I’m sure you know the story of the Empire Windrush – 492 Jamaican men, invited to Britain to rebuild the country after World War Two – right?
Wrong on all counts and hopefully if you have read some of the articles on this site you will be able to spot the errors in that opening sentence.
Today we introduce two very different stories that add to our knowledge of those who were on the Windrush – one article by Audrey Dewjee is actually called ‘A different Windrush experience’. It deals with the lives of just some of the early post-war migrants who settled in Leeds and you can read it here: https://www.historycalroots.com/a-different-windrush-experience/
Working as a young reporter on the Daily Worker in 1948, Peter Fryer (who would later become one the of the first to attempt a chronicle of black British history) was one of those sent to Tilbury to meet the ship. He asked some of those on board their reasons for coming: ‘Some 30 have volunteered for the mines and will, I understand, be given full facilities for training. While on board, I met masons, mechanics, journalists, students, musicians, boxers and cyclists attending the Olympic Games.’ We have been unable to identify any Windrush passengers among the cyclists who competed at the Olympic Games in London and so it seems someone may have spun Fryer a yarn. However, there was a link to the Olympics and Bill Hern writes about it here: https://www.historycalroots.com/mcdonald-bailey-windrush-passenger-and-father-of-an-olympic-hero/
These two stories demonstrate that, in history, there is always more to learn no matter how well-known a story might be!
It was 2015 when the individual members of the Historycal Roots’ team first got involved in the search to identify black soldiers who served in World War One (in fact Historycal Roots didn’t exist as an entity before 2016). The project we worked on was specifically aimed at identifying black servicemen who were commemorated in the UK. One of our successes was to find the exact location of the grave of Lionel Turpin. It was an unmarked plot when we visited but, finally, in 2019 a stone was placed to mark his final resting place.
One of the first things we did back in 2015 was see what had been written about the subject and two books, both relatively recently published at the time, very quickly became our starting point. ‘Black Poppies’ by Stephen Bourne had been published in 2014 and ‘Black Tommies’ by Ray Costello was published in 2015. Two of us travelled to Manchester to hear Ray speak and we were thrilled to chat with him afterwards, the first of several very pleasant and fruitful meetings.
Both books had the sense of new ground being broken; how different they would look now, not least because of the ongoing efforts of John Ellis published on this site. One of John’s latest discoveries would have fitted perfectly into the scope of that 2015 project, Private Valleron Redman served as a member of the Royal Fusiliers and is buried at Compton Chamberlayne cemetery in Wiltshire.
Like nineteen members of the British West Indies Regiment who are buried in Commonwealth War Graves at Seaford in Sussex, Private Redman never saw active service. It was the harsh and unfamiliar climate that he succumbed to rather than enemy action – he died of pneumonia in February 1916. Read his story here: http://historycalroots.com/private-valleton-redman/.
We have published a number of other of John’s ‘finds’ recently, their stories demonstrate the diversity of those who served both in terms of their origins and the roles they performed, you can find them here:
Audrey Dewjee recently wrote about Bertie Robinson, the black footman at Harewood House. Bertie was born on the tiny Caribbean island of St.Vincent. John Ellis has now written about a seafarer who also started life on St.Vincent (a decade after Bertie), Charles Harold, who enlisted in the British Army in 1915, served in France and Italy and eventually lost his life whilst working as a merchant seaman during World War Two.
I have commented before that, although the actual events of the past (the raw material of ‘history’) do not and cannot change, our understanding and interpretation of them certainly can. New research uncovers fresh information that broadens and deepens what we ‘know’.
The story of ‘Bertie’ Robinson, who Audrey Dewjee first wrote about in May 2020, is a case in point. A great deal more is now known about ‘Bertie’s’ life – for instance, that his name was actually George!
Bertie, or should we say ‘George’, is now the subject of an exhibition at Harewood House where he lived and worked for many years.
Bertie Robinson: The Footman from St. Vincent will be on display in Harewood House until Friday 22nd October, 2021.
Bertie was originally from the tiny Caribbean island of St Vincent, an island that hit the headlines for the wrong reasons recently. Audrey continues the story…
The 2021 eruption of La Soufrière volcano
At several points in its history, St. Vincent has been at the mercy of eruptions from La Soufrière the island’s tallest volcano. St. Vincent is also in the “hurricane belt”, which means it is battered by violent storms every year from June to November, and is periodically hit by even stronger hurricanes that totally devastate the island.
During the period of Amelia’s letters to Harewood (see my new article), there was a particularly terrible hurricane in 1898 which killed around 300 people and wiped the island bare of animals and vegetation. No wonder Amelia begged for help. There was also a massive eruption of La Soufrière in 1902/3 during which at least 1,680 people died.
