

Wrapped around a large pole in a dark corner of the museum is a poster from 1931 advertising cruises from Germany to many exotic places including Madeira. The cruise ships were called Monte Pascoal and Monte Rosa. Both had been launched the previous year and both would in years to come be captured by the British during World War 2. The Pascoal was loaded with chemical weapons and deliberately sunk off the coast of Scandinavia. The Monte Rosa however, survived the War although by 1945 she had been renamed the Empire Windrush.

The ship on the poster that had enticed wealthy Germans to spend their hard earned money on luxury cruises in the early 1930s had, less than twenty years later, become one of the most famous ships in history.

Surely no one in Britain can be unaware of the Windrush name whether it be the ship or the scandal. Many will know that the Windrush started life as a German cruise ship. Very few will know that a poster advertising cruises on the ship that would become the Empire Windrush is on display at a beautiful museum in Funchal, Madeira.

Keep your eyes open, history is everywhere and pops up in the most unexpected places!

Windrush stowaways revealed!

We have long been fascinated, some might say obsessed, by the subject of the Windrush stowaways. The official passenger list shows there were 1027 passengers on board when the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury on 22nd June 1948. This is the view that would have greeted them:

The passenger list shows two ‘stowaways’ (passengers 1026 and 1027) whose names have been handwritten on the last page of the typed list. Passenger 1026 was Evelyn Wauchope who we have discussed elsewhere on this site; 1027 was Samuel Johnson, 30 years old, who boarded at Kingston, Jamaica, but gave his ‘last place of permanent residence’ as Trinidad.

The fact that Evelyn is listed as a stowaway is a little harsh as, although she did board the ship by nefarious means at Kingston, she had, thanks to the support and generosity of her fellow passengers, paid her £48 fare in full. Samuel was not so fortunate and he was duly arrested and charged with having stowed away. There were fourteen other stowaways who were not named on the passenger list but who nevertheless were found on board without a ticket and they too were charged.

We strongly suspect there were others who escaped detection. Aldwyn Roberts (the calypsonian, Lord Kitchener) told of people jumping overboard and swimming ashore:

‘And the boat reached Tilbury, the water was brown and red. Well it’s the time I really realised that people are really brave. All those stowaways jumped from the ship into the water and started swimming. And I was wondering if those fellas were not afraid of alligators, because that water it seemed to me must have some kind of reptile in it. Anyway they went ashore … About a week after, I went to a place called the Paramount, where they could dance, there was a lot of dancing there. To my surprise, many of the stowaways were in the Paramount jiving, dancing and what have you. I had to laugh, I couldn’t believe it. A man just stowaway and, after a couple of days, he was in a dance hall jiving and dancing around.’

Perhaps we should take this account with a pinch of salt, Roberts was, after all, a storyteller by profession. Would anyone really have tried to swim across the river to Gravesend in Kent, or even up or downstream on the Essex side of the river?

But there is other evidence, Alford Gardner has hinted at all sorts of subterfuge to enable passengers to travel without paying their fare, including in a television documentary when he commented about ‘four lads who wanted to come and didn’t have the money, so we arranged to get them on and we got them off.’ We are also aware of at least a dozen men who claim to have been on board but whose names are not on the passenger list.

So, in the unlikely event you are asked in a pub quiz ‘how many passengers were on the Empire Windrush?’ the only correct answer is ‘no one knows’!

Little research has been done on what happened to the fifteen known stowaways, indeed, until now, they have never been named. But thanks to original research by Bill Hern in the court archives, we are in a position to rectify this omission and, in a series of articles we will attempt to piece together their stories.

Before discussing individuals, we will start by summarising what happened to them in the hours and days following their arrest.

It is easy to imagine that the fifteen did what they could to avoid being caught. Perhaps they lacked the courage to jump overboard or maybe they simply couldn’t swim?!

