roots1937

Putting names to the faces

If you have ever had the task of sorting through old family photos, you will know the frustration of not being able to put names to faces. Perhaps you recognise your mother as a young woman, or some other relative, but who are those other people in the picture?

I have just been shown a photo of a woman seated with a young child on either side of her and a rather splendid teddy bear at her feet. Fortunately my wife is able to tell me that this is her grandmother with her two children. I have met all three, perhaps sixty or seventy years or so after the picture was taken, but without my wife’s prompting I could not have put names to their faces. Having your picture taken in a studio would have been a big deal and it shows in the slightly stilted poses, except perhaps the child I know as ‘Aunty Claudette’ who looks as though she might burst out of the shot were it not for her mother’s gently restraining grip.

Usually, putting names to faces is harder to do. But sometimes diligent research combined with a slice of good fortune can fill in the gaps. The photo below is of a group of ATS recruits who came to England for training in October 1943.

The photo, which comes from the National Army Museum’s collection, has been used many times but never with their names attached.

Until now!

This link will take you to an updated version of Audrey Dewjee’s article about the ATS women who came from the Caribbean to serve. The names of these nine ladies have now been included:

https://www.historycalroots.com/caribbean-women-in-the-ats-from-mid-1943-onwards/

We aren’t always so lucky. In October 2024 we published this photo of a young woman taken in Powys, North Wales, probably in the 1890s, and asked for help identifying her. So far her identity remains a mystery.

I mentioned that luck is often a factor, that’s what we need in this case. If anyone has any clues please get in touch.

Still Hidden? Black and Asian History in the Yorkshire Dales

On 19^th May I gazed out of a train window and wondered why I was making the journey. I was heading towards the market town of Hawes, deep in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. I mused that in the time it was taking to get to Hawes from south London, well over four hours, I could have reached the capital city of virtually any European country (Nicosia, Cyprus would have taken longer but that’s about it I think).

I had never visited the Dales before but when I heard that Audrey Dewjee was delivering a talk on the hidden Black and Asian history of the area it had seemed like a good opportunity to rectify the omission. But I was having second thoughts as I watched the countryside roll past. The view was nice, the sheep looked contented as they grazed their way towards someone’s Sunday dinner table, but could there really be much Black and Asian history hidden here?

When I first started taking an interest in this history, I had the pre-conceived notion that it could be found in London, Liverpool, Bristol and Cardiff, obviously, and perhaps some other urban centres too, but with the help of expert guides (like Audrey and John Ellis) my understanding has blossomed. Historycal Roots describes itself as an educational site, well, it has certainly educated me!

Is there Black and Asian history hidden in the Yorkshire Dales? Undoubtedly, and Audrey’s talk did not disappoint. It demonstrated clearly that there is Black history everywhere if you open your eyes and take the trouble to look for it. She has kindly shared her talk with us and you can read it here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/still-hidden-black-and-asian-history-in-the-yorkshire-dales/

On this day … 1916

On Saturday the 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British Army sustained 57,000 casualties, still the bloodiest day in British military history.

In just under five months, The Somme would claim 300,000 British troops and an estimated 1 million casualties on all sides.

John Ellis has identified the presence of a number of Black British troops at the Somme, just putting ‘somme’ into the website’s search box brings up many articles:

https://www.historycalroots.com/?s=somme

But perhaps today of all days should just be a day of quiet reflection on the ultimate sacrifice made by so many men of all races, nationalities and creeds.

Lest We Forget

Lists and Black British History

Lists, we all make them – shopping lists, ‘to do’ lists that never seem to get any shorter (come to think of it, that seems to apply to shopping lists too in this household!).

