Category: World War One and Beyond

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 1st 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 8th 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 11th August 1915.

You can view the amended article here:

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

1917: From First World War to culture war

The film ‘1917’ was released in cinemas in January 2020 to generally good reviews. It scored highly on specialist film review sites like Rotten Tomatoes (it scored 89% on the ‘tomatometer’ based on 461 reviews and 88% based on over 25,000 audience ratings) and IMdB (where it scored 8.3/10 based on 529,000 reviews). The Rotten Tomatoes summary had this to say:

‘Hard-hitting, immersive, and an impressive technical achievement, 1917 captures the trench warfare of World War I with raw, startling immediacy.’

The ‘top review’ on IMdB said:

Don’t listen to the critics saying this movie is boring. This movie is one of the most tense and exciting movies I’ve seen in years. Amazing cinematography and overall amazing experience of a movie.

By way of comparison, ‘No Time to Die’, the latest film in the James Bond franchise, scored 83% on the tomatometer and 7.4 /10 on IMdB.

What has this to do with Historycal Roots you may ask? Is this now a film review site?

To answer the second question – no, it isn’t. But there were those who attempted to enlist the film into their spurious ‘culture war’ against ‘woke history’.

One of those who spoke out against the film was actor, Laurence Fox. He expressed himself unsettled by the ‘oddness of casting’  when a Sikh character appeared in the film and that this ‘broke his immersion in the film.’ He went on ‘there is something institutionally racist about forcing diversity on people in that way.’ He made these remarks on the high profile TV programme, Question Time, at a time, surely no coincidence this, when he was attempting to launch a career in politics.

When challenged, Fox admitted ‘I’m not a historian I don’t know’ (making him well suited to a career in politics some might say), which does rather beg the question why he made the comments in the first place (jumping on a passing bandwagon seems the most obvious explanation for his ill-informed remarks).

Sikh historian Peter Singh suggested that Fox should ‘check his facts’, adding: ‘Laurence Fox is incorrect with his facts as Sikhs did fight with British forces, not just with their own regiments.’

One way Fox could educate himself would be to take a look at the Historycal Roots website and in particular at articles by John Ellis’ (over a dozen of them) and Bill Hern, about black and Asian soldiers in World War One.

This post was prompted by another soldier ‘discovered’ by John. James Eversley did not make it to France but John has identified plenty of others who did. As John says ‘it seems to me that there were plenty of bullets and shrapnel flying about in WW1 and it does not seem to have been particularly discerning about the ethnicity, nationality and social class of the squaddie it hit. They all shed the same blood in the same mud.’

James Eversley

No.5130 Private James Thomas Fitz-Evan Eversley was born at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad in August 1889. He was the son of Thomas Fitz-Evan and Elizabeth (nee’ Regis) Eversley, of Concord Village, Saddle Main Road, San Juan, Trinidad. Educated at St. Mary’s College, Trinidad, he travelled to Britain with the volunteers of the ‘Second Merchant’s Contingent’ in December 1915 (Private Valleton Redman was in the same contingent); subsequently enlisting at Mansion House, London, in the 4/4th Battalion, City of London Regiment, (Royal Fusiliers). He died of sickness at Brompton Hospital, London, in June 1916, and was buried with full military honours at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green (Mary Seacole is buried in the same cemetery). Whilst his grave does not have an individual marker, he is commemorated on the Screen Wall bearing the names of casualties of both world wars.

Sources: Trinidad 1919 Year Book. (West India Committee, 1919). Trinidad-1919-Year-Book-extract.pdf (westindiacommittee.org) caribbeanrollofhonour-ww1-ww2.yolasite.com/army-ww1.php#E Lives Of The First World War 1914-1918. Findmypast.co.uk Soldiers Died in the Great War database © Naval and Military Press Ltd 2010. www.cwgc.org

For Private Valleton Redman see: https://www.historycalroots.com/private-valleton-redman/

A rich tapestry

This post alerts you to two new pages, both articles by John Ellis, that have been added to our site recently. These two articles illustrate the rich diversity of the black contribution to British history (as does virtually all the content on the site!).

In reverse chronological order, this article https://www.historycalroots.com/admired-very-much-cyril-stuart-1895-1915-an-old-salopian/ tells the story of Cyril Stuart, a young man of mixed heritage who attended one of the best public schools in England. He lost his life in the First World War.

Cyril Stuart in 1914, standing, far left (1)

Jumping back over a century, John reports on a clutch of black soldiers who served in the 18th Hussars regiment, including several who were involved in the thick of the action at the Battle of Waterloo https://www.historycalroots.com/black-soldiers-of-the-18th-hussars-1799-1821/.

John’s painstaking research continues to shine a fresh light on neglected areas of British history.

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!

Charles Harold: A St.Vincent seafarer and soldier

Audrey Dewjee recently wrote about Bertie Robinson, the black footman at Harewood House. Bertie was born on the tiny Caribbean island of St.Vincent. John Ellis has now written about a seafarer who also started life on St.Vincent (a decade after Bertie), Charles Harold, who enlisted in the British Army in 1915, served in France and Italy and eventually lost his life whilst working as a merchant seaman during World War Two.

You can read Charles Harold’s story here:http://historycalroots.com/charles-harold-of-st-vincent-soldier-and-seafarer/

George ‘Bertie’ Robinson from St.Vincent to Harewood

I have commented before that, although the actual events of the past (the raw material of ‘history’) do not and cannot change, our understanding and interpretation of them certainly can. New research uncovers fresh information that broadens and deepens what we ‘know’.

The story of ‘Bertie’ Robinson, who Audrey Dewjee first wrote about in May 2020, is a case in point. A great deal more is now known about ‘Bertie’s’ life – for instance, that his name was actually George!  

Bertie, or should we say ‘George’, is now the subject of an exhibition at Harewood House where he lived and worked for many years.


Bertie Robinson: The Footman from St. Vincent will be on display in Harewood House until Friday 22nd October, 2021.


The digital guide to the House includes a guide to the Bertie Robinson exhibition. https://harewood.org/explore/digitalguide/

Audrey Dewjee updates us on Bertie’s story here:

http://historycalroots.com/george-bertie-robinson-a-black-footman-at-harewood-house/

Bertie was originally from the tiny Caribbean island of St Vincent, an island that hit the headlines for the wrong reasons recently. Audrey continues the story…

The 2021 eruption of La Soufrière volcano

At several points in its history, St. Vincent has been at the mercy of eruptions from La Soufrière the island’s tallest volcano.  St. Vincent is also in the “hurricane belt”, which means it is battered by violent storms every year from June to November, and is periodically hit by even stronger hurricanes that totally devastate the island.

During the period of Amelia’s letters to Harewood (see my new article), there was a particularly terrible hurricane in 1898 which killed around 300 people and wiped the island bare of animals and vegetation.  No wonder Amelia begged for help.  There was also a massive eruption of La Soufrière in 1902/3 during which at least 1,680 people died.

In 2021, La Soufrière has erupted again, forcing up to 20,000 people to be evacuated from their homes and covering the island in ash – again resulting in dead animals and damaged crops as well as destroying homes and ruining businesses.  A photograph taken in 1905 – a couple of years after the 1902/3 eruption – shows just what happens to the land after such an event.

St Vincent, 1902

And now the 2021 hurricane season is imminent.

For more information about the current situation, see:

https://reliefweb.int/report/saint-vincent-and-grenadines/saint-vincent-and-grenadines-and-surrounding-countries-la-0
 

Anyone wishing to send a donation to help the relief effort can find details of how and where to donate on the website of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines High Commission.   https://www.svghighcom.co.uk/site/Charity.html
 
A volcanic eruption may only last a few hours or days but the impact on a fragile island economy is devastating and will take many years to recover from.
 
 

 

 

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!