In 2021, La Soufrière has erupted again, forcing up to 20,000 people to be evacuated from their homes and covering the island in ash – again resulting in dead animals and damaged crops as well as destroying homes and ruining businesses. A photograph taken in 1905 – a couple of years after the 1902/3 eruption – shows just what happens to the land after such an event.
St Vincent, 1902
And now the 2021 hurricane season is imminent.
For more information about the current situation, see:
Anyone wishing to send a donation to help the relief effort can find details of how and where to donate on the website of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines High Commission. https://www.svghighcom.co.uk/site/Charity.html
A volcanic eruption may only last a few hours or days but the impact on a fragile island economy is devastating and will take many years to recover from.
Peter De Silva was one of the tens of thousands of men who lost their lives on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Peter had been working as a clerk in the Office of the Governor General before enlisting.
Lewis Aubrey Walcott was born in Barbados but was living in London when he enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1906. He served until 1911 but was called up again at the outbreak of war in 1914.
John Ellis has researched the military careers of these two men who served the ‘Mother Country’ during the First World War and you can read about them here:
As the site has expanded it has become increasingly difficult to find information about individuals you may be interested in. For someone entirely self-taught in the mysterious ways of WordPress, creating an index has been a major technical challenge, but, today, I have made an index page live on the site:
All the main people on all the pages of the site have been indexed. Some of the main posts have been indexed too but, by their nature, posts may be of only temporary interest and so not all posts have been included in the index. The index is a work in progress and, if you have any comments, please feel free to use the ‘contact’ page to offer feedback.
I will get my apologies in first. The internal links should all work today but that might change (!), I will check from time to time to make sure they are still working but, if you come across one that isn’t and you get a ‘page not found’ message, please let me know. The index will take you to the right page for that person but not always to the exact place on the page where their name appears, you may need to scroll a little to find the name.
I hope the index helps you find what you are looking for!
Our knowledge of the rich tapestry of ‘men of colour’ who served in the British Army during World War One gets a little bit richer today with three, yes three, new articles by John Ellis about the service of men who were hitherto lost to history.
Pictures of men who served below the rank of officer between 1914 and 1918 are rare as hen’s teeth, we are lucky that the story of one of them featured in newspapers of the time.
Their stories include a court martial, two who were wounded and someone who was discharged as ‘unfit to serve’ because he was suffering from malnutrition.
As promised last week, we can now, courtesy of John Ellis, introduce you to Walter Albert Moore. Some people may still cling to the notion that black soldiers did not serve in front line roles during World War One, Walter’s story provides yet more evidence that nothing could be further from the truth. He served in the Gallipoli campaign (1915-16) and then in Flanders at the Battle of the Somme (1916). Did he survive? Read John’s article to find out!
Before you do though, John’s article prompted me to look at the War Diary of Walter’s battalion for the period he was serving in France during the Battle of the Somme.
We get used to thinking about the shocking carnage of the first day of the battle (around 19,000 British troops lost their lives on that day alone) and on the days that followed. But what we tend to lose sight of is the drip, drip, drip war of attrition in the periods between one ‘big push’ and the next. War diaries will rarely mention the names of rank and file soldiers like Walter whether they were black or white but they do give an impression of what life (and death) was like in the trenches. Here is a short selection of extracts from the War Diary of Walter’s battalion. The diary starts with an account of a night raid on enemy lines:
“4th July, 12.45 am: Party consisted of 70 men and 6 officers which were split up into two parties. Raid was a failure and the officers put down the cause to a certain German listening post. Only the right party got anywhere near the trenches which however they did not penetrate. Casualties in the raiding party were light but there were a good many in the trenches caused by the German artillery retaliation which lasted half an hour. Casualties A Company NIL, B Company OR [other ranks] 1 killed 2 wounded.
A and B companies relieved by C and D companies at almost midnight and returned to huts at COUPIGNY. C Company 200 wounded D Company NIL.”
The troops seem to have then spent a few days out of the front line but there was still business to attend to:
“8th July: temporary commission and appointment of RH McLean, RNVR, Drake Battalion, terminated due to medical unfitness.”
Then they were back in the trenches:
“13th July Lieutenant Commander H B POLLOCK wounded by shrapnel, OR 300 wounded.”
On 18th July, during another respite from the front line, a Field Court Martial was convened and “LS W SMITH was found guilty on three [unspecified] charges and reduced to AB.”
After what seems to have been a quiet period (21st July – “situation quiet throughout”), when a lot of effort went into improving the trenches, the war of attrition continued:
“10th August: Enemy active with LTMs rifle grenades in particular . Two killed.
11th August: Enemy very active in sector with LTMs rifle grenades in particular. One killed three wounded.
