Author: roots1937

More ‘forgotten history’ remembered

Thanks to the hard work of Bill Hern we have recently been able to add two new pages to the ‘forgotten history’ section of this site.

A page on Charles Williams tells the story of the father of Yorkshire comedian. Charlie Williams.

While another new page recalls the life of Corporal Jacques M’Bondo whose remarkable life took him from landlocked Ouaka in what is now part of the Central African Republic to a hillside grave in County Durham, via Paris, Belgium, the killing fields of First World War Flanders  and London.

Two fascinating stories that cast light on different aspects of Black British history..

Sam King Memorial Lecture

Sam King was one of the passengers on the Empire Windrush when it docked at Tilbury in May 1948. He was just 22 years old and his family had sold livestock to pay his fare of £28 10 shillings. Like many men who had served in the RAF during the war he wanted to return to the ‘Mother Country’.

A born leader, he worked for 34 years in the Post Office, working his way up to a management position, became a  Labour Councillor in 1982 and within six months had become the first Black Mayor of Southwark. In 1988 he was awarded the MBE.

On 19th June 2018 his memory was honoured with a memorial lecture held at St Margaret’s Church in the grounds of Westminster Abbey. Organised by Sam’s good friend, Arthur Torrington (together they created The Windrush Foundation – https://windrushfoundation.com/), the event was hosted by The Reverend Jane Sinclair, Canon of Westminster and Rector of St Margaret’s, and chaired by Lady Benjamin of Beckenham (sorry, she’ll always by Floella from Play School for me!).

    

There were tributes from Sam’s grand daughter, Dione McDonald, Lord Ouseley of Peckham Rye and Michelle Asantewa and a calypso from Alexander D’Great, before Arthur delivered his lecture, a wide ranging discussion of the influence people from the Caribbean have had on Britain, an influence that, he stressed, started long before the Windrush.

What made the event so special was that it was led by people who had known Sam and were able to speak from the heart about how he had influenced them. He was clearly a man who was widely loved and respected and it was a privilege to be present.

War to Windrush: Black Women in Britain 1939 to 1948

Since retiring in 2016 I have come to love the National Archives at Kew and, more recently, The British Library at Kings Cross, both institutions where anyone with any interest in history could happily spend most of their days – and both completely free. I’m increasingly inclined to add the British Film Institute on London’s Southbank to my list of favourite places. A wide range of films can be seen in the (free) viewing booths adjacent to the foyer, including films from the early days of cinema that document the black presence in Britain. But I hadn’t realised until recently that they also host free talks for old people like me!

Recently I attended one given by Stephen Bourne, author of ‘War to Windrush: Black Women in Britain 1939 to 1948’. I arrived early and was one of an audience of about four in what was a pretty large space. I did fear this might be a bit of a flop but I’m pleased to say that by the time Stephen’s talk started there must have been at least 100 people present.

It’s a fascinating and under-researched subject and the talk was very illuminating. Stephen has met a number of the subjects discussed in the book and his talk was laced with personal reminiscences. The book mentions just two black women who were actually on board the Windrush when it docked at Tilbury:  Mona Baptiste (featured elsewhere on this site) and Lucilda Harris. It’s a little known fact that there were around 230 women on the ship, including almost 60 Polish women coming to the UK under the terms of the Polish Resettlement Act. Most of the women were certainly white, but at Historycal Roots we are pretty sure there were other black women on board and it’s our aim to identify and write about them.

Essentially this was an early book launch (the book isn’t due to be published until 22nd June) and Stephen was available after the talk finished to sign copies (I joined the long queue).  Some of the material in the book re-presents material from earlier books such as ‘Black Poppies’ and ‘Evelyn Dove’ but Stephen has an engaging writing style and there is enough new and interesting material to make the book a worthwhile addition to the Historycal Roots library.

Two Great Exhibitions

We recently attended an exhibition of photographs at the Oxo Tower on London’s Southbank. The photos, all taken by Jim Grover, featured Windrush pioneer, Alford Gardner, but also many others who came after (and before!) the Windrush.

It was a pleasure to chat to Jim and such a pity that his book featuring the photos was not ready in time for the exhibition. We have put our name down for a copy and very much look forward to seeing it.

One face did jump out at me:

This is Neil Flanigan (MBE). Neil was born in Kingston, Jamaica and, in 1943, signed up to join the RAF, reaching England in 1944 in his late teens. Neil has lived in England almost continuously ever since, raising three children with his wife Mavis. I recognised his face immediately as he trusted me with his i-pad and asked me to take photos while he took the salute in Windrush Square on Remembrance Sunday 2017. I’d never used an i-pad before and really (I mean really) hope that the photos turned out OK.

The exhibition is only on until 10th June but you have much more chance of catching:

https://www.bl.uk/events/windrush-songs-in-a-strange-land

This is on at the British Library until 21st October (and, we were told, will subsequently move to Leeds).

