20th Century

An unknown Black Soldier at the Battle of the Somme

A decade ago we worked on a project to identify Black soldiers who served in the First World War and who were commemorated in the UK. We had some successes, as a result of our work the ‘lost’ grave of Lionel Turpin was located and his final resting place in a Leamington cemetery is now marked. The project also led us to the story of the Walker Brothers and a book that tells their story:

We were helped in our work by two books, recently published at the time, Black Poppies by Stephen Bourne and Black Tommies by Ray Costello, but there was still a sense that this was a hidden history and that there were those who wished to deny the presence of Black soldiers in Flanders – if they were there at all, they were there simply as labourers, not as fighting troops. Thanks to the work of John Ellis our website now contains the stories of a number of men of colour who served in combat roles (just type ‘somme’ into the search box to find them).

The photo we feature below is further proof of a Black presence at the Battle of the Somme in 1916:

John Ellis provides some context:

This unit is D Company of the 1^st/4^th Gloucestershire Regiment (City of Bristol Battalion). They were formed from civilian volunteers living in Bristol when WW1 broke out. They went to France in 1915 and in July 1916 they participated in the Battle of the Somme. The photo was taken after a successful attack on the German trenches They have taken trophies: A German machine gun. German helmets and swords. Within a few days they went back into battle. The Battle of the Somme ended in November 1916. Over 400,000 British soldiers were killed. So many of the men in the photograph would have been wounded or killed after it was taken.

Only a few of the men in the photo have been identified. Most are unknown. Including the Black soldier sitting behind the machine gun among his comrades.

The photograph comes from the collection of amateur historian, Ian Chard, who reached out to the BBC in an attempt to find out who some of the men were. You can read more about the story here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-67945251

As we approach Remembrance Day the photograph offers a timely reminder of the diversity of those who have served Britain.

R.I.P. Nadia Cattouse (2/11/1924 to 29/10/2024)

Nadia Cattouse in her Auxiliary Territorial Service uniform

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Nadia Cattouse just a few days short of her 100^th birthday. Born in British Honduras (now Belize) she led a remarkable life as a singer, actor and activist as well as serving her country as a member of the ATS during World War Two.

We are lucky that in April 2020 Audrey Dewjee wrote an article about Nadia that was cleared by the lady herself and given her blessing. There is a lot of fake history on the internet but we can be sure that Audrey’s article is factually accurate in every respect, you can read it here, it is a fitting tribute to a life well lived: https://www.historycalroots.com/nadia-cattouse/

Edward Albert and his descendants

Jack London wearing his 1928 British Olympic blazer [Credit: PHA/8/2/90 © University of Westminster Archive]

Audrey Dewjee’s latest article for Historycal Roots starts with the birth of Edward Albert in Kingston, Jamaica in about 1830 and leads inexorably through the generations to Jack London. Born in British Guiana in January 1905, Jack won both a gold and a silver medal at the Olympic Games held in Amsterdam in 1928.

Audrey’s article takes us on a fascinating journey. To be honest, the story of Edward Albert is remarkable in its own right, encompassing life in the Royal Navy from the age of nine, the amputation of both legs below the knee at the age of twenty-one, his ‘death’ following the operation (greatly exaggerated as it transpired), time spent begging on the streets, a successful business venture (he was robbed of his profits), marriage and fatherhood. Edward’s resilience in the face of adversity and repeated setbacks is inspiring, but his story does not end there.

Among other discoveries, Audrey has identified two grandsons and a great-grandson who served in the Army during World War One or Two, including one who was captured by the Germans at Arnhem and another who died in Singapore.

Jack London enters the story in 1938 when he married Agnes Downham, a grand-daughter of Albert.

Born during the time of slavery, Edward Albert’s story, and that of many others like him, reminds us of Maya Angelou’s poem:

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Thank you, Audrey, for illuminating Black British history with your research and for helping to ensure that people like Edward Albert ‘rise’ and are not forgotten.

You can read the full story here: https://www.historycalroots.com/edward-albert-c-1830-1892-james-buchanan-c-1806-1886-and-their-families/

The ill-fated voyage of the SS Verdala

On 11^th March 1916 the SS Verdala left Jamaica with 1,160 recruits on board, men who had enlisted to fight for Britain in the ‘Great War’. As the ship steamed out of the harbour, even the Governor of Jamaica, Sir W H Manning, didn’t know the precise details of the planned voyage other than that England was the ultimate destination. What transpired shook many Jamaicans’ faith in the colonial authorities.