12th August: Btn [Battalion] relieved by Hood Btn – Relief complete about 12 midnight. One killed, one wounded.”
The relieved troops marched to Aix Noulette Woods where they spent the next few days ‘in huts’ presumably beyond the reach of German artillery. But they were soon back in the front line.
War diaries are not an easy read in more ways than one
“20th August: A bombardment of gas release started in the ANGRES SECTOR at 10.30 pm which lasted til about 11.45 pm. Some of the enemy retaliation with field guns and trench mortars were [‘was’ has been deleted, grammatical standards must be maintained after all] directed at our Front and Relief lines. Damage slight. Three wounded.
21st August: One wounded.”
And so it continued, the diary reports one killed (22nd August), 23rd August (two wounded), 24th August (two wounded) and, after a brief respite, one killed, one wounded (27th August).
It seems that when you weren’t in the front line being shot at you were behind the lines waiting for your turn to be shot at.
Walter Moore, a black soldier from Trinidad, was part of all this.
Several books have been written about black soldiers in the British Army during World War One, ‘Black Tommies’ by Ray Costello and ‘Black Poppies’ by Stephen Bourne spring immediately to mind, no doubt there have been others. But you can’t help feeling that those books only showed the tip of an iceberg. John Ellis has now turned his attention to the period of the First World War and is uncovering the stories of many more black soldiers.
This picture and headline (‘Coloured men’s response to the new appeal for recruits’) in the ‘Daily Mirror’ of 1st June 1915, caught John’s eye:
Eight Black recruits for the Royal Artillery in 1915 (1)
John writes: “World War One saw thousands of ‘men of colour’ serving in the regiments and corps of the British Army, the Royal Navy and the forces of the Empire. Many of the men were drawn from Britain’s Black population. The men in the photo above volunteered for service in a Territorial regiment of the Royal Artillery in the North of England in 1915.
Two of the men were named by the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, as Ben David and Henry Basker, both Jamaicans.(2) It is not possible to identify either Ben or Henry in the photo, or the names of the other ‘Gunners’. However, a little more is known about Henry Basker.
He was born in Jamaica in 1888 and enlisted in May 1915, when it was noted that he was a seaman by occupation and had a ‘West Indian’ complexion, was 5 ft 5 inches tall, had a chest measurement of 37 inches and good vision.(3) Henry signed up for four years ‘provided His Majesty should so long require your services’ and he swore ‘I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to His Majesty King George the Fifth.’
His service in the Royal Artillery was brief and he was discharged in Durham in October 1915 after 164 days, ‘his services being no longer required.’ We don’t know why he was discharged, he may well have gone on to serve his country in other ways as he was obviously keen to volunteer. He clearly had a close connection to the North East prior to enlisting because his intended place of residence on discharge was Thrift Street, South Shields, Tynemouth, where his mother, Lucy, lived.”
John and I have both tried to trace ‘Lucy Basker’, so far without success, there is no sign of her in the 1911 census for instance. The presence of black men in South Shields is no surprise, it was a thriving port with a well established black community and it was where Lionel Turpin was living when he enlisted http://historycalroots.com/lionel-fitzherbert-turpin/ . But the presence of Henry’s mother is much more unexpected, if Henry was born in Jamaica in 1888 what was it that brought Lucy to South Shields? We may never know.
The full page from which that item is taken reveals the impact the war was having:
The Daily Mirror, 1st June 1915
The heading ‘Found on the battlefield – do you recognise anyone?’ is heartrending. Especially poignant is the photo at the top left of the page – it has a bullet hole through it. You can’t help but wonder how the young woman in the picture would have felt if she saw it.
This is just a taster, there are more revelations to come from John!
1)Daily Mirror, 1st June 1915. findmypast.co.uk
2)Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 26th July 1915. findmypast.co.uk
3)For Henry Basker see: UK, British Army World War I Pension Records 1914-1920. TNA WO364/172. ancestry.co.uk
We celebrate International Women’s Day 2021 by publishing a new page on our website about Amanda Aldridge. Amanda was born on 10th March and died on the 9th of that month so celebrating her life today is particularly timely.
Lieutenant Colonel Macleod leading the 43rd Light Infantry in the Storming of Badajoz on 6th April 1812 in the Peninsular War. By John Augustus Atkinson
More incredible work by super sleuth John Ellis has now identified 500 individual Black soldiers serving in the British and Irish regiments of the Crown between 1715 and 1860. Among them, two individuals who, had they lived to receive the retrospectively awarded Military General Service Medal 1793-1814 in the late 1840s, would have been two of the most decorated veterans of the Light Division. These men and others like them led incredible lives in the service of the British Crown and yet their names are virtually unknown. Read John’s latest article to find out the full story:
