By John D Ellis John Turner enlisted for unlimited service in the 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot at Bradford, Wiltshire in January 1797.[1]The 62nd Foot later became ‘The Wiltshire Regiment’ and is now an antecedent regiment of ‘The Rifles’. His complexion was described as “Black” in his army pension record, and he was referred to … Continue reading “John Turner: A Centenarian Black Cymbalist of the 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot”
By John D Ellis On a cold January morning a regiment of Black soldiers arrived at Southampton having spent several days marching from London. It was not an unusual sight in Southampton, nor in many a town or city on the south coast of England. During the First World War segregated regiments of both the … Continue reading “A Black and Asian British Regiment: ‘The York Rangers‘ – “a Regiment of Lascars, Mulattoes, &c.” c.1803-1805”
By John D Ellis Black soldiers served as enlisted military musicians in the regiments of the British Army between 1715 and 1845. Most references to Black people in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain are to males, so invariably, most of the relationships identified involved Black soldiers and White British or Irish women.[1]Fryer, P. “Staying Power, The … Continue reading “Mary Ann Aguirra, a Londoner ‘of colour’, 1814-1878”
By John D Ellis John Charles was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad c.1793. Trinidad had been colonised by both the Spanish and French and was captured by the British in 1797. Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton (1758-1815) was the governor of Trinidad between 1797 and 1803 and was later convicted of torturing a ‘mulatto’ teenage … Continue reading “The Last Black Drummer: John Charles of the 32nd Foot, 1808-1845”
By John D Ellis William Buckland was born at Guadeloupe c.1786. During the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815), Guadeloupe was captured by the British from the French in both 1798 and 1810, and it is likely that he left sometime in that period, enlisting in the 5th (Northumberland) Foot in May 1810.[1]The National Archives (TNA) WO 97/426. … Continue reading “William Buckland (1786-1856), from Guadeloupe to ‘the Fighting Fifth’, Limerick and Liverpool”
By John D Ellis Stephen Pappin was born in St Domingo c.1788. (‘St Domingue’ was a French colony on the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola. The island is now two countries – the Dominican Republic and Haiti).[1]His fore and surnames were rendered differently across a range of records. As a Prisoner of War (POW), he was … Continue reading “A “well conducted man”: Corporal Stephen (Estiphania) Pappin of St Domingo and the 39th (Dorsetshire) Foot, 1788-1845”
By John D Ellis On Sunday, 5th August 1804, the citizens of the town of Romford in Essex, whether going to church, chapel or about their business were witness to an event later described by the St James’s Chronicle as a “Phaetonic exhibition”.[1]‘Phaeton’ was a figure in Greek mythology. It was also the name given … Continue reading “The Black Soldiers of the 21st Light Dragoons c.1799-1817″
By John D Ellis In over twenty years of research on the Black presence in the British Army and Royal Navy between 1715 and 1860 it has been possible to identify approximately 500 soldiers and just over 100 ratings. The British and Irish newspapers on findmypast.co.uk[1]The content of the reporting must be viewed in the … Continue reading ““Few men are better remembered” – ‘Black Geordie’: George Graham of Dalgig, Ayrshire”
By Roxanne Gleave and Audrey Dewjee Why ‘GEMS’? On one of the Zoom events we attended during 2021 someone pointed out that, globally, white people are in a minority and that it is non-white people who form the global ethnic majority (GEM). We have got so used to (and become conditioned into) talking in terms … Continue reading “GEMS in art”
By John D Ellis In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was common for British Army regiments to recruit Black males to serve as enlisted military musicians.(1) The fashion for “Turkish music”, and the “racialised” belief in the “natural propensity for music of Black people”, resulted in most British regiments employing Black musicians to play … Continue reading “Henry McGilchrist – Kettle Drummer of the 3rd (King’s Own) Dragoons”
