The process of re-writing British history to more fully reflect the Black presence continues apace with two new articles for Historycal Roots.
In the first, John Ellis continues his exploration of the presence of soldiers ‘of colour’ in the British Army in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This time he turns his attention to the 20th Regiment of the Light Dragoons. During the period 1797 to 1818 he has identified two dozen men of colour who served in the regiment at one time or another. He has dubbed these men ‘A Band of Brothers’ not least because the names apparently include two sets of brothers. John starts his story at the end with the discharge of a group of men in Ireland in 1818. Five of them, all born on the island of St. Domingo (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), had enlisted, along with others, in the Caribbean on the same date in October 1798. They served together, saw colleagues die, and were discharged together after twenty years’ service. John’s article is here:
The second article is by another stalwart contributor, Audrey Dewjee. The recruitment of Black women to the ATS and WAAF (the branches of the Army and Royal Air Force that were open to women) in the latter part of World War 2 is relatively well documented. The story of one of them, Nadia Cattouse, can be found elsewhere on this site, she died recently at the age of 99.[1]https://www.historycalroots.com/nadia-cattouse/
What is less well known is that some women of colour, resident in Britain when the War started, had successfully defeated the colour bar that was in operation at the time and joined up anyway. Audrey’s article identifies twelve such pioneers. They include Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan whose story is relatively well known (she parachuted into France, was captured by the Germans and shot as a spy), and others about whom we know very little at all. Audrey’s article is here:
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