In his latest article, John Ellis draws attention to the lists that a historian with an interest in Black British history might draw on, they include: enslaved people (on vessels and in plantations); muster lists of Black Loyalists (from the American War of Independence); and liberated people (‘The Book of Negroes’, 1783). I would add to that the lists of the London Black poor compiled by the authorities in the 1780s and lists of names of men, women and children transported to Australia – lists that between them contain thousands of names. Names but, usually, little else. Each name on any of these lists represents a human being, they each lived a life and had some sort of story to tell but we rarely have any idea what their story was. A list captured their name in a moment in time and that was it.

I have looked at these lists myself at various times and have sometimes wondered about the possibility of finding the same person in more than one of them – that might start to piece together a life story. To do that requires patience, determination and a good slice of luck. I have never really had the first (or second) of those in sufficient quantity to get past the ‘wondering’ stage. Fortunately, John Ellis is made of sterner stuff:

For over twenty five years I have been compiling a database of Black soldiers who served in the Crown (or ‘King’s’) regiments of the British Army in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Very occasionally, an individual can be identified on more than one list. Daniel Green is one such individual.

One man, two lists and beginnings of a coherent life story. You can read about Daniel Green here: https://www.historycalroots.com/a-black-loyalist-drummer-daniel-green-of-charleston-south-carolina-and-the-38th-the-1st-staffordshire-regiment-of-foot-from-1783-to-1801/

Burma, My Father and the Forgotten Army

We pride ourselves at Historycal Roots on presenting original research, new stories that you won’t find elsewhere, but occasionally we come across something too good not to share. With thanks to Audrey Dewjee for bringing it to our attention, we highly recommend this programme from the BBC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b036x83s/burma-my-father-and-the-forgotten-army

Because it is on IPlayer it can only be accessed from within the UK and it is only available for a limited period of time (about a month), so do watch it while you can. The programme is presented by Griff Rhys Jones whose father was a doctor in the British Army during World War Two. Jones senior was sent to Burma as part of British efforts to fend off Japanese attempts to invade India. Key to the campaign was the use of Black soldiers from West Africa (The Gold Coast, now Ghana). Whilst I was aware of the Burma campaign, the fact that Black African soldiers played such an important role was entirely new to me. A number of the veterans are still alive and share their memories.

Griff Rhys Jones sums up:

A lot of people are completely unaware that a huge amount of the fighting was done by Indian, Gurkha and African troops.

Sir Geoff Palmer 9^th April 1940 to 12^th June 2025

Audrey Dewjee has alerted us to the sad news that Sir Geoff Palmer has passed. He was best known as a brilliant scientist but he understood the importance of Black History and devoted much of his later years to research and sharing what he knew. He was a great role model and inspiration for the young.

Now considered an intellectual giant, when he arrived in Britain in 1955 he was labelled “educationally subnormal” by the racist education system of the time.

He went on to become professor emeritus in the School of Life Sciences at Heriot-Watt University and this article about him was published on the Edinburgh University website in June 2024: https://global.ed.ac.uk/uncovered/1960/geoff-palmer

The BBC have posted this tribute to him: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93lry1e6z5o

Sir Geoff told his own remarkable story in Black History Month 2024 https://www.agescotland.org.uk/news/1291-black-history-month-professor-sir-geoff-palmer

May he rest in peace.

Who buys a calendar in April?

Well, perhaps you should!

For the past four years Barbara Ellis has produced a ‘Lest We Forget’ calendar commemorating the contribution of men and women of colour from the Caribbean to the British war effort in the two World Wars. We have them all.

You won’t be able to read the text in the following images but they give you an idea of the overall approach.

We have kept them because, in addition to being a wall calendar for the year, they each contain a wealth of Black British history. For each month there is a meticulously researched article about a particular person or on a theme. Honestly, if you could take the articles from the four years and put them together, you would get a great book about Black British history full of stories that are new to you.

The calendar costs £10 but, for obvious reasons, Barbara will sell the few she has left for £5. If you are interested you can contact her here:

babarasellis4(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com

Please be patient as we know that she is lucky enough to be on holiday at the moment.