Recruits marching through the streets of Kingston on their way to the Verdala^[1]From ‘Jamaica and the Great War’ by Herbert G De Lisser

On the eve of departure from Kingston^[2]De Lisser, Op.cit.

The Verdala was ill-suited for the voyage that lay ahead and nine of the men who left Jamaica with high hopes of contributing to the war effort died long before the ship reached England. Hundreds of others were permanently disabled.

You may be familiar with the story, the broad outlines are relatively well-known, but even with well-known stories there is often more that can be learned. We think our latest article will contain new information for even the most well-read of this site’s followers. You can read it here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/an-ill-fated-voyage-the-ss-verdala-march-1916/

References[+]

References
↑1	From ‘Jamaica and the Great War’ by Herbert G De Lisser
↑2	De Lisser, Op.cit.

Daphne Steele honoured

Photo courtesy of AGNAP (the Association of Guyanese Nurses and Associated Professionals

We were so pleased to see that Daphne Steele has now been commemorated with a Blue Plaque in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Daphne is credited as having been the first Black matron in the NHS (from 1964). The new plaque commemorating her contribution is at what was formerly St Winifred’s maternity home where she was based for a number of years.

Daphne was one of several members of the Steele family who came to England from British Guiana (now Guyana) in the early 1950s. She arrived in 1951 and was soon followed by the best known of her siblings, her sister, Carmen, now known as Carmen Monroe, the actress. My own father-in-law was another Steele who made the journey, he was met by Carmen when he arrived in London in 1952 and spent many years working in the Post Office, a less glamourous contribution to Britain’s post-war regeneration but important nonetheless. The Steeles are just one example of the countless families who helped rebuild Britain after the devastation of World War Two.

Daphne trained at St James’ hospital in Balham and it was our privilege to be present when a Nubian Jak plaque was unveiled there in 2018:

https://www.historycalroots.com/daphne-steele-first-black-matron-in-the-nhs/

After two years in south London she then trained as a midwife before going on to work for the NHS in Oxfordshire and Manchester (as well as a stint in America) before settling in Yorkshire.

The unveiling ceremony was featured on the BBC news website and you can read more about Daphne here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bradford-west-yorkshire-68380732

One fact about Daphne you won’t find in any of the articles about her online is that, according to my sister-in-law, she baked a mean scone!

Amanda Ira Aldridge and Avril Coleridge-Taylor: Getting the Tempo Right

Life is full of surprises and we certainly were not expecting Stephen Bourne, a published author with a number of books to his credit, to ask us out of the blue to publish his latest book. When he said he wanted to tell the story of Amanda Ira Aldridge and Avril Coleridge-Taylor we really could not refuse. Both these ladies, the mixed heritage daughters of famous fathers, have long been of interest to us.

Stephen’s informative and nicely illustrated book is now available to buy (just click on the cover):

For a long time recordings of the work of these two composers were hard to find but that is changing, gradually.

There are two short pieces by Avril on ‘Beyond Twilight’, a CD of music for piano and cello by a number of female composers, and her ‘Sussex Landscape’ is included on a CD that features some her father’s best music (his Violin Concerto is a particular favourite).

Music by Amanda (aka Montague Ring) is harder to come by but the American pianist, Rochelle Sennet, has included some piano pieces by her on two recent releases:

This music is all available on Spotify for those of you who have access to that service.

We do hope you will have the chance to listen to their music while reading about these ground-breaking women in Stephen’s book.

You can find more about Stephen’s work here: http://www.stephenbourne.co.uk/

Roots entwined

Audrey Dewjee’s latest contribution to Historycal Roots is of particular interest to us and we hope you will find it enlightening too. Audrey has chosen the title ‘Roots entwined’ for the article and in it she explores the history of inter-racial marriage in her home county of Yorkshire.

The earliest mixed marriage she mentions in the article took place in Deptford, London, in 1613, but, as she puts it, ‘Yorkshire eventually caught up.’ She goes on to mention the marriage of John Quashee and Rebecca Crosby at Thornton by Pocklington on 12^s. November 1732.

St Michael’s church, Pocklington, the site of John and Rebecca’s wedding?

Audrey goes on to cite 18^th, 19^th and 20^th century examples. One of her 19^th century Yorkshire marriages features John Perry, a Black man born in Annapolis in Nova Scotia in about 1819, who married in Ripon in 1844 and ended his days in Sydney, Australia, having been transported to the penal colony. As an illustration of how ‘entwined’ these stories can become, John Perry has featured in an earlier Historycal Roots article by John Ellis which Audrey references.

