Our book about three Black brothers who enlisted with the British West Indies Regiment and served in World War One is now available through this site (see our ‘Forgotten History’ section) or Amazon. The book is co-authored by David Gleave of Historycal Roots and Maria Downer who is the daughter of one of the brothers.
The book opens in Clapham Library, South London, with Maria talking to a group of Somali refugee children about her father as part of a Black History Month event. It goes on to tell the story of the three brothers following them from their birthplace in Barbados, via the colony of British Guiana, to the battlefields of Egypt and Palestine. Only two returned home. The book also tells of a daughter’s search for the truth about the part her father and two uncles played in the war, a search which took her to Marseilles in January 2017 to visit the grave of one of her uncles.
This was truly a ‘world war’ but the role Black people played in it has often been ignored by the history books. This book seeks to play its part in redressing the balance. In telling the story of the three Walker brothers the book makes a unique contribution to the history of Black participation in the war.
A launch is planned, fittingly at Clapham Library, on Friday 27th October and we will publish more details nearer the time.