We were lucky enough to be invited to the launch event. We weren’t able to do the exhibition itself justice as we were too busy talking to some of the people in attendance. These included: Windrush pioneer, John Richards, still going strong at the age of 92; Peter Dielhenn and his daughter, Peter was the youngest member of the Windrush crew (his daughter proudly pointed him out to me in the background of the famous newsreel of Lord Kitchener singing ‘London is the place for me’); and Arthur Torrington, co-founder of the Windrush Foundation. We will return to view the exhibition properly on another day.

How long?

All three of the Historycal Roots team recently attended a ‘What’s Happening In Black British History?’ event hosted by Huddersfield University.

http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/blog/agenda-announced-for-whats-happening-in-black-british-history-viii-at-the-university-of-huddersfield

There was a packed programme of talks throughout the day and one of the speakers (Testament, writer of ‘Black Men Walking’) posed the question ‘How long? How long does there have to be a Black presence in Britain before Black people are simply accepted as ‘people’ without having to explain or justify their presence and facing a battle to be accepted?’

A number of the presentations were relevant to this question as they illustrated that Black people have been a sizeable part of the British community for centuries:

  • in regular regiments of the British Army since the 1700s (John Ellis, Historian and Teacher);
  • as members of the Yorkshire community dating back several centuries (Audrey Dewjee, Independent Historian);
  • as prisoners of war held at Porchester Castle between 1793 and 1814 (Abigail Coppins (Curator).

Of course it would have been possible to have sessions illustrating a Black presence in Roman and even pre-Roman times (maybe next time).

During a presentation delivered by Milton Brown (University of Huddersfield and Kirklees Local TV), one of the pre-recorded vox pop interviews featured a Black woman with a heavy Yorkshire accent saying that whenever she goes into a meeting the first question is always ‘where are you from?’. In a 45 year career in the civil service during which I must have attended thousands of meetings I don’t think I was ever asked that question. As a white male it was no doubt considered redundant but why does a Black person need to be ‘from’ anywhere? The question implies: you don’t belong here, you are not one of us, you must be from somewhere else.

The whole day was thought provoking and interesting and it was followed by a small party to mark the opening of an exhibition: ‘Let’s Play Vinyl’.

The ‘how long does it take?’question assumed a more personal perspective as two of us made our way from the hotel to Huddersfield station the following day. A passenger in a passing car hurled random racist abuse in our direction before speeding off. Was it the mix of Black and White that he found so offensive? We’ll never know as he didn’t stop to explain his ‘thought’ processes.

‘How long?’ indeed.

The Walker Brothers in … Barbados!

The Walker brothers were born and bred in Barbados so it seems right that a copy of the book ‘The Walker Brothers and Their Legacy – Three Black Soldiers in World War One’ should be held on the island and where better than the Barbados Museum’s prestigious Shilstone Memorial Library.

Bill Hern of Historycal Roots travelled to Barbados to hand across a copy of the book. He gave a presentation to the Barbados Museum and Historical Society in the beautiful Walled Garden of the Museum at the Garrison, St Michael. His presentation covered the Walker Brothers and also his journey last year to visit every World War 1 Commonwealth War Grave in Barbados.

He can be seen here presenting a copy of the book to Harriet Pierce Librarian at the Shilstone Memorial Library with Alissandra Cummins Director of the Museum and Historical Society looking on.

It’s good to know that the Walkers will be remembered forever on their home island of Barbados.

The Walker Brothers, Three Black Soldiers in …. Liverpool!

While we were in Liverpool recently we took the opportunity to present Ray Costello and Adam Duckworth with copies of our book about the Walker Brothers.

Ray’s book,  ‘Black Tommies’, was a major inspiration for our work:

And it was Adam Duckworth who first introduced us to the name of Ray Costello. Adam works in the Anthony Walker Education Centre at the International Slavery Museum where he does brilliant work with groups of local children:

We first met Adam a couple of years ago when we attended a workshop about Walter Tull that he had organised and it was a real pleasure to meet him again.

 

 

‘Black Salt’ exhibition at the Merseyside Maritime Museum

We can thoroughly recommend the ‘Black Salt’ exhibition at the Maritime Museum in Liverpool.

We had the pleasure of visiting it recently with Ray Costello who gave us a guided tour round the exhibits. As Ray curated the exhibition, we really couldn’t have asked for a more knowledgeable guide. In the picture below, Ray is seen standing next to a photo of his great grandfather, Albert James, a sailor from Bermuda who settled in Liverpool in the 1850s and married a local girl in 1873.

The exhibition presents the contribution Black British seafarers have made to some of the most significant maritime events of the past 500 years and the many thought-provoking exhibits and personal stories offer a unique insight into the overlooked history of Britain’s Black sailors.

