West Indians in Britain during the Second World War

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): IWM Photograph Archive - Subject List 269

Title: West Indians in Britain during the Second World War

Date(s): 1940 - 1945

Level of description: Sub fond

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 52 photographs (b & w)

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s):

Administrative/Biographical history: During the Second World War thousands of men and women from the Caribbean were recruited into the British war effort. Over five thousand served with the Royal Air Force on ground and aircrew duties. Thousands more were employed in the Merchant Navy and in civilian war work where volunteers helped ease the manpower situation. Women from the Caribbean also played their part in the tasks of defence: serving with the Auxiliary Territorial Service and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. In addition the people of the West Indies gave generously for many purposes, including the purchase of aircraft for the RAF. Throughout the description given below the former names for Guyana (known as 'British Guiana' prior to independence in 1966), and Belize (known as 'British Honduras' prior to independence in 1973) are listed.

Archival history:

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CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: Subject List 269 within the Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive lists 52 items, each showing group and individual images of Caribbean servicemen and women and civilians involved in various aspects of war work between 1940 and 1945. The list has been divided into 6 thematic sections, each providing details of photograph negative numbers and image contents. In general the names of individual servicemen and women have been omitted from the descriptions summarised below.

SECTION 1: WEST INDIANS IN THE RAF:

• CH 4116 - Lord Moyne, Secretary of State for the Colonies, chatting to recruits who have journeyed from Trinidad for service with the RAF, 1941.
• CH 13438 - The scene on board a ship just arrived at a British port, bringing a thousand West Indian members of the RAF, 1944.
• CH 12148 - The first contingent of ground staff volunteers for the RAF who arrived in Britain from the West Indies. The photograph shows a volunteer just back from the stores holding his new kit.
• CH 5213 - A Trinidad accountant recently arrived in England as an RAF recruit. He was accepted as a pilot, completed elementary flying training with at least fifty hours to his credit, and was then sent to Service Flying Training School.
• CH 13849 - The Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Right Honourable Oliver Stanley, seen chatting with three volunteers during a passing out parade of West Indians at an RAF Station, 1944.
• CH 13851 - Jamaican aircraftman seen recording his impressions of a passing out parade of West Indian volunteers, for the BBC, 1944. The message was then broadcast on the West Indies programme.
• CH 14603 - West Indians serving with the RAF undergoing a course of instruction at an RAF Marinercraft Training School in the United Kingdom, 1945.
  CH 11478 - West Indian members of the Bombay Squadron who took part in Fighter Command sorties over enemy-occupied territory, 1943.
• CH 11978 - Trinidadian Spitfire pilot pictured with his Squadron's mascot the dog Dingo, 1944.
• CH 12263 - Photograph of an RAF Sergeant from Jamaica who volunteered for service in the RAF in 1942, completed his training in Canada, and won the Air Gunner's trophy in 1943.

SECTION 2: WEST INDIAN TROOPS IN GREAT BRITAIN:

• A 61956 - Troops from Belize (formerly British Honduras), who have volunteered for service in British Forestry units, pictured on their arrival at a British port, 20 November 1940.
• H 15859 - Photograph of West Indian winch-men, skilled tradesman with the Royal Engineers, building bridges and pontoons in the Western Command, November 1941.
• H 15866 - Two motor cyclists from Jamaica, who served with the Royal Engineers, November 1941.
• H 15869 - Two members of the Royal Engineers from Jamaica, pictured with a Bren gun, November 1941.
• H 15870 - Jamaican troops in the Royal Engineers carrying a box girder section of a bridge, November 1941.
• H 15874 - Jamaican troops in the Royal Engineers walking across a bridge they have just constructed, November 1941.

SECTION 3: WEST INDIANS IN BRITAIN DURING THEIR SERVICE IN THE MERCHANT NAVY:

• 3 images showing merchant seamen from Jamaica and St Lucia (Negative numbers D 16065, D 16071 and D 16168)

SECTION 4: WEST INDIAN LABOUR FORCE IN GREAT BRITAIN:

• L 24 - A group of Jamaican technicians, who had recently arrived in Britain, leave buses outside West India House, August 1941.
• L 31 - The Chairman of the Merseyside Labour Supply Committee greets a party of Jamaican technicians on behalf of the Minister of Labour, August 1941.
• SG 8615C - Skilled engineers, boiler makers and motor mechanics, all from the West Indies, being welcomed at the Ministry of Labour, St James' Square, London, 2 July 1942. Learie Constantine, the famous cricketer from Trinidad who was employed as a Welfare Officer for West Indians working in Britain, introduces the men to the Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin.
• D 16002 - A tea party, arranged for British Honduran Foresters, by the Duke of Devonshire.
• 12724D -Two British Honduran Forestry men using a double handled saw to cut wood into the required lengths for pit props and wood pulp in order to make paper, East Linton, Scotland, October 1943.
• 12715D - A forestry worker from British Honduras (Belize) talking to two small boys at East Linton, Scotland, October 1943.
• 12728D - A group of British Honduran forestry workers pictured on the hills of East Linton, Scotland, October 1943.
• 12723D - Forestry workers resting in one of the dormitories of British Honduras House, Edinburgh, which was staffed and run by the YMCA, October 1943.
• D 159919 - The Duke of Devonshire, Parliamentary Union-Secretary of State for the Colonies, pictured talking to West Indian technicians in the courtyard of the Colonial Office 1943.
• D 6211 - Jamaica technicians working at a factory in the north of England.
• D 6210 - Photograph of a technician from Kingston, Jamaica, seen fitting a wheel to a tank in a factory in the north of England.
• D 6202 - A Jamaican man at work in the machine shop of a northern tank factory.
• D 6203 - A group of Jamaican and Trinidadian technicians seen working on the engine of a tank in a transport repair shop.
• D 6206 - An electrician from Kingston, Jamaica, at work in a tank factory situated in the north of England.
• D 6194 - Group photograph of Jamaican technicians in the sleeping quarters of a war workers' hostel.

