World War One and Beyond

At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month – we will remember them

Today is a day for quiet reflection as we honour the sacrifices of all members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty in all conflicts and wars since those who laid down their lives in the First World War. This is the day in 1918 when the guns fell silent on the Western Front after more than four years of fighting.

But if today is about ‘remembering’, then it should not only be about the Western Front, the 1914-18 war was indeed a World War and few places were untouched by it.

I followed a link on the BBC website this morning to an article entitled ‘What role did the British Empire play in the war?’ I thought this ‘Bitesize’ article would be illuminating. It was, but perhaps not in the way I had hoped.

I learnt that ‘British colonies sent over two and a half million men to fight for Britain during the war.’ They came from ‘India’ (which the article adds, at that time included Pakistan and Bangladesh) and ‘colonies as far away as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia (which is now Zimbabwe) also sent thousands of soldiers.’ ‘Bitesize’ history indeed.

Perhaps it is unfair to expect the full story from a self proclaimed ‘bitesize’ piece, but that shouldn’t stop us from filling in some of the gaps. Britain’s colonies in the area of the the Caribbean sent around 15,600 men to serve in the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR), a small number in the grand scheme of things but that doesn’t mean their contribution should be forgotten.

There is a book by Dominiek Dendooven which covers the presence of the BWIR on the Western Front and there will soon be a book covering the contribution of the 1^st and 2^nd battalions of the BWIR (we are spending today proof reading it!). These men, around two thousand of them, trained at a camp at Seaford in Sussex and then went on to serve in campaigns in Egypt and Palestine and also in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) and in East Africa, a few also served in Flanders. They served with distinction but many never returned to their homes and are commemorated from Dar-es-Salaam to Basra and many places in between. Their stories have never previously been told.

Today, we remember all of them.

New articles – Black History Month 2025

We have new articles this month from regular contributors, John Ellis and Audrey Dewjee. The fact we are in Black History Month is purely coincidental, at Historycal Roots, every month is Black History Month!

John tells us of three more Black soldiers in World War One.

Lance-Corporal Joseph AW Peterson, Hampshire Regiment, service No.17350

I know that John was irritated by criticism of the film 1917 when it was released in 2019. It garnered high praise for its technical brilliance (seemingly shot in one continuous take although, in fact, there were some barely noticeable edits), and for its unvarnished depiction of the horror of war. One reviewer said:

This film is overwhelming. I have nothing further to add, other than the compelling need for eternal remembrance to those who sacrificed their lives in any way, we can not fathom.

But there were those who criticised the ‘unrealistic’ inclusion of Black and Asian soldiers which allegedly arose from a need to appear ‘woke’:

All movie producers these days are under pressure to kneel before the “Woke” generation and showcase minorities, even if it couldn’t have happened.

When I asked Google A1 about this I got the following response:

The 2019 film ‘1917’ features black soldiers, but their presence with integrated British infantry units was largely an artistic choice to reflect that the war was a global conflict, rather than an accurate depiction of military integration at the time While black soldiers did serve in the war, they were typically in separate units or labor corps, with a few exceptions like Walter Tull, a black officer in the Middlesex Regiment.

Sadly more and more people will get their ‘history’ filtered by AI rather than from the whole series of articles that John has written on the subject. AI can be helpful, of course, but clearly there are huge risks if we come to rely on it.

John’s latest article is here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/three-black-soldiers-in-world-war-one/

Not content with that, John has also written about Private C Calvert, who served in the Middlesex Regiment in WW1. We would not know of Private Calvert were it not for a very brief item that appeared in the Daily Mirror on 1^st September 1915:

https://www.historycalroots.com/private-c-calvert-of-the-middlesex-regiment-in-ww1/

And, John has also found time to write about yet another Black soldier in World War One. You can read about Michael Cipriani here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/trooper-michael-cipriani-a-coloured-trinidadian-in-the-life-guards-during-the-first-world-war/

Audrey takes us further back into British history, to the proclamation issued by the Lord Mayor of London on 14^th September 1731:

‘for the future no Negroes or other Blacks be suffered to be bound apprentices at any of the Companies of this City’.