One of the last exhibits, featuring Belinda Bennett, brings us bang to date as, in 2016, she became the first Black female captain working in the cruise industry.

If you can’t get to Liverpool (the exhibition is on at least until September) then Ray’s book ‘Black Salt – Seafarers of African Descent on British Ships’ is an excellent alternative.

Why Are West Indians Here?

Before going any further we should explain that ‘Why Are West Indians Here?’ is the name of a Birmingham-based project (WAWI) who have been doing good work for a number of years. You can visit their site here: https://www.whyarewestindians.co.uk/node/1

Bill Hern attended the Walter Tull remembrance event recently, an event that WAWI were instrumental in organising.

Actually, the question posed by the name of the project is one that we’ve been considering ourselves in the context of Windrush 70. The answer, of course, is that there is no single answer, people have been coming to the UK from the Caribbean for a whole host of reasons and for a very long time.

There is a lot of focus on the arrival of the Empire Windush in June 1948 and it has come to symbolise the start of a period of mass migtration that continued at least until the 1960s. But ‘symbolise’ is an important word in that sentence. The Windrush shouldn’t prevent us remembering people who came to the UK long before 1948.

Lionel Turpin, to name just one, came to England from British Guiana in time to enlist and serve in France during World War One. He lies in an unmarked grave in Leamington. His son, Randolph was to become a boxing world champion.

We don’t know when Eddie Parris came to the UK from his birthplace of Barbados but in 1909 he married a local girl and they lived together in Chepstow. Like Turpin, Eddie served his country during World War One and, also like Lionel, he fathered someone who went on to make a name for themselves in the world of sport (Eddie Parris Junior was Wales’ first Black international footballer).

But, returning to the Windrush, why did the people on board come to the UK and why did so many follow them in the next two decades?

One reason, certainly, was that there were few prospects in the Caribbean. It wasn’t just that Jamaica’s economy had been flattened, literally, by a devastating hurricane in 1944, the whole region was blighted by the dead hand of British imperialism. The young journalist, Peter Fryer, reporting on the arrival of the Windrush for the ‘Daily Worker’, wrote: ‘when I went on board I asked scores of men why they had come to Britain. Practically every one gave the same answer – unemployment and low wages “back home” and the prospect of a good job in Britain.’ [‘The Daily Worker’ 23rd June 1948]

Cy Grant, originally from British Guiana (who served with Bomber Command during the 2nd World War), commented on: ‘the unbroken flatness of the physical landscape, along with a pervading sense of colonial stagnation seemed to impose limits on my future horizons. I had to escape.’ [‘Caribbean Volunteers at War’ by Mark Johnson, page 2]

James Berry, a poet who arrived in October 1948 aboard the SS Orbita, had something similar to say: ‘what I needed was opportunity, in my village there was no opportunity. People were never going to make it.’  [‘Keep on Moving’ by Tony Sewell]

Others were clear they were only staying in UK long enough to earn some money before returning home to the Caribbean (or so they thought). Euton Christian, who had served in the RAF during the war, said of the first wave of migrants: ‘they expected to come here, to find a job, to find a home. And in about four or five years, they earn enough money to go back … they’re not coming here into this cold country to live indefinitely, a short period , get some money, go back home. But it never happened.’ [‘Windrush’ by Mike and Trevor Phillips, page 71]

As Stuart Hall, who came to England in 1951 to study at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, commented: ‘they began to put down roots very, very quickly, of course. And, you know, the more roots you put down, the harder they are to pull up. You don’t quite know when that tip over point arrives when you are on this side.’ [‘Windrush’ by Mike and Trevor Phillips, page 139]. I know that my own in-laws still spoke fondly of ‘returning home’ when I first met them in 1979, probably some twenty or so years after they came to England – it was just a dream and I think by then, with two children born here, they knew it.

For others perhaps it was just the universal wanderlust felt by young men (and women)  everywhere: ‘one of the reasons for my desire to travel was that I didn’t want to be under my parents’ footsteps’ [Edwin Ho, British Guiana, quoted in ‘Keep on Moving’ by Tony Sewell]. The fact that he had been ‘about to get married and in a heavy night of gambling I lost all our savings of around 35,000 dollars’ may have given his departure aboard the Windrush an added urgency!

Others on board, a group of boxers brought to the UK by a promoter and various musicians, may have traveled because travel between fights or gigs was a natural part of the industry they worked in. In future work we intend to look at the boxers and musicians in more detail to see how their careers progressed and whether they put down roots in the UK.

Hopefully as the Windrush 70 project develops we will learn more of the pioneers’ motivation as well as what happened to them when they arrived – at least two, Allan Wilmot and Alford Gardner, are still alive and kicking (see our earlier post: ‘Two Windrush Pioneers – Still Going Strong After 70 Years’). They certainly seem happy with the decision to come.