SECTION 5: WEST INDIAN WOMEN SERVING IN BRITAIN:

• AP 14372D - A group of West Indian women, recruited to join the ATS, wait for transport to take them to their training camp, 10 November 1943.
• PL 14369D - Three women from Trinidad, who volunteered for service in the ATS, are seen looking at a poster showing English countryside, 10 November 1943.
• CP 13937D - A group of West Indian ATS recruits just arrived at camp in an army car, November 1943.
• D 21328 - Garden party of West Indian ATS: women working in one of Britain's Ordinance depots attend a party given in their honour by members of the WVS and the British Legion Women's section at Bicester.
• D 21361 - A tea party for twenty-eight ATS women from the West Indies held at the Colonial Office by the Duke of Devonshire, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Colonies.
• PLP 3836D - Four Jamaican volunteers for the WAAF, are seen leaving the Colonial Centre in Russell Square, London, 17 February 1943.
• CH 11677 - A portrait of WAAF from Kingston, Jamaica, 3 December 1943.
• D 15033 - A WAAF recruit from Trinidad, West Indies, pictured walking in a British park.
• HU 53753 - Leading Aircraftwoman Lilian Bader, the first WAAF to be trained as an Instrument Repairer. (NB: The Imperial War Museum's Department of Documents holds the memoirs of Mrs L M Bader)
• PL 9610F - Under a scheme run by the Colonial Officer nurses from the West Indies underwent training at a London hospital. This photograph shows a nurse from Grenada taking a patient's temperature in a ward of a Fulham (London County Council) hospital, 14 March 1945.
• PL 9609F - Student nurses from Grenada, pictured together at a Fulham hospital, 14 March 1945.

SECTION 6: WEST INDIAN AID TO BRITAIN:

• P 1013 (WK) - The people of Jamaica supply a Crusader tank to Britain.
• CH 3579 - Lord Moyne, Secretary of State for the Colonies, autographing the tail plane of an aircraft purchased by the people of Jamaica, 1941.
• D 3528 - Photograph of a mobile canteen bought by the people of Guyana (formerly British Guiana) and stationed at Chelmsford in Essex. The canteen travels to local districts feeding the homeless after air attack and also Civil Defence workers. The photograph shows the WVS running the canteen and local people drinking mugs of tea.
• 7104D - Photograph of a mobile canteen, presented to the Ministry of Food by the people of Belize (formerly British Honduras), being run and used by the local citizens of Kendal, May 1943.
• H 37516 - The West Indies gave funds for the furnishing of recreation huts on Ack-Ack gun sites. This photograph shows mixed personnel of an Anti-Aircraft gun site in `Jamaica Hut', Hampshire, 13 April 1944.
• HU 53892 - The furnishing of this recreation hut, at an Anti-Aircraft Command's gun and searchlight site, was funded by donations from the people of St Lucia. In acknowledgement the name of St Lucia is permanently displayed on a plaque.
• 7079C -An ambulance presented to Britain by the people of Jamaica.

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CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: Access to the Visitor's Room of the Imperial War Museum is by appointment during the following opening hours: Monday - Friday 10:00am to 5:00pm. There are no entry fees and staff are available to advise you in your search. The Visitors Room is a short distance from the Imperial War Museum in the All Saints Annexe, Austral Street, London SE11 4SL. To make an appointment please phone +44 (0) 20 7416 5333.

Conditions governing reproduction: he majority of photographic images within the collection are Crown copyright. Applications for reproduction rights should be addressed to the Keeper, Photograph Archive. Copies are supplied in accordance with restrictions imposed by current legislation. Reproduction fees may be charged. Full details are available from the IWM web site at http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/photos.htm

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids: Printed subject list

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

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DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: February 2002

Interest: Caribbean

Specific group:

Subjects

Colonial countries

World war

Photographs

Armed forces

Personal/Corporate names

Auxiliary Territorial Service

Royal Air Force

Women's Auxiliary Air Force

Ministry of Labour

Colonial Office

Constantine, Learie, 1901-1971

Bader, Lilian, 1919-

Places

Trinidad and Tobago

Grenada

Saint Lucia

Jamaica

Guyana

Belize

Caribbean