African American GI’S British children sent to US
NATIONAL archive documents have revealed the scandal of how the post-war government had children fathered in the UK by African American GIS adopted in the States.
The move saw many of the unwanted babies sent to a racetorn United States – often to live with strangers.
It was only possible because of a relaxation of UK adoption laws, which lasted a year from 1948 to 1949, before Clement Attlee’s administration apparently got cold feet, new research shows.
Around 240,000 black GIS were posted to England ready to fight the Nazis as part of the US forces.
As the fighting drew to a close, local councils admitted they did not know what to do with the “waifs left behind by the American occupation”.
Academics have now uncovered illuminating evidence in the National Archives of how this led the Attlee government to pursue the controversial “US adoption possibility”.
The perceived stigma at the time of having a mixed-race child – and the fact half of the mothers were already married – led to nearly half the babies being placed in care.
There were so many born in Somerset that they had to be housed in a temporary nursery at Holnicote House, a former stately home near Exmoor requisitioned during the war.
Given UK adoption societies deemed them “too hard to place”, Somerset Superintendent Health Visitor Celia Bangham had made an alternative plan her “special mission”.
The official was pushing for adoption by the fathers, near relatives or other families in the US.
As soon as home secretary Chuter Ede met Miss Bangham and Taunton MP Victor Collins to discuss the idea, he made it clear he was not keen. For one thing, the home secretary was worried about “the appalling discrimination made in many parts of the US” against black people.
He also explained that under the 1939 Adoption Act children could only be sent abroad to live with British subjects or relatives.
By December 1947, however, Somerset had found allies in many other councils in favour of the plan.the Home Office and the Foreign Office agreed to change its policy to allow some children to be adopted in the US, although to this day no one knows exactly how many went.
But the fact there were 85 applications to adopt the 31 children in Holnicote House by “aunts and uncles” in the United States suggests there was considerable interest.
The Home Office was also at pains “to avoid any suggestion that we in this country are trying to get rid of waifs left behind by the American occupation”.
Yet this did not stop adoption by Americans from 1948 until 1949, when the border closed again. This was due to unease in government circles.
With no form of reliable paternity testing yet available, it was even questionable that the children were being placed with actual relatives.
A statement followed the change of heart: “Any implication there is not a place in this country for coloured children would give offence in some quarters.”
It was just one part of the ill-treatment which started with the arrival of the first black soldiers in Britain in 1942.
Lucy Bland, professor of social and cultural history at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “From the moment the government knew US troops would be arriving, there was concern about the consequences of black GIS, not least a fear over the potential for mixed-race relationships and children.
“The government was keen to discourage the mixing of black troops and local women.”
One of the first decrees by the War Office was a British Army lecture to female recruits such as the Auxiliary Territorial Service on “practical points” of relations with black GIS.
Female troops were taught to be sympathetic but not to associate with them. The advice stated: “They should not walk out, dance or drink with them.” These and other government suggestions were headed “Most Secret”.
Prof Bland said: “This was primarily out of concern that any alignment with American policies of racial segregation would cause outrage in Britain’s colonies, where millions of black and Asian men and women were fighting on Britain’s behalf.”
By October 1943, the Home Intelligence
Unit was expressing open alarm about “the growing number of illegitimate babies”.
Lord Woolley, the founder of Operation Black Vote who until recently chaired the advisory group to the Government’s Race Disparity Unit, said Britain must hear the “heartbreaking” story of what happened to the children of African-american soldiers who “came to this country to fight for our freedom”.
He said: “This is part of the British story that needs to be told. One can only imagine the heartbreak for the mothers that had lost their children.”
‘Half of mums were married’ ‘It’s part of the
British story’