roots1937

Lionel Turpin Remembered

One of the first projects we got involved in was to do with the commemoration of black servicemen (and women) in World War One and one of the first soldiers we researched was Lionel Fitzherbert Turpin. You can read about him in our ‘Forgotten History – World War One and beyond’ section.

Our research identified the location of his grave in Leamington cemetery, something we had been told was ‘unknown’. We visited Leamington with high hopes, only to find that his grave was unmarked:

We found out subsequently that this photo shows slightly the wrong patch of grass but that doesn’t alter the fact that there was no marker for Lionel’s final resting place.

That was in April 2015 and we decided then that something should be done to mark where Lionel lay. Not so easy! It soon became apparent that not any Tom, Dick or Harry can plonk a memorial down in a cemetery. So we had to wait.

Our patience was rewarded when, last year, we were contacted by a descendent of Lionel who told us that the family intended to place a marker in the cemetery. Recently they sent us this photo to show that their efforts have been successful:

We are pleased there has been a happy conclusion to a story that started over 4 years ago and that the final resting place of a young man who travelled to the UK from British Guiana (now Guyana) and served (and was seriously wounded) in World War One is properly marked. Well done to the family for making it happen.

Tilbury 1948 to 2019

We have been promising ourselves a visit to Tilbury, where the Empire Windrush docked on 22nd June 1948, for at least three years. We finally made it on 20th July and are so glad we did.

It was the day of the Thurrock Carnival. Thurrock Council had secured a little over £20,000 from the fund the government established for Windrush celebrations this year. The money had been used to support a series of community events culminating in the carnival.

It was money well spent, there was a good turn out from the local community and there was a variety of Windrush themed displays for them to enjoy.

The view that greeted the new arrivals probably hasn’t changed much in the intervening 71 years:

The view across the river hasn’t changed much either. The unnamed passenger who, looking out across the water, was quoted as saying ‘if this is England, I like it’ perhaps had better eyesight than me!

To disembark they would have gone up a gangplank like the one pictured below and into the baggage hall. On the 22nd June 1948 the hall would have looked very different, in the words of our guide, it would have been ‘mayhem’ as people looked through the piles of luggage for their grip:

One of the displays featured what various people might have had in their grip. There was a display for Mona Baptiste which gave a few hints about the success she was to have as a recording artist but probably bore little resemblance to what she actually brought with her (nevertheless it was good to see that she featured):

There were a number of very informative displays about the Windrush and we were very pleased to meet Mike Oslter who, along with his team, had put the displays together. Mike was our informative guide, he was very much in demand and we were very grateful for the time he devoted to showing us round.

Another display had been produced by the Essex Cultural Diversity Project who actually interviewed Mrs Historycal Roots as part of their record of the event:

Mike told us that there were hopes the event would be an annual affair and, if it is repeated next year, we can thoroughly recommend a visit.

Finally, we know there is talk of raising the anchor of the Windrush from the seabed where she sank, what better place to display it than Tilbury?

Celebrating Equiano’s manumission day

11th July 1766 was an important day in the life of Olaudah Equiano. In the morning he went to see his ‘owner’, Robert King, on the island of Montserrat. Equiano was feeling nervous, as he put it, he had ‘many fears in my heart.’ The reason for his trepidation was that he was approaching King with a view to buying his freedom. Through hard work and much enterprise, Equiano had saved the £40 that King had told him would be the price of freedom.

If there was such a thing as a ‘good’ slave owner then King was probably such a man, he had treated Equiano well and placed him in positions of trust. But Equiano was used to being cheated by white men and King hesitated, Equiano had been extremely useful to him and he was reluctant to part with such a valuable asset. King complained that Equiano had ‘got the money much faster [than expected] and said he would not have made me the promise he did if he had thought I should have got money so soon.’ Fortunately another white man present, who knew Equiano well, Captain Farmer, spoke up for him and persuaded King to honour his agreement. The sum of £40 was handed over and Equiano went directly to the Register Office on the island to get the legal document freeing him drawn up. It’s worth mentioning that £40 in 1766 is equivalent to almost £7,000 today.

Equiano’s manumission day was celebrated at the Black Cultural Archives with poetry by Nat Nye and a talk from Hakim Adi, Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester.

In addition to talking about Equiano’s manumission, Hakim spoke passionately about why history matters and to deplore its decline as a subject of choice among students.

