Tag: Black sailors in the Royal Navy

Black sailors in the Royal Navy in World War One

John Ellis has struck a rich vein recently and several new pages have been added to the site. In each case the men were identified as being ‘of colour’ on their official records and John has been able to identify the ships they served on. The men have in common their Caribbean (or Bermudan) heritage and that they served during the War, in some cases almost nothing more is known about them (always frustrating). But, in the past, we have been contacted by descendants of people discussed on this site, it is always gratifying and rewarding when this happens.

John’s recent articles are about:

  • Samuel Adolphus Clarke;
  • Edgar Jesse Forbes;
  • George Alexander Bartholomew Green;
  • William Edmund Smith; and
  • Cyril Waite.

Their experiences varied considerably – one died at sea when his ship was sunk, another survived when he was rescued after his ship hit a German mine,  he and the three other men survived the War. You can read about them via the index page of this site:

https://www.historycalroots.com/a-z-index/

If you recognise any of the names and can add to their stories do please use this site’s contact form to get in touch and share your knowledge:

https://www.historycalroots.com/contact/

 

Two new pages

We bring a very productive year to a close (34 new pages by my reckoning) with two new pages on very different subjects. Before introducing them, I must thank our contributors for their efforts. John Ellis is responsible for a lot of this year’s new content. John’s remarkable work is casting new light on the black presence in the British Army and Royal Navy in the 19th century and also in the trenches during World War One.  But others, Audrey Dewjee and Bill Hern, have played their part too. Audrey can take particular pride in her work on the story of Bertie Robinson, the black servant at Harewood House who featured in a major exhibition there. Bill and I helped with an exhibition too, it celebrated some of the London Borough of Newham’s pioneering black footballers – it’s surprising how much black history you can work into a talk about football!

John Ellis’s latest discovery is the story of a black Royal Navy sailor called John Johnson. His marriage certificate, dating from 1846, cites  his father’s occupation or profession as ‘negro slave’ – a very unusual entry on an English certificate. The marriage ended in tragic circumstances. John doesn’t speculate as to the underlying cause of the argument that led to the death of Mary Johnson but I can’t help but wonder whether racism played a part. Read the article and make up your own mind:

https://www.historycalroots.com/john-johnson-of-guadeloupe-and-greenwich/ 

The second new page features Horace Halliburton, a man of the Windrush generation (although, in fact, he arrived on these shores before the Windrush). Horace played a leading role in the Causeway Green riots of 1949, as a peacemaker. You may not know about the Causeway Green riots and it’s very unlikely you will have heard of Horace. I started researching him hoping to discover an unsung hero and, to an extent, I did, but his life story turned out to be much more complicated than I expected. You can read about Horace here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/horace-william-halliburton/

Best wishes for 2022 to all who read this.