A report in the London Evening Standard of 22nd June said that they were taken of the ship handcuffed in pairs: ‘Six were put into a police van and driven away and four were marched up the road.’ A Police Inspector explained that the handcuffs were only: ‘because of the difficulty of bringing them from the ship through more than 400 other coloured people.’ All the papers got the numbers wrong so the fact that the Standard reports ten is not too much of a surprise.

They were swiftly taken to the Court at Orsett in Tilbury where a special session was arranged from 5.30 to 6.30 pm on 22 June – the day of arrival!

All fifteen were charged with the same two offences. All that differed was the date on which they began their journey i.e. the date of offence and the place they started from.

First to appear was Ulite Chin, aged twenty four, who had boarded at Kingston, Jamaica. In Ulite’s case the charges were:

Offence 1 – On 27 May 1948 at Kingston, Jamaica did travel on the British Steamship “Empire Windrush” without first paying his fare and with intent to avoid payment thereof contrary to Section 287 Merchant Shipping Act 1894.

Offence 2 – On 27 May 1948 at Kingston, Jamaica did secrete himself on board the British Steamship “Empire Windrush” and proceed to sea without the consent of the owner, master, consignee or any other person entitled to give such consent. Section 237 Merchant Shipping Act 1894.

Ulite pleaded guilty to both offences. Indeed all fifteen did likewise. The penalties were identical with one exception, that of Ernest Arthur Rochester who had no identity papers so suffered a harsher sentence.

For the offence of non-payment, Ulite was given the choice of a £1 fine or 7 days in jail. Like most of his fellow travellers he opted to pay the fine.

Given that the cost of a ticket would have been £28 and 10 shillings some of the stowaways may have regarded a mere £1 fine as a good piece of business. The Court would seem to have regarded the offence as none too serious. To give an idea of similar sentences for other offences, on 25 June one Oliver Frederick Payton was fined £1 for driving a motor van on a footpath. On 2 July Harry Henry Mumford was also fined £1 for stealing tea towels to the value of 1 shilling and 8 pence (about 18 pence in decimal currency).

The offence of being at sea without consent resulted in Ulite being imprisoned for ten days. He also had to pay 4 shillings in penalties and costs.

The Court records show that the imposition of prison sentences for the types of offences usually heard in Orsett was rare, so clearly the Magistrate and the prosecuting officer, a Mr Spreckley, felt the second offence was by far the more serious.

The Court managed to rush through ten of the stowaways on 22 June before resuming at 10.15 the following morning. This time the prosecuting officer was Edward A Jackson. By 11.15am the final five offenders had been dealt with and all were either in, or on their way to, jail.

The ages of the offenders ranged from nineteen to thirty years old. Ten boarded the Windrush in Kingston, three in Trinidad and two in Bermuda.

The results of our research into what happened to each of the fifteen will be reported in future articles.

James Walvin: Equiano, the slave trade and the cause of freedom

It’s always a pleasure to meet someone who has a written a book that graces your bookshelf. James Walvin, who has devoted 50 years of his life to researching and writing about black British history, spoke eloquently at the American International Church in London recently on the subject of ‘Equiano: the slave trade and the cause of freedom’.

James book ‘An African’s Life: The Life and Times of Olaudah Equiano’ was first published almost 20 years ago, maybe it’s a little out of date now but it is still a very good read. It takes Equiano’s own words as the starting point for a discussion of the historical context for Equiano’s life and times.  Anyone who wants to know more about the world Equiano lived in could do far worse than getting hold of a copy.

There is an interesting interview with James here, it dates from 2007 but that doesn’t diminish its interest: https://archives.history.ac.uk/1807commemorated/interviews/walvin.html

Felix Villarroel (Household Cavalry: 3762)

Deborah Crawford, a volunteer for the Imperial War Museum‘s project ‘Lives of the First World War’ https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/ and a friend of Historycal Roots, is doing incredible work to identify West Indian service men and women who qualify for a Commonwealth War Grave but for various reasons have been overlooked. One such soldier is Felix Villarroel of the Household Cavalry.