Here is an example (unrelated to Equiano) of Hakim talking about migration. ‘Britain’ he says ‘is a country of migrants’. He makes a point I have made many times, that the Angles and Saxons (whose values are so often held up by so called ‘nationalists’) were migrants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJGb8hTnndM

As luck would have it, the day after the event at the BCA I started reading ‘Untold Histories: Black people in England and Wales during the period of the British slave trade c160 – 1807’ by Kathleen Chater. She included a quote from historian, John Tosh, in her introduction ‘history is a political battleground. The sanction of the past is sought by those committed to upholding authority and by those intent on subverting it.’ If historians can be said to take sides in that battle of ideas then there is no doubt that Hakim Adi would be among the subversives. His talk was stimulating, challenging and, yes, a little subversive (and all the better for that). I came away wondering why this wasn’t how history was taught to me at school and with a strong desire to enroll on a history course at the University of Chichester!

Three Windrush Women at the Black Cultural Archives

Responding to an invitation, the Historycal Roots team recently gave a presentation at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton as part of the Archives’ ‘Looking Back, Moving Forward’ season: https://blackculturalarchives.org/exhibitionsandevents

Our presentation focused on ‘three Windrush Women’.

First up was David Gleave who posed the question ‘What became of the Windrush stowaway, Evelyn Wauchope?’.

Evelyn’s story attracted the attention of reporters when the Empire Windrush passengers disembarked at Tilbury on 22nd June 1948, they were intrigued by her presence as the only female to stowaway on the ship. But no one knew what became of her after she boarded the train for London – until now that is! You will find her story in the ‘Windrush Generation’ section of this site where there is a page dedicated to her story.

Next, Bill Hern spoke about Mona Baptiste who travelled in ‘A’ Class on the Windrush from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, to Tilbury.

Mona celebrated her 22nd birthday as the Windrush steamed up the English Channel on its final approach to Tilbury. She went on to have a successful career on the radio, TV and in films. The presentation was attended by Mona’s great niece, Sharisse Hossein and also by calypsonian Alexander D’Great (Sharisse and Alexander are distant cousins who had never previously met!). Here, courtesy of Lennox Salmon Photography, they are pictured with a rather startled looking Bill Hern whose research brought them together:

Mona also has her own page in the Windrush Generation section of this site.

Last but very much not least, Roxanne Gleave interviewed Edna Chavannes. Edna, rapidly approaching her 90th birthday, came to England in 1951 and worked as a nurse in the NHS for 44 years. She held the audience in rapt attention as she described her early life in Jamaica, the journey to England (seasickness – ‘I was not a sailor, I prefer to fly’), her experiences as a nurse (losing three patients in one night during ‘the great smog’ of 1952), finding happiness with a husband (who made a gift of a pineapple as part of their courtship at a time when such fruits were very exotic and hard to come by in London – we presented Edna with a pineapple as a reminder of that moment from long ago) and bringing up a family of two children (who were both in the audience). Here, again thanks to Lennox Salmon, we see Edna with daughter, Veronica, and son, Leonce:

Edna’s story is also in our ‘Windrush Generation’ section.

We were delighted to see a number of special guests in an audience that included visitors from the USA and France, a barrister, a writer, an academic, a group from a local school and a respected historian from Liverpool. It was a very good day with very positive feedback from those who attended.

‘Mixing It’

We don’t often do book reviews on here, there are simply too many good books and the ones we like may not appeal to anyone else! We’ll make an exception for ‘Mixing It’ by Wendy Webster. The subtitle ‘Diversity In World War Two Britain’ probably gives a clue as to why we were initially attracted to it.

We saw Wendy do a presentation at a ‘What’s Happening In Black British History’ event and some of the things she said were a little startling and certainly caught our attention. She made the point that, even while the war was going on, while black servicemen were fighting for and in some cases dying in the service of Britain, the government was exploring ways of getting rid of them when the war ended. She backed this up with quotes from official documents held in the National Archives at Kew. This quote comes from a 1942 Cabinet paper: ‘service departments should do all they possibly can by administrative action to reduce to a minimum the opportunities these men [black servicemen] might have of being demobilised in this country.’ The ‘problem’ of course was that people from the colonies whether black or white all enjoyed the same rights of citizenship as those born in the UK. The whole chapter ‘The Empire Comes To Britain’ contains many examples of how the British authorities struggled with this issue.

However ‘Mixing It’ goes far wider in its consideration of diversity. Wendy makes the point that Britain had never seen such diversity with people coming from all parts of the globe to help in the fight against fascism. How, for instance, should Britain treat German Jews fleeing persecution, even those eager to take up arms against Germany? Why, incarcerate them of course! Similar issues were raised by people coming to the UK, from Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc. Wendy’s book is generally very readable but even she struggles to make a coherent narrative of the tortuous twists and turns in government policy which seemed to change, sometimes literally, on a daily basis.

