By Audrey Dewjee, 17th July 2025
I first became aware of the existence of Raymond Henry Costello in April 1985, when I read about him in the Radio Times. He was to be featured in one of the items in the weekly programme, Ebony, presented on BBC 2 by Juliet Alexander and Vince Herbert. The listing read, “Ebony’s own ‘Roots’ saga, as Liverpool schoolteacher Ray Costello and 10-year-old Calvin Myrer trace Ray’s ancestry from England to Bermuda.” This was accompanied by photos of Ray and his great-grandparents. I could hardly wait to watch the programme as I was so intrigued.
It took several years before I managed to get in touch with Ray. In 1994, I bought a little book intended for KS1 National Curriculum History entitled Exploring History, which had been published the previous year. Featuring photographs of children from a variety of ethnic backgrounds against a backdrop of an exhibition of Liverpool’s Black History, it was produced in dual language format (English and Somali) by Liverpool Education Directorate’s Race Equality Management Team. The names of the team’s steering committee were listed: Lenford White, Ray Costello and Duane Chong.
There was a phone number in the book, so I rang and spoke to Ray and I followed this up with a letter the following day. We remained in contact from then on.
The exhibition in the background of Exploring History was a temporary one, entitled Staying Power – Black Presence in Liverpool. It had been staged at the Merseyside Museum of Labour History in 1991. A souvenir booklet of the exhibition by Marij van Helmond (curator) and Donna Palmer (who acted as research assistant) was published by National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside the same year. Ray Costello provided a number of images for the exhibition and, again, he was listed as a member of the steering group for the project.
These were some of the excellent resources Ray was involved in creating in the early 1990s.
We had been in touch for some time when he told me that he was working on a book about the Black community in Liverpool. I introduced Ray to a couple of people who could provide images for the book. Two of the photos made it on to the front cover of Black Liverpool: The Early History of Britain’s Oldest Black Community 1730-1918, which was published in 2001. Mrs. Orgill was a relative of my next-door-neighbour in London, and the photo of Marcus Bailey and his colleague came from Lilian Bader.
My family and Lilian were invited to the launch of the book and we spent a great couple of days together in Liverpool.
Over the years, we kept in contact with Ray by phone and email. He invited us to a play by Garry Morris about Tom Molyneux, the brilliant Black boxer from the early 19th century, which gave us another opportunity for an inspiring visit to the city; and we met up now and again at various Black History conferences.
In more recent years, Ray’s work became known nationally with the publication of books such as Black Salt in 2014 and Black Tommies in 2015 (both Liverpool University Press), but I especially treasure the memories of our friendship in the pioneering years when Black History was less well-known, and when making new discoveries was really exciting.
As so many tributes to him have pointed out, Ray was a wonderful man, kind, generous, and funny, as well as being a great historian. We will miss you Ray – Rest in Peace.