While we have your attention, a subscriber asked if we could make the link to the list of prisoners of colour in Newgate gaol produced by John Ellis more accessible – your wish is our command! Here it is:

Black or of colour inmates remanded into Newgate Gaol between May 1817 and January 1882

New contributions from Audrey Dewjee and John Ellis

We started this website in 2016 partly because we kept coming across stories from Black British history that we didn’t know about. Sometimes they were stories that we should have known but had simply missed, but often they were stories that were tucked away in obscure places that needed a lot of effort to find. We felt that much of this hidden history deserved to be more widely known. On the home page of the site we express this as

‘we are keen to raise awareness of the black and mixed heritage people who have played a part in shaping the way society looks today but whose role has been overlooked or not given the credit they are due’

We started to do our own research aimed at bringing previously untold stories into the light and we had some early successes. But we have been greatly helped by the contributions of Bill Hern, Audrey Dewjee and John Ellis, who share our passion.

This preamble introduces you to fresh contributions from Audrey and John.

It seems to us that Audrey has done more to identify the presence of Black and mixed heritage women from the Caribbean in the armed services during WW2 than anyone else. Today we publish her third article on the subject. In the previous two she has written about women from the Caribbean who served in the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army), in her third article she turns her attention to the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force).

Through painstaking research she has identified the names of almost a hundred women from the Caribbean who served in the WAAF. Many were white but some were Black or of mixed heritage. Fascinating in its own right, the article also offers a gateway for anyone interested in doing further research in this area. Audrey tells us what became of the handful of the women after the war but, as she herself acknowledges, there is much, much more to find. If one of these ladies was an ancestor of yours we would love to hear from you!

Audrey’s latest article is here: https://www.historycalroots.com/west-indian-women-in-the-waaf-in-world-war-2/

Meanwhile John Ellis has also been busy. He has previously written about women of colour in Newgate Gaol in the nineteenth century but, during the course of his research for that article, he actually identified all those of colour, men and women, who are mentioned in the prison records. John believes this list quite possibly contains the largest number of references to individuals of colour for this period thus far identified. He has not researched the men but, as with Audrey’s article, there is a wealth of information that might be of use to anyone researching the history of this period. A link to the database including all the information John discovered has now been added to the original article, there are a large number of ‘people of colour’ previously unknown to history:

https://www.historycalroots.com/forgotten-stories-women-of-colour-in-newgate-gaol-1817-1882/

John Richards: 1926 to 2025

John Richards, on the right (image shared by Arthur Torrington of the Windrush Foundation)

It is very sad to report that John Richards, one of the passengers on the Empire Windrush when it docked at Tilbury in May 1948, passed away on 10^th March at the age of ninety-eight. John featured in a number of iconic images, not least the one above. John is on the right and, as you can see, he was a very snappy dresser!

The other two men in the photo are John Hazel (on the left), a boxer who settled in Liverpool, and Harold Wilmot, a member of the Southlanders vocal group and father of the entertainer Gary Wilmot.

We were privileged to meet John several times and he was a courteous and modest man, a real gentleman. He will be sadly missed by all those who knew him.

The Windrush Foundation have produced a short documentary film and an e-book about his life, both can be obtained via the Foundation’s website: https://windrushfoundation.com/john-richards-no-regrets/

More evidence of the Black presence in Britain before the Windrush

There are many ways we can demonstrate the pre-Windrush Black presence in Britain, regular contributor, John Ellis, shows three of them in a series of articles just published on this site.

The criminal justice system

An increasing number of historic records from the criminal justice system are being digitised and made available online. John has utilised the records from Newgate Gaol and the Old Bailey in earlier articles, now he turns his attention to Dorchester Prison for the years 1782 to 1901. From the records kept by the jailers, John has identified almost fifty inmates who passed through the doors of the jail who were ‘of colour’. This is, of course, a tiny proportion of the total number of prisoners. As you would expect a variety of crimes were recorded against the names. The most common (eighteen cases) was ‘vagrancy’, something we would refer to now as ‘rough sleeping’. These ‘vagrants’ were most probably men tramping across the county in search of work but ‘rough sleeping’ had been criminalised by the Vagrancy Act of 1824 and these men were found guilty of it.

