WWI’S Black Heroes
Author of Black Poppies, Stephen Bourne, talks to us about the different experiences of British soldiers of African and Caribbean heritage in the Great War and the incredible lives he has been trying to rediscover
Remembering the lost voices of the Great War with Stephen Bourne
The process of reassessing and reevaluating history is an ongoing and rigorous one. It’s one of the many reasons why a study of history can be so rewarding; a surprise can often be waiting for you in a place you thought well explored. In recent years, the process of peeling away centuries of prejudice to reveal the blind spot of historical records as regards black and minority ethnic figures in Western history has been a particular focus for historians.
One such writer is Stephen Bourne, author of a number of books on the black British experience including Mother Country: Britain’s Black Community on the Home Front 1939–45 (The History Press), War to Windrush: Black Women in Britain 1939-1948 (Jacaranda Books), and Black Poppies: Britain’s Black Community and the Great War (The History Press) about which we wanted to talk to him about this issue. While images of the First World War clearly show black Britons fighting alongside white, like many others he noticed a distinct lack of context or detail about these men in books about the war. In some instances, the contributions of black and minority ethnic peoples had been seemingly erased from the record.
With this in mind we wanted to chat with Stephen Bourne about the stories in his book, the lives he has helped to uncover and the hard work of finding details about people who history has left behind. It’s just one area in which a modern perspective is bringing to light lost history, bringing a lot of exciting and challenging new assessments of what some might think are settled questions.
Why was the British military not segregated like the US military was for so many years?
Unlike the US military, we didn’t have an official reason to do so. Page 471 of the Manual of Military Law (1914) stated that ‘any negro or person of colour, although an alien, may voluntarily enlist’ and when serving would be ‘deemed to be entitled to all the privileges of a natural-born British subject’. However, although they were prohibited from being promoted to commissioned rank, there were occasions when soldiers of African heritage, such as David Clemetson and Walter Tull, were commissioned. Unlike the US military, we did not require the ethnicity of servicemen to be recorded in their recruitment papers. With the rush to join up in 1914, British-born black men from all over the country and all walks of life and class backgrounds volunteered at army recruitment centres. It is true that some of them faced discrimination, and were turned away, but not all of them.
Presumably the collective experience of war helped to form bonds of friendship across racial lines where previously there might have been prejudice in the way?
It is also true that those who were recruited shared comradeship with white soldiers on the front-line,
especially the ‘Tommies’. This is made clear in Black Poppies in the stories of Norman Manley, Harold Brown, Albert James, Arthur Roberts (whose First World War diaries were rediscovered after he had passed away in 1982), George A. Roberts and others. Some – although still very few – rose through the ranks, but virulent racism was more likely to be found amongst the white elite, as explained by Norman Manley. He was promoted to corporal, but then he asked to be demoted when he was unable to cope with the racist attitudes he had encountered. On the other hand, Walter Tull rose through the ranks apparently unscathed and, when he was killed in action in 1918, three of his comrades risked their lives – under enemy fire – to retrieve his body. That says a great deal about the comradeship that existed between black and white soldiers on the battlefields.
Would a unit like the British West Indies Regiment have had a different experience?
It could be argued that the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR), raised in 1915 as a separate black unit within the British army, was an attempt to ‘segregate’ black and white soldiers. But it actually existed to accommodate the thousands of men in Guyana and the Caribbean who wanted to support their ‘Mother Country’ during wartime. The BWIR was raised against the wishes of Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, but was ultimately done so with the encouragement of the Colonial Office and King George V. By the war’s end in November, the BWIR had registered 15,204 men and had rejected 13,940. Of the total accepted, 10,280 (66 per cent) came from Jamaica.
Despite there being no segregation, presumably there was no shortage of prejudice to overcome?
There was prejudice, but perhaps less than we expect between black and white comrades in
British regiments. After all, they were at war, fighting a common enemy. However, there were concerns from the powers that be in the military that, if a black soldier was given a gun, he could be a source of danger to his white comrades, and not the enemy. It was felt that their colour would make them conspicuous on the battlefields. There were many exceptions, like Walter Tull [who earned promotions]. In spite of this, black Britons, as well as men from the Caribbean and West African colonies, came forward and joined up. Some of them hoped that by supporting the British in wartime, their countries would be de-colonised after the war. They hoped that, by showing they were as good as their white comrades, they would strengthen the case for independence for their homelands but they had to fight in another world war before this happened.
The worst case of racism I read about (and I have included this in the book) was the deliberate segregation of 8,000 members of the British
West Indies Regiment after the war had ended. They were transferred to a military camp in Taranto, Italy but they waited for over a year to be demobbed. They were treated appallingly by
the British military and the situation escalated in December, 1918 when they were ordered to wash the dirty linen of the white British soldiers and Italian labourers. When they were ordered to clean the latrines as well, they flatly refused. A rebellion followed and many of them were court-martialled. The members of the BWIR in Taranto were virtual prisoners for almost a year after the Armistice.
What were the greatest challenges in telling the stories of black British soldiers in WWI?
I am not a military historian but I refused to allow my lack of knowledge of that aspect of the First World War to deter me. However, the greatest challenge for me was the lack of information available. Historians of the
First World War – and there are many – have systematically failed to acknowledge the contribution of black servicemen to the conflict. Some of them argued that the numbers were so small that their contribution was not worth considering. When I began writing Black Poppies, some of the information was fragmentary and conflicted. Trying to unravel the truth was a painstaking task. It was the most difficult and challenging book I have ever written.
