Tag: World War One

A fine start to 2023

In case you think John Ellis has been resting on his laurels since the start of 2023 I am here to disabuse you of that notion, the apparent hiatus in activity stems from my delays in uploading the material he has sent to me. There are three new pages from him that, between them, illustrate the diversity that has long existed in the British Armed forces.

Perhaps the saddest story of the three is that of Charles Girling who was born in St.Domingo in about 1781. Originally colonised by the Spanish in 1496, the island that came to be known as Hispaniola was to be heavily contested by competing colonial powers, with the English and French vying with the Spanish for influence and control of the area before Toussaint L’Ouverture came on the scene.

Charles Girling enlisted in a British regiment, the 20th Light Dragoons, in 1798 when the regiment was in Jamaica. In 1802 the regiment returned to England and Charles Girling went with them. But by 1805 Charles had been admitted to the notorious Bethlem Royal hospital (‘Bedlam’) afflicted by ‘lunacy’ (a diagnosis that could cover a wide variety of issues) and, having been declared ‘incurable’ in May 1806,  he spent his remaining time in institutions until he died in 1807. His story is not a happy one but John has done a remarkable job in tracking Charles’ progress through the several institutions responsible for his care.

https://www.historycalroots.com/from-st-domingo-to-bedlam-trumpeter-charles-girling-of-the-20th-light-dragoons/

The stories of William Perera and the Jacotine brothers, Harold and Eric, date from World War One. All three were born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and served in the British Army. Harold Jacotine was killed in action in April 1918 but his brother and William Perera both survived the war and returned to Ceylon. Eric Jacotine would later return to England, settle in London, become a taxi driver and raise a large family.

https://www.historycalroots.com/faugh-a-bella-private-william-perera-a-sri-lankan-in-the-royal-irish-fusiliers-during-the-first-world-war/

https://www.historycalroots.com/an-admirable-spirit-private-harold-jacotine-of-the-coldstream-guards/

Harold Jacotine

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/

 

Black soldiers in World War One

It was 2015 when the individual members of the Historycal Roots’ team first got involved in the search to identify black soldiers who served in World War One (in fact Historycal Roots didn’t exist as an entity before 2016). The project we worked on was specifically aimed at identifying black servicemen who were commemorated in the UK. One of our successes was to find the exact location of the grave of Lionel Turpin. It was an unmarked plot when we visited but, finally, in 2019 a stone was placed to mark his final resting place.

One of the first things we did back in 2015 was see what had been written about the subject and two books, both relatively recently published at the time, very quickly became our starting point. ‘Black Poppies’ by Stephen Bourne had been published in 2014 and ‘Black Tommies’ by Ray Costello was published in 2015. Two of us travelled to Manchester to hear Ray speak and we were thrilled to chat with him afterwards, the first of several very pleasant and fruitful meetings.

Both books had the sense of new ground being broken; how different they would look now, not least because of the ongoing efforts of John Ellis published on this site. One of John’s latest discoveries would have fitted perfectly into the scope of that 2015 project, Private Valleron Redman served as a member of the Royal Fusiliers and is buried at Compton Chamberlayne cemetery in Wiltshire.

Like nineteen members of the British West Indies Regiment who are buried in Commonwealth War Graves at Seaford in Sussex, Private Redman never saw active service. It was the harsh and unfamiliar climate that he succumbed to rather than enemy action – he died of pneumonia in February 1916. Read his story here: http://historycalroots.com/private-valleton-redman/.

We have published a number of other of John’s ‘finds’ recently, their stories demonstrate the diversity of those who served both in terms of their origins and the roles they performed, you can find them here:

Antonia da Costa http://historycalroots.com/antonio-da-costa-a-sapper-from-trinidad-at-the-somme/

Francis Gittens http://historycalroots.com/francis-owen-gittens-a-soldier-from-trinidad-at-the-somme/; and

Roy van Twest http://historycalroots.com/a-cingalese-machine-gunner-at-the-somme-sergeant-roy-van-twest/

As long as there are untold stories, John will research them!

They came, they served

Peter De Silva was one of the tens of thousands of men who lost their lives on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Peter had been working as a clerk in the Office of the Governor General before enlisting.

Lewis Aubrey Walcott was born in Barbados but was living in London when he enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1906. He served until 1911 but was called up again at the outbreak of war in 1914.