As you will read, the Aldermen of the City of London were clearly having second thoughts about granting the Freedom of the City of London just one week earlier to John Satia. Originally from Barbados, Satia had been brought to England as a servant and subsequently served an apprenticeship. Completing the apprenticeship ‘entitled’ him to the Freedom of the City, which was duly granted on 14^th September 1731.

Keen that London shouldn’t have it all its own way, Audrey introduces us to John Moore who gained the Freedom of York even earlier, on 29^th September 1687. As freemen these men would have been entitled to vote in General Elections and may well have done so.

You can read Audrey’s article here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/early-black-freemen-and-voters-john-satia-john-london-and-john-moore/

Enjoy reading these articles and remember, the next Black History Month – November 2025 – is just days away!

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

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

An unknown Black Soldier at the Battle of the Somme

A decade ago we worked on a project to identify Black soldiers who served in the First World War and who were commemorated in the UK. We had some successes, as a result of our work the ‘lost’ grave of Lionel Turpin was located and his final resting place in a Leamington cemetery is now marked. The project also led us to the story of the Walker Brothers and a book that tells their story:

We were helped in our work by two books, recently published at the time, Black Poppies by Stephen Bourne and Black Tommies by Ray Costello, but there was still a sense that this was a hidden history and that there were those who wished to deny the presence of Black soldiers in Flanders – if they were there at all, they were there simply as labourers, not as fighting troops. Thanks to the work of John Ellis our website now contains the stories of a number of men of colour who served in combat roles (just type ‘somme’ into the search box to find them).

The photo we feature below is further proof of a Black presence at the Battle of the Somme in 1916:

John Ellis provides some context:

This unit is D Company of the 1^st/4^th Gloucestershire Regiment (City of Bristol Battalion). They were formed from civilian volunteers living in Bristol when WW1 broke out. They went to France in 1915 and in July 1916 they participated in the Battle of the Somme. The photo was taken after a successful attack on the German trenches They have taken trophies: A German machine gun. German helmets and swords. Within a few days they went back into battle. The Battle of the Somme ended in November 1916. Over 400,000 British soldiers were killed. So many of the men in the photograph would have been wounded or killed after it was taken.

Only a few of the men in the photo have been identified. Most are unknown. Including the Black soldier sitting behind the machine gun among his comrades.

The photograph comes from the collection of amateur historian, Ian Chard, who reached out to the BBC in an attempt to find out who some of the men were. You can read more about the story here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-67945251

As we approach Remembrance Day the photograph offers a timely reminder of the diversity of those who have served Britain.

The ill-fated voyage of the SS Verdala

On 11^th March 1916 the SS Verdala left Jamaica with 1,160 recruits on board, men who had enlisted to fight for Britain in the ‘Great War’. As the ship steamed out of the harbour, even the Governor of Jamaica, Sir W H Manning, didn’t know the precise details of the planned voyage other than that England was the ultimate destination. What transpired shook many Jamaicans’ faith in the colonial authorities.

Recruits marching through the streets of Kingston on their way to the Verdala^[1]From ‘Jamaica and the Great War’ by Herbert G De Lisser

On the eve of departure from Kingston^[2]De Lisser, Op.cit.

The Verdala was ill-suited for the voyage that lay ahead and nine of the men who left Jamaica with high hopes of contributing to the war effort died long before the ship reached England. Hundreds of others were permanently disabled.

You may be familiar with the story, the broad outlines are relatively well-known, but even with well-known stories there is often more that can be learned. We think our latest article will contain new information for even the most well-read of this site’s followers. You can read it here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/an-ill-fated-voyage-the-ss-verdala-march-1916/

References[+]

References
↑1	From ‘Jamaica and the Great War’ by Herbert G De Lisser
↑2	De Lisser, Op.cit.

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 20^th 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/

A remarkable find: Cyril Mellonius on Pathé News

Welcome to our first post of 2023 and, almost inevitably, it features a ‘find’ by John Ellis.