Of course, similar stories can be found in virtually any part of the country and there must be people who are puzzled by the results they get back from a DNA test. As Audrey says ‘colour fades quickly if [mixed heritage] children and grandchildren have White partners … and gradually the memory of a Black ancestor fades,’ something my wife and I are only too aware of as we watch our grandson growing up.

Audrey’s article is here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/roots-entwined-inter-racial-families-in-yorkshire/

A handsome new book about the Empire Windrush

In recent years our knowledge of who was on the Empire Windrush when she docked at Tilbury in June 1948 has developed considerably. Bill Hern has played a big part in this and some of the fruits of his latest research can be found in a new book produced by the Windrush Foundation. It is beautifully illustrated – I was going to describe it as a great ‘coffee table’ book, but such books are usually used as rarely opened adornments, this book is so much more than that. The words tell the stories of over eighty of the Windrush passengers, most of which have never previously been told. If you still believe the passengers on the Windrush were all Jamaican men coming to the UK in search of work, this book will set you straight!

My understanding is that the book is only available through the Windrush Foundation, it can be downloaded as a free e-book / pdf via this link:

http://www.windrushfoundation.com

West Indian airmen at Hunmanby Moor in World War Two

It is with real pleasure that we welcome Audrey Dewjee back to the pages of Historycal Roots. Her latest article describes something of the experiences of the 4,000 RAF West Indian airmen who were stationed at Hunmanby Moor in Yorkshire during the Second World War. The subject has been very close to Audrey’s heart for a long time and her article has been a real labour of love which we are delighted to lay before you. Veterans Alford Gardner and Gilbert Clarke (pictured) were among those present at the unveiling of a commemorative plaque in the nearby town of Filey in 2023. You can read Audrey’s article here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/west-indian-airmen-at-raf-hunmanby-moor-filey/

Thomas Smith: A ‘man of colour’ in the Royal Air Force in 1918

You have to be careful about claiming to have identified the ‘first’ of anything in the past, there is always the chance someone will find an earlier example – wise words that historian Ray Costello shared over a convivial lunch in Liverpool some years ago.

John Ellis is far too canny to fall into that trap but he has identified Flight Sergeant Thomas Smith, a ‘man of colour’ from Barnstaple in Devon, as a founding member of the Royal Air Force when it was formed on 1^st April 1918. As a ‘founding member’ you can’t get much more ‘first’ than that, although it is possible, of course, that there were other Black men who joined on the same day.

Perhaps others stories will emerge but, for now, we celebrate Flight Sergeant Thomas Smith. Thomas, who had a Black father, a White mother and an American grandfather, got into the RAF in spite of the provisions of the Royal Air Force (Constitution) Act of 1917 which restricted entry to men of ‘pure European descent’. Thomas was able to get round this manifestation of the institutional racism of the time because he was already serving as a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy Air Service and was able to transfer across into the newly formed RAF.

Thomas came from a humble background. His father, Moses, was a ‘hawker’ (a street trader) and his mother, Elizabeth, the daughter of a mussel gatherer, was also a fish hawker prior to her marriage to Moses. Moses, who undoubtedly faced racism, was no stranger to the Barnstable constabulary and was in the local gaol on more than one occasion. But he was also an eloquent man, well able to speak up for himself. He was also known to box at the local fair and there were occasions when he used his pugilistic skills to defend himself as the need arose.

Thomas had more than one brush with the law himself. In May 1911 he took revenge for an assault on his father by attacking both the father and sister of the culprit. He was serving in the Royal Navy at the time and his Commanding Officer spoke up for him, describing him as ‘a very good character’ and ‘a very good man’.

When war broke out in 1914 Thomas Smith was serving on the battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable and he saw active service in the Dardanelles and North Atlantic. The Indefatigable was sunk at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 with the loss of almost the entire crew of around 1,000. Fortunately Thomas, following promotion to the rank of Petty Officer, had been transferred to another ship in December 1915 – a lucky escape.

You can learn much more about Thomas Smith, including his ground-breaking time in the RAF, in John Ellis’s latest article for Historycal Roots. It really is a remarkable story:

https://www.historycalroots.com/flight-sergeant-thomas-smith-a-founding-member-of-the-royal-air-force/