“He was promoted to corporal, but then he asked to be demoted when he was unable to cope with the racist attitudes he encountered”
What sorts of records and sources were you able to rely on?
For Black Poppies I relied on the work of historians like Ray Costello, who specialises in the history of Liverpool’s black community; Professor David Killingray, who has expert knowledge of Africans who served in the British army; and Jeffrey
Green, who provided me with his research on the British West Indies Regiment. They had written about different aspects of the story in their books and articles and they were very supportive and generous with their time and expertise. Green is also knowledgeable about other aspects of Britain’s black community, including the founding of the influential African Progress Union in London in 1918. I wrote Black Poppies before David Olusoga’s The World’s War – Forgotten Soldiers of Empire, so I didn’t have access to his work.
I left school educationally disadvantaged. I did not go to university. I have never studied history. I taught myself how to use archives, such as the National Archives, Imperial War Museum, National Army Museum, Black Cultural Archives and the British Library. When I started writing history books in 1991, my approach was simple. Search for and collect first-hand testimony from the people who made history. So, first-hand testimony has been an important feature of all my history books whether it be from living relatives, letters or other sources.
How did you go about finding first hand accounts from the First World War?
It was difficult to find it for Black Poppies but
Tony T. and Rebecca Goldstone generously gave me permission to quote from the interviews they conducted in the 1980s with survivors of the British West Indies Regiment. These First World War veterans were elderly then, living in retirement across the Caribbean, but their memories of being in the conflict were clear. I also found Norman Manley’s published memories of his First World War experiences in a 1973 edition of Jamaica Journal. My motto is: ‘Seek and you will find.’ Occasionally I am approached with information. A member of the Manley family read the first edition of Black Poppies and he asked to meet me. He showed me Norman Manley and his siblings’ First World War correspondence detailing the trials, tribulations and triumphs of life on the battlefields. He later granted permission for me to publish the letters in the new edition of Black Poppies. However, I have to mention that research for my books is sometimes restricted because there is no funding available for historians like myself who work outside of academia. This prevents me from applying for research grants from funding bodies like the British Academy or Arts and Humanities Research Council. The
Arts Council of England stopped funding history research some years ago and I have been turned down for PHD funding four times for black British history projects.
Walter Tull is a name many of our readers might recognise and you spend some time discussing in the book. Why was he important?
Walter Tull’s story is important because we have a lot of information about his life both as a football hero, and as a soldier who successfully rose through the ranks. Photographs too.
Perhaps he was more acceptable to his white comrades because of his success as a sportsman? Nevertheless, he is an inspiring British historical figure – but the British school curriculum needs to ensure he has a place in history lessons alongside the lives of the African American icons they teach, such as Dr Martin Luther King.
Why did you also choose to cover the stories of non-combatants during the war, like the conscientious objector Isaac Hall and the connected families of those at war?
It was important to me to offer a wide range of black British lives in the First World War. This is why I included black women and children on the home front, and the conscientious objector Isaac Hall. I aimed to give a fully rounded picture.
“Trying to unravel the truth was a painstaking task. It was the most difficult and challenging book I have ever written”
How has touring and giving talks on Black Poppies changed or evolved your understanding of these stories?
Since 2014 I have given many talks on Black Poppies and the reaction to the stories I tell has been astounding. I have had nothing but praise, especially in the black community, for cracking open the subject. My understanding of the subject has grown, hence the publication of the new edition, and I make a point of informing people that, in my personal view, racism existed in British history but not all white people were racists, and not all black people saw themselves as victims.
This is a concept you mention in the intro to your book. How important do you think that lesson is for readers of Black Poppies?
It is vitally important for historians to question and challenge what they read. If I hadn’t done this, I would have ended up stuck in the 1980s. I would have believed what I was told back then by activists, that in the history of our country, with the existence of the British Empire and colonialism, all white British people were racists and all black people were victims of racism. When I give the Black Poppies talk to young black people, they are upset by the racist incidents and attitudes I include in the book, but at the same time they are inspired and empowered by the stories of black
“Racism existed in British history but not all white people were racists, and not all black people saw themselves as victims”
servicemen’s comradeship with white servicemen, their heroism on the battlefields, and their ability to overcome adversity.
With the new access and public talks, does Black Poppies feel more like a living project in your life at this point?
Black Poppies has been a living project in my life since I signed the publishing contract with The History Press. It has been my most popular and successful black British history book. Whenever I visit the Imperial War Museum in London, the bookshop staff, who know me, always tell me that since 2014 Black Poppies has been their most popular title. Hard to believe, but true, considering the book was ignored by the media including many broadsheets and the BBC during the centenary period.
It’s a book full of inspiring people, tales of heroism and tragedy. Are there any that particularly stand out to you?
They are all extraordinary people, but I shall never forget the emotional impact of uncovering the life – and death – of Herbert Morris, the Jamaican lad who was shot at dawn for desertion. I am also fascinated by Mabel Mercer, the British-born singer who entertained the troops during the war, and went on to become, from the 1940s, the most influential cabaret singer in the United States. Frank Sinatra once said he learned everything he needed to know about phrasing from Mabel.