Felix was a law student from Trinidad when he enlisted on 8 November 1915. He was severely injured in France in November 1917 when the rubble from a bursting shell buried him for 3 hours. He contracted Tuberculosis and was discharged as medically unfit from 17 February 1918. He returned to Trinidad where he died, age 27, on 9 June 1921. Deborah identified Felix as a soldier who should have been granted a War Grave but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) requires proof that Felix’s death was related to the War. Obtaining any form of certificate from Trinidad is fraught with difficulty to the point of being almost impossible unless you can apply in person.

During a recent visit to Trinidad to research the life of singer/actor Mona Baptiste, Bill Hern braved Trinidadian officialdom and bureaucracy (no doubt inherited from the British) to try and obtain the evidence that was required.

After several false starts and with the help of some Trinidadian friends he was able to eventually obtain a copy of Felix’s death certificate which showed he did indeed die of Tuberculosis. Deborah will now pursue the matter to try and ensure Felix receives the recognition his bravery and service deserve.

Felix’s situation is not unique. The ‘In From The Cold’ Project http://infromthecold.org/ was formed more than ten years ago to research and identify all service men and women missing from the official CWGC list of casualties from the First and Second World Wars. Unfortunately, many names were missed from the lists supplied to the Commission and, as a result, many casualties have no official commemoration. They qualify for commemoration provided they died within the qualifying dates for the First World War – 4th August 1914 to 31 August 1921. The project aims to get these soldiers, sailors, airmen and nurses their due recognition – even after the passing of so many years.

Deborah has already submitted deaths in service claims directly to CWGC for British West Indies Regiment Private 4853 Octavius Garwood or Gaywood; Private 4978 Claudius or Charles Whitelock; Private 10660 Arthur Thomas; Private 10685 Wilford or Wilfred Thompson and twelve service men of the West India Regiment stationed in Sierra Leone.

So if you know of a service man or woman who you feel should be given recognition do let the ‘In From The Cold’ Project know about it.

It would of course be a massive bonus to trace any of Felix’s ancestors to enable them to join in celebrating his memory. Similarly if we could discover where he is buried (presumably in Trinidad) it might be possible to ensure his final resting place is preserved in a fitting manner. You can read his story below.

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/5363144

Equiano 2019

The Equiano Society have (or should that be ‘has’?) run a series of events this year to commemorate the life of Olaudah Equiano, we have been fortunate enough to attend most of them. Many of the events have been held at the American International Church in Tottenham Court Road as this is now believed to be the site of his final resting place.

A highlight of the programme was an event to launch a new exhibition featuring Equiano’s life. It was an unusually varied programme with music, poetry from Nairobi Thompson, an acted  debate on theology between Equiano and a member of the Protestant church (remember the church had very mucky hands when it came to the question of slavery), as well as spoken pieces from Burt Caesar, Mervyn Weir and Arthur Torrington. Jonathan Miller represented the church and introduced the Mayor of Camden. The musical interludes featuring Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’ and ‘Amazing Grace’ played on solo violin and piano were a powerful and moving highlight for us. The photos from the back of a packed audience don’t really do justice to the performers.

The exhibition panels give a good overview of Equiano’s life with expert guides (well, us) on hand to answer questions.

 

Although the launch event has been and gone the exhibition continues until the end of August at the American International Church, Tottenham Court Road, very close to Goodge Street tube station.

The exhibition will be open between 12 noon and 14.00 and then again between 17.00 and 20.00 on 16th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 27th, 28th and 29th August. Opening times on Saturday 17th and Saturday 24th will be 10.00 to 17.00. The exhibition is free.

There is a special event on Saturday 17th when, James Walvin, a Professor of History at York University and author of many books on black British history, will be speaking on the subject of ‘Equiano, The Slave Trade and The Cause of Freedom’. Tickets for the talk are on Eventbrite, admission to the talk is free.

Do try and get there if you can.