One of the prisoners had been found guilty of blasphemy. This was Robert Wedderburn. He was closely associated with a group plotting to overthrow the Government, the plot, known as the Cato Street conspiracy, was betrayed by an informer and five of the conspirators went to the gallows in May 1820. Wedderburn could very well have been one of them had he not been arrested in November 1819 and held without trial in Newgate for two months before being transferred to Dorchester in May 1820. His time locked up in prison, just a few miles away from the site of the conspiracy, probably saved his life.

By identifying the names of these men, John has opened the door to further research by those interested in tracing their ancestors, researching local history or doing academic research.

https://www.historycalroots.com/black-or-of-colour-inmates-at-dorchester-prison-1782-to-1901/

Royal Navy pension records

Royal Navy pension records are another invaluable source as they often use ‘black’ or ‘of colour’ as descriptive terms for men who served. John has written many articles utilising these records and, in his latest, he introduces us to the career of George Barton. Born in Jamaica, possibly in 1896, how he came to be in the Royal Navy is not known but he went on to serve on at least fourteen ships between 1814 and 1834. He served in a range of roles but mostly as a cook. When not at sea he lived in Portsmouth and it was here that he married once and possibly twice.

On 3^rd September 1839, he married Amelia Bowers at St. Mary’s church, Portsea.^[1]https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FPORTSMOUTH%2FMAR%2F00065069%2F1&tab=this The record shows him to be a ‘widower’ which clearly suggests he had been married before although the identity of his first wife cannot be established with certainty. Amelia was a widow. Interestingly, the 1851 census shows her birthplace as Jamaica and George and Amelia are both designated as ‘people of colour’. At the time of the census they had four children.

https://www.historycalroots.com/george-barton-of-jamaica-and-portsea/

British Army service and pension records

British Army service and pension records are another invaluable source and John has identified many Black soldiers using these records. His latest ‘find’ is Huntley Hugh Lecesne who served during the First World War, initially with the Middlesex Regiment before transferring to the Machine Gun Corps. What is particularly interesting about him is that in November 1915 he paid his own fare to cross the Atlantic and enlist in Britain.

He was not the only man to take matters into his own hands when it came to joining the fray. Early in 1915, frustrated at their inability to enlist in the Caribbean, seven men stowed away on the SS Danube bound for England with the intention of enlisting when they landed. Once the ship was at sea they were discovered and agreed to work their passage for the remainder of the voyage. But when they landed, they were arrested and taken to court where the magistrate proceeded to denigrate and mock them. They were remanded for a week and then shipped back to the Caribbean. What became of them is hard to establish, however, the historian David Olusoga has tracked down Royal Navy service records for three of them and two of them received the Mercantile Marine Medal awarded for service in hostile waters.^[2]‘Black and British: A Forgotten Story’ (p.433) by David Olusoga, Macmillan, 2016 Private Lecesne was fortunate to have been received rather more warmly when he arrived.

He survived the war and tried to reclaim the cost of his fare but the War Office was having none of it! He returned to Jamaica where he married at least once and fathered at least one child. Sadly he died of heart disease at the age of thirty-six with the cause of death shown as ‘aortic regurgitation and exhaustion’.

https://www.historycalroots.com/private-huntley-hugh-lecesne-a-jamaican-in-the-machine-gun-corps-during-ww1/

John’s articles continue to cast light on the Black presence in Britain that long pre-dates the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948.

References[+]

References
↑1	https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FPORTSMOUTH%2FMAR%2F00065069%2F1&tab=this
↑2	‘Black and British: A Forgotten Story’ (p.433) by David Olusoga, Macmillan, 2016