Black Poppies: The Story of Britain's Black Community in the First World War E-Book

Stephen Bourne

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Did you know that Black people from around the world helped Britain fight in the First World War? How heroic were the people who fought? Why did Black people have to keep fighting for equality even after the war? In this young readers' edition of Black Poppies, Stephen Bourne takes us on a hero-filled journey. Explore the many and extraordinary ways in which Black people helped Britain fight the First World War, on the battlefield and at home. After meeting Stephen's Aunty Esther, we hear the story of Walter Tull, who led soldiers in some of history's bloodiest battles and died in the fighting just weeks before the conflict would end. Then there is Alhaji Grunshi, an African who fired the first shot of the whole war. Back at home, Black men and women helped by entertaining the people, making materials like bullets and uniforms, and beginning the long fight for equality and the freedom to celebrate being Black and British with pride.

Leseprobe

Lord Kitchener: ‘Your country needs you’.

First published 2022

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Stephen Bourne, 2022

The right of Stephen Bourne to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 8039 9151 1

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Introduction

First World War Timeline

1 Aunty Esther

2 Walter Tull

3 Norman and Roy: Brothers in Arms

4 A Death on the Battlefield

5 All the King’s Men

6 Scotland’s Black Tommy

7 George A. Roberts and the Battle of Westminster Bridge

8 British West Indies Regiment

9 A Jamaican Lad, Shot at Dawn

10 Sailors

11 A Wing and a Prayer

12 Women and War

13 The Doves

14 Hiawatha and Avril Coleridge-Taylor

15 Mabel Mercer

16 Ernest Marke: ‘We were just a scapegoat’

17 Sailor Town in London’s East End

18 Tiger Bay in Cardiff

19 Liverpool and the Murder of Charles Wotten

20 John Archer and Dr Harold Moody: Community Leaders

Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION

This new version of Black Poppies, aimed at young readers, has been written following requests from many school teachers and parents of young people. They expressed their concerns about the lack of books available to young readers about Black British history. Schools and academies across the United Kingdom have encouraged the teaching about African Americans from history but, without resources, educators have struggled to bring attention to Black Britons in their history lessons.

When the first edition of Black Poppies was published in 2014, and the second edition in 2019, I did not intend them to be read by children and teenagers, but I soon realised that young people were interested in the subject and Black Poppies filled a gap in their knowledge. For Black History Month in 2015, an invitation I received to talk about the book at my former London primary school, Oliver Goldsmith, on Peckham Road, highlighted this to me. It was an incredible experience. I hadn’t been inside the building since 1969 and the warm, friendly reception from the pupils who filled the school hall was overwhelming. Most of them came from African and Caribbean backgrounds. They responded positively to the talk and asked many interesting and challenging questions. Afterwards, I visited a couple of the classrooms to meet some of the children in person and to look at their Black Poppies project work.

In 2016 my Black Poppies journey took me to Liverpool and presented an opportunity to talk to some students at one of the city’s academies. The young people who attended my talk were extremely positive. One lad told me afterwards, ‘When you started talking, I thought your book was going to be boring and you were going to be boring, but now I think your book is amazing and I think you’re amazing!’

In 2017 I visited another academy, this time near my home in south London. Once again, the students were mostly from African and Caribbean backgrounds, but nothing prepared me for the reception I had after I started my Black Poppies talk. Holding the book up to show them the cover, I briefly explained what the book was about and then said, ‘You learn about African Americans from history, such as Dr Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, but you learn about them at the expense of Black people from British history such as Walter Tull and many others who are included in my book.’ The class erupted. There was applause. They even stamped their feet. They shouted their approval. I felt as if I had been hit by a wave and I hadn’t even given the talk. Their teacher, as surprised as I was, managed to calm them down, and I began. Experiences such as these have inspired me to write this new version of Black Poppies.

African and Caribbean War Memorial in Windrush Square, Brixton, London.

FIRST WORLDWAR TIMELINE

1914

28 June

Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Sarajevo, Bosnia, is assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, beginning a chain of events that leads to the outbreak of war.

28 July

Austria–Hungary declares war on Serbia. By 4 August, Austria–Hungary and Germany would be at war against Serbia, Russia, Belgium, France and Great Britain.

7 August

Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary for War, campaigns for 100,000 volunteers to form his New Army. In December the football player Walter Tull volunteers for the army and becomes the fifty-fifth member of the newly formed ‘Football Battalion’ of the Middlesex Regiment.

12 August

Alhaji Grunshi, an African soldier of the Gold Coast Regiment, fires the first shot for the British in the First World War.

1915

George A. Roberts leaves his home in Trinidad to enlist in the Middlesex Regiment. Some sources claim he is the first Black soldier to be promoted to sergeant in a British regiment.

April

British West Indies Regiment is established. By the end of the war the regiment would have registered 15,204 men.

31 May

Zeppelin airships drop bombs on London for the first time.

July

Jamaica’s Norman Manley and his brother Roy enlist in the British Army.

1916

31 May

Barbados-born sailor Marcus Bailey takes part in the Battle of Jutland, which begins in the North Sea. It forces the German High Seas Fleet back to port for the rest of the war.

1 July

First day of the Battle of the Somme, with 57,000 British soldiers killed or wounded in a single day.

19 November

Battle of the Somme ends. In almost five months, both sides suffer more than 600,000 casualties.

1917

21 February

SS Mendi, carrying the South African Native Labour Corps across the English Channel, is rammed by a cargo ship. This would be one of the worst maritime disasters of the war, with 646 lives lost, including 607 Black troops.

6 April

USA declares war on Germany.

26 July

Douglas ‘Roy’ Manley is killed in action.

31 July

Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele, begins. The battle continues until November in horrific conditions. There are heavy casualties.

20 September

17-year-old Private Herbert Morris of the British West Indies Regiment is executed for desertion.

1918

21 March

Germany launches a major attack on the Western Front. The Allied forces retreat.

25 March

Walter Tull is killed in action during the Second Battle of the Somme.

11 November

Germany signs the Armistice with the Allies to end the war at eleven o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

18 December

John Archer is elected President of the African Progress Union, one of the first organisations to take care of the needs of Britain’s Black citizens.

Aftermath

1919

In Italy around 8,000 soldiers from the British West Indies Regiment wait for almost a year after the Armistice to return home to the Caribbean. When denied a pay rise and ordered to clean the toilets of their fellow (white) soldiers, their resentment leads to an angry confrontation in which some of the soldiers rebel. Most of the mutineers are sent to prison. By September, the regiment would have returned home.

26 May

George A. Roberts leads thousands of ex-servicemen in a march to the Houses of Parliament. They demand improved rights and higher pensions.

January to August

During the ‘race riots’, white mobs attack members of Britain’s Black community and in Liverpool, on 5 June, Charles Wotten, an ex-serviceman from Bermuda, is murdered.

28 June

Germany and the Allies sign the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending the war.

1920

11 November

In London the Cenotaph war memorial is unveiled and a ceremonial burial takes place of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey.

1921

The British Legion is founded. George A. Roberts is one of its first members.