In November 2019 we published an article by John that featured Cyril Mellonius, you can read it here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/a-sri-lankan-in-the-die-hards-private-cyril-lorenz-mellonius-a-somme-veteran-of-the-middlesex-regiment/

Now he has stumbled across some remarkable Pathé News footage on You Tube which shows a group of Ceylonese men (Cyril must surely be among them) marching to enlist in London in January 1916. It is black and white (obviously), silent and grainy (and you have to get past the irritating adverts at the beginning) but it gives us a fascinating glimpse of the men John wrote about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7JHDAuy94M

A good start to the year!

A black soldier in Edgeware (London) in 1919

John Ellis’s latest post features a soldier who was born in Mauritius, was conscripted into the British Army in February 1918 whilst working in Paris, saw active service with a Dorset regiment in Flanders and was attacked by a racist mob on the streets of London in April 1919. That shorthand introduction to the story of Robert Bissessur raises an intriguing series of questions but I want to focus here on the last part of the story.

The fact that there were ‘race riots’ (i.e. attacks on black people by racist white mobs) in Britain in 1919 is well documented. David Olusoga^[1]Black and British – A Forgotten History is just one of many historians to write about the issue. Olusoga identifies nine cities where violence occurred. The first of the ‘riots’ took place in Glasgow in January, riots followed in South Shields, London (Docklands), Hull, Barry, Newport and Cardiff in south Wales and Liverpool. The riots in Cardiff were arguably the most ferocious (three men died) and those in Liverpool are possibly the best known – a Bermudan sailor, Charles Wootton (or Wootten), was hounded to his death in what Olusoga describes as a lynching. I have never previously seen Edgeware in London mentioned in this context and yet this is where Robert Bissessur and some fellow black soldiers were attacked by a mob.

The incident actually took place in Praed Street which certainly wouldn’t be considered ‘Docklands’ but is quite close to Paddington station and to the Paddington canal basin. Praed Street is little more than a stone’s throw from Cato Street, scene of the 1820 Cato Street conspiracy, on the other side of the Edgeware Road, and only a little north of the site of the infamous Tyburn gallows, so the area is steeped in history. By the 1830s Cato Street was said to be ‘full of the lowest class of Irish’ and when Charles Booth did his poverty survey in the 1890s they were still there.^[2]Conspiracy on Cato Street – A tale of liberty and revolution in Regency London by Vic Catrell It is unlikely much had changed by 1919. So, we can safely assume the area would have been rough and ready by the time Charles and his fellow black soldiers visited.

The story of the riot featured in a number of newspapers, one going so far as to describe what transpired as having the hallmarks of an attempted lynching. John’s article includes an extensive quote from the African Telegraph and Gold Coast Mirror‘s 1^st April 1919 edition but several other newspapers also carried the story.

John has also sent me newspaper cuttings that refer to an incident in Winchester near to the Army camp where white and black soldiers (like Robert Bissessur) were waiting to be demobbed. Clearly racial tension was widespread in 1919, just how widespread probably merits further discussion, for now, we will leave that for another day.

You can read John’s article about Robert Bissessur here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/robert-bissessur-a-man-of-colour-in-the-dorset-regiment-in-the-first-world-war/

References[+]

References
↑1	Black and British – A Forgotten History
↑2	Conspiracy on Cato Street – A tale of liberty and revolution in Regency London by Vic Catrell

A newly discovered image of Cyril Adolphus Stuart

In 2021 we published an article by John Ellis about Cyril Adolphus Stuart. Recently, John stumbled across a photo of Cyril and we have added it to the original article. Published in the Daily Mirror in its 8^th March 1915 edition, the photo includes the King in the background (mounted, second right) and, in a separate picture, the Queen presenting Cyril with his prize.

The caption under the photo reads “King George, always at home with his soldiers, acted on Saturday as starter in the big military race run at Aldershot, when over 500 soldiers competed. The Queen very graciously presented the prizes. The race was won by Private Stewart [sic], a coloured soldier from Jamaica.”

Within six months Cyril was dead, he died of his wounds on 11^th August 1915.

You can view the amended article here:

https://www.historycalroots.com/admired-very-much-cyril-stuart-1895-1915-an-old-salopian/