What is interesting, and depressing, about Wendy’s book is that it reveals that many British people have long felt a deep distrust and dislike for any ‘foreigners’ and that seems to have changed less than some of us would like. The way some Polish people were treated following the EU referendum made our blood boil and demonstrated an appalling level of ignorance of our own history. The sacrifices of Polish airmen during the war are well documented by Wendy – Polish airmen were the second largest nationality among ‘the few’ who defended British skies. Unable to return to their native country which was now part of the Soviet block when the war ended, many had little choice but to remain in Britain and put down roots. The Polish Resettlement Act of 1948 recognised the debt they were owed and people often overlook that there were 65 Polish refugees, mostly women and children, on board the Empire Windrush when it docked at Tilbury in 1948. Their descendents deserve better.

We get particularly exercised about the failure to commemorate the service to Britain of black people in all walks of life but Wendy’s book paints a broader picture of collective memory failure and lack of respect for the many ‘foreigners’ who have made this country what it is. We sometimes hear people demanding a return to ‘Anglo-Saxon values’ – let’s not forget that the original Angles and Saxons were in fact invading Germanic tribes!

Wendy’s book is an academic work (there are 50 pages of footnotes!) but it is generally very readable and raises important issues that are still relevant today.

Randolph Turpin

We’ve been contacted at Historycal Roots by David Claydon who has commented on our Lionel Turpin page. David raises two points, one concerning the absence of a blue plaque for Lionel and the other to express the view that our article downplayed the significance of Lionel’s son, Randolph. Here is what David had to say:

‘I’ve often read the articles you’ve posted on your website and recently came across the page on Lionel Fitzherbert Turpin and the comments about his son, Randolph. As I have an interest in both the First World War and boxing, I may be able to offer a more balanced view.

I had to take issue with the comment about skewed priorities being reflected in the fact that Lionel Turpin lies in an unmarked grave while his son’s grave is marked and the house where he was born is commemorated with a blue plaque.

It is incorrect and a massive understatement to say that Randolph Turpin ‘achieved a degree of fame’. At one point he was the most famous and celebrated man in the country when he became the first black world boxing champion from England and the first British boxer in 60 years to win the World Middleweight Title, beating the man widely regarded even now as the greatest boxer who ever lived and was thought to be invincible. Turpin’s victory gave the country’s morale a huge lift in the difficult years that followed World War Two. There has not been an achievement in British boxing before or since that comes close to this and therefore Randolph Turpin richly earned the recognition of a blue plaque and referring to him as ‘a boxer (albeit a good one)’ is giving him nothing like the respect he deserves.

As the British Empire suffered over 900,000 fatalities and 2,000,000 wounded during the First World War, the sheer and tragic volume of numbers indicates how impractical it would be to argue for a blue plaque commemoration for each British soldier on either of those lists.

However, I fully agree that there is something very wrong when a man who fought, suffered and ultimately died for his country continues to lie in an unmarked grave but it could be argued that the fault, in this particular case, lies with Randolph Turpin himself rather than society’s priorities as, at one stage, he could easily have afforded to have the most lavish headstone in Warwickshire placed over his father’s grave.

It undoubtedly does a great disservice for Lionel Turpin and many others to lie in unmarked graves, but I also feel that you are doing his son, who certainly does not lie in a grand grave but a relatively modest one, a disservice too.

He was, in his own way, a hero as well.’

David makes some fair points, the focus of our piece was on Lionel and, because of that, we may have downplayed Randolph. There is, of course, a great deal of information about Randolph available on the pages of the internet, Wikipedia is one obvious place to start, but to continue the process of redressing the balance here is a complete (as far as we know) record of his career:

http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/13106

There is also an interesting film about Randolph, ’64 Day Hero’, on You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSS3oLP3YlY&fbclid=IwAR0H91HzBSErcSdOTCz1O3nUWea25wU7nuSZw12RG-Eipn4ni3MOFwuaQFo

One final point, we are very pleased to report that descendants of Lionel Turpin have taken steps to get his grave in Leamington cemetery marked. This has involved quite a lengthy bureaucratic process but we understand their persistence has paid off and the grave will very soon be marked. A good ending for a story that we first explored over two years ago.

Edna Chavannes – Windrush Champion

Recently We had the pleasure of handing a copy of ‘Windrush Pioneers and Champions’ to Edna Chavannes. Edna features in the book alongside many household names. It has been a privilege to make her story (45 years of service to the NHS following her arrival in the UK from Jamaica in 1951) more widely known. Without Edna and the thousands like her there would be no NHS. You can find out more about Edna on our Windrush Generation’ pages.

Windrush Foundation: Educational resources for teachers (and parents!)