John Ellis has researched the military careers of these two men who served the ‘Mother Country’ during the First World War and you can read about them here:

http://historycalroots.com/our-boy-peter-private-peter-de-silva-missing-in-action-at-the-somme/

http://historycalroots.com/the-backbone-of-the-battalion-lewis-aubrey-walcott-stoker-1st-class-of-the-royal-navy-1906-1919/

An A-Z index

As the site has expanded it has become increasingly difficult to find information about individuals you may be interested in. For someone entirely self-taught in the mysterious ways of WordPress, creating an index has been a major technical challenge, but, today, I have made an index page live on the site:

http://historycalroots.com/a-z-index/

All the main people on all the pages of the site have been indexed. Some of the main posts have been indexed too but, by their nature, posts may be of only temporary interest and so not all posts have been included in the index. The index is a work in progress and, if you have any comments, please feel free to use the ‘contact’ page to offer feedback.

I will get my apologies in first. The internal links should all work today but that might change (!), I will check from time to time to make sure they are still working but, if you come across one that isn’t and you get a ‘page not found’ message, please let me know. The index will take you to the right page for that person but not always to the exact place on the page where their name appears, you may need to scroll a little to find the name.

I hope the index helps you find what you are looking for!

Three more ‘men of colour’ who served during World War One

Our knowledge of the rich tapestry of ‘men of colour’ who served in the British Army during World War One gets a little bit richer today with three, yes three, new articles by John Ellis about the service of men who were hitherto lost to history.

Pictures of men who served below the rank of officer between 1914 and 1918 are rare as hen’s teeth, we are lucky that the story of one of them featured in newspapers of the time.

The three are certainly a varied group:

Their stories include a court martial, two who were wounded and someone who was discharged as ‘unfit to serve’ because he was suffering from malnutrition.

And finally, the story of Walter Moore has a brief postscript following a contact from his great grand daughter: http://historycalroots.com/the-soldier-walter-albert-moore/

A rich tapestry indeed!

Black Royal Artillery recruits in 1915

Several books have been written about black soldiers in the British Army during World War One, ‘Black Tommies’ by Ray Costello and ‘Black Poppies’ by Stephen Bourne spring immediately to mind, no doubt there have been others. But you can’t help feeling that those books only showed the tip of an iceberg. John Ellis has now turned his attention to the period of the First World War and is uncovering the stories of many more black soldiers.

This picture and headline (‘Coloured men’s response to the new appeal for recruits’) in the ‘Daily Mirror’ of 1st June 1915, caught John’s eye:

Eight Black recruits for the Royal Artillery in 1915 (1)

John writes: “World War One saw thousands of ‘men of colour’ serving in the regiments and corps of the British Army, the Royal Navy and the forces of the Empire. Many of the men were drawn from Britain’s Black population. The men in the photo above volunteered for service in a Territorial regiment of the Royal Artillery in the North of England in 1915.

Two of the men were named by the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, as Ben David and Henry Basker, both Jamaicans.(2) It is not possible to identify either Ben or Henry in the photo, or the names of the other ‘Gunners’. However, a little more is known about Henry Basker.

He was born in Jamaica in 1888 and enlisted in May 1915, when it was noted that he was a seaman by occupation and had a ‘West Indian’ complexion, was 5 ft 5 inches tall, had a chest measurement of 37 inches and good vision.(3) Henry signed up for four years ‘provided His Majesty should so long require your services’ and he swore ‘I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to His Majesty King George the Fifth.’

His service in the Royal Artillery was brief and he was discharged in Durham in October 1915 after 164 days, ‘his services being no longer required.’ We don’t know why he was discharged, he may well have gone on to serve his country in other ways as he was obviously keen to volunteer. He clearly had a close connection to the North East prior to enlisting because his intended place of residence on discharge was Thrift Street, South Shields, Tynemouth, where his mother, Lucy, lived.”

John and I have both tried to trace ‘Lucy Basker’, so far without success, there is no sign of her in the 1911 census for instance. The presence of black men in South Shields is no surprise, it was a thriving port with a well established black community and it was where Lionel Turpin was living when he enlisted http://historycalroots.com/lionel-fitzherbert-turpin/ . But the presence of Henry’s mother is much more unexpected, if Henry was born in Jamaica in 1888 what was it that brought Lucy to South Shields? We may never know.

The full page from which that item is taken reveals the impact the war was having:

The Daily Mirror, 1st June 1915

The heading ‘Found on the battlefield – do you recognise anyone?’ is heartrending. Especially poignant is the photo at the top left of the page – it has a bullet hole through it. You can’t help but wonder how the young woman in the picture would have felt if she saw it.

This is just a taster, there are more revelations to come from John!

1)Daily Mirror, 1st June 1915. findmypast.co.uk

2)Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 26th July 1915. findmypast.co.uk

3)For Henry Basker see: UK, British Army World War I Pension Records 1914-1920. TNA WO364/172. ancestry.co.uk