The Windrush Foundation has produced an educational resource pack for teachers to help them talk about the journey of the Empire Windrush and the Windrush generation in an informed way. At Historycal Roots we are pleased to have played a small part in the material’s production. Now, as Arthur Torrington of the Foundation says, ‘every school, parent, and others should have a copy’. Well, Historycal Roots can’t quite achieve that (!) but we can play our part.

The pack contains a wealth of resources and can be found here:

WINDRUSH FOUNDATION – KEY STAGE 2 EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE PACK

The National Curriculum can no doubt sometimes feel like a straightjacket to teachers but it has always been a flexible tool with scope for imaginative professionals to bring elements of the black experience into many aspects of their lessons. Recent changes to the National Curriculum in History, and the prioritisation of Spiritual, Moral, Social, and Cultural (SMSC) development across Key Stages, have widened the opportunities for teaching students to understand and appreciate the range of peoples, from all places, who have journeyed to and helped to shape the British Isles.

Although our focus is on the Windrush generation there is of course a far wider context to the topic of immigration stories. We are aware of this excellent site that places the Windrush story within that much broader setting:

https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/information-for-teachers.html

As attitudes in the country become more polarised and small-minded nationalism seems to be on the rise, it is now more important than ever that the rich and diverse history of the peoples of the British Isles is better understood.

Historycal Roots in Liverpool

We recently visited Liverpool where we had the great pleasure of meeting up with friends Ray Costello, historian and author, and Adam Duckworth, who works in the education department at the International Slavery Museum. We took the opportunity of handing over copies of ‘Windrush Pioneers and Champions’ to Adam and Ray and also to donate a copy of each of the ‘Fern and Kate Meet…’ books to Adam.

In addition to being a very good historian, another of Ray’s talents is to organise fabulous weather whenever we visit!

Later, we had a very enjoyable afternoon in Ray’s company as he took us on a walking tour of aspects of Liverpool’s black history that even many Liverpudlians are unaware of.

Let’s start with a quote from Olaudah Equiano’s ‘Interesting Narrative’, Equiano, having been promised his freedom, now finds that he is being sold, he argues that, as they are in England this is not legal:

‘I have been baptised; and by the laws of the land no man has a right to sell me.’

He was given short shrift:

‘Upon this Captain Doran said I talked too much English; and if I did not behave myself well, and be quiet, he had a method on board to make me.’

Needless to say, Equiano lost the argument and was duly bought by Captain Doran.

Being such fine, upstanding citizens, the Doran family have a street named after them in Liverpool:

Ray showed us the building that used to be the headquarters of Heywoods Bank. By introducing a system of promissory notes the bank effectively became a key enabler of the slave trade. The building is now occupied by a restaurant but it’s earlier function is still evident from the doorway:

Ray also showed us the site of the headquarters or unofficial embassy of the Confederate side in the American Civil War.

Britain was officially neutral but there were plenty in Liverpool’s merchant class whose sympathies, because their wealth owed so much to slavery, lay firmly with the Confederacy.

That Liverpool (like several other British cities) owed much of its wealth to the transatlantic slave trade was hardly a surprise but, visiting with someone steeped in local history, showed us how reminders of the shameful trade linger on if you know where to find them.

More Mayors than you could shake a stick at!

It was a pleasure and honour to be invited to a surprise party at Lambeth Town Hall in honour of Allan Wilmot, a World War 2 veteran who served in both the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. Allan was in fine form and announced his firm intention to make it to 100 (currently he’s 93). As Allan likes to point out, he was part of the Windrush generation who came before the Windrush, arriving at Southampton on a ship called the Almanzora in December 1947.

The event was hosted by the Mayor of Lambeth who made the presentation:

The Mayors of Croydon, Westminster and Bromley (and one other, whose borough I didn’t catch!) were also present as was Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood. I can’t remember the last time I was in a room with five mayors – yes I can, never!

Also present was another WW2 veteran, Neil Flanagan. Neil was the man who foolishly gave me his i-pad and asked me if I wouldn’t mind filming while he took the salute at the 2017 Remembrance Day event in Windrush Square. I’d never used an i-pad before and have been worried ever since that I messed up. He reassured me that the pictures had turned out really well – phew! Commenting at the time of that event, Neil said “The Remembrance Day service on Windrush Square is an example of how we are gradually bringing realisation that West Indians were here serving their country, and still do … but it’s taking a long term to have our voices heard. I am proud and honoured that the memorial is there but I am sad that it has taken such a long time and that we have had to fight, step-by-step, for the recognition.” These sentiments were echoed by several speakers at Allan’s event.

Neil is shown in the picture while Allan cuts his special cake.

You can’t help but feel honoured and humbled at being in the presence of such distinguished veterans.