Caribbean Soldiers and Units ?

[JOSTURM]

Having just returned from a superb holiday to Antigua in the Sunny Caribbean (pop. 75,000), it occurred to me, when reading of their history of British colonialism and slavery, as well as their recent independence (1981), did any Antiguan born men and women serve in the British Army, Navy or Air Force during the Great War, and in which units ? Has anyone researched this area of Caribbean volunteers and conscripts ? and in deed the impact on Antigua of WW1.

Did the fathers and grandfathers of such luminaries of Antiguan society, Sir Vivian Richards, Richie Richardson and Curtly Ambrose, give military service to the mother country ?

Peter

[Terry_Reeves]

Peter this link will give you some background. Also follow the link to the British West Indies Regiment.

http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/roo...ccupations.htm#

and also this:

http://www2.sas.ac.uk/commonwealthstudies/carib_web/wwi.htm

There is an email address for the Antiguan Archives archives@candw.ag.

Terry Reeves

[david murdoch]

Peter.

I have been researching the Port of Spain war memorial in Trinidad, I got interested as I was working there most of last year.

In answer to your question - yes there were plenty of men enlisted from the Caribbean islands.

Now what I found from the Trinidad memorial, probably holds true for the other islands. The casualties are in two catagories black/white! The local black/coloured guys mostly served with the British West Indies Regiment. The others were sons of colonial families, people working there etc - these are spread out through a whole range of regiments, RN, RFC etc. Many travelled back to the UK to enlist and do thier bit, and some were sons who were at school/university in the UKwhen the war broke out.

The best thing to do is a Google search of "British West Indies Regiment "- this will lead you to various sites, and give you a background to what went on.

In brief there was a lot of racism and discrimination involved, and these volunteers were treated in a disgraceful manner by the establishment/War Office, both in service and afterwards.

Many travelled to Britain to join up, but found they were barred from joining regular British units. The BWIR was formed in 1915 as a segregated unit (with white officers/NCOs). Many "born and bred" in the UK actually had to return the to the Caribbean in order to sign up as they were barred from joining thier "local" regiments! The BWIR had a total of 15,601 officers and other ranks from the various colonies. The largest contingent by far being Jamaica, then Trinidad. There were 229 from the Leeward Islands, which includes Antigua.

The discrimination continued at the end of the war with demobilisation and mistreatment leading to a mutiny in Italy. Uneaqual pay and pensions were also issues. The regiment was disarmed and disbanded in 1919 as it was seen to be a threat, and that the soldiers would cause unrest when they returned home.

I have found the Trinidad memorial very interesting given the background and variation of units and nationalities. In amongst the BWIR casualties I found a couple of Venezuelan volunteers, and the memorial also lists twelve Canadians (two of which are actually local guys who went to Canada and joined regular CEF units),French army, French colonial army, and one American. Quite a few are listed to Irish and Scottish units indicating thier roots. Seems to have been something, but most of them have good details on the CWGC - parents names, addresses etc, so they have been fairly easy to cross check. There are a number of Royal Navy casualties, and also in Trinidad there are war graves, due to u boat attacks on shipping, as Trinidad was an important source of oil to the UK at the time. The West Indies were an important source of other materials for the UK - not least the army's rum ration!

It has turned into a bit of a project for me and I am hoping to turn it into a Roll of Honor web page in time.

David.

[egbert]

I took this picture of the Belize cenotaph, depicting their sacrifices in WWI.

[Tyneside Chinaman]

Hi

I'm not sure if I have posted this lad before but he is unidentified. Aprt from he is from The British West Indies Regiment.

regards

John

[bushfighter]

I became interested in the Caribbean contribution to The Great War when researching the East African campaign.

A draft was sent from the British West Indies Regiment (a war-time Service regiment) in Egypt to the 2nd Bn The West India Regiment (a Regular Bn) in East Africa.

However feeling was so high in the BWIR against the WIR (which was mainly recruited from Jamaica and considered socially inferior) that the draft was allowed to become a seperate BWIR unit in theatre.

The Leeward Islands, of which Antigua is one, did not respond so well as other Caribbean territories in providing manpower.

Antigua provided four drafts for the BWIR totalling 6 officers and 104 Rank & File.

Dominica had to assist in providing men for the last draft.

The officers were white and the Rank & File black, predominantly from the labouring class. Well-to-do black residents were not keen on volunteering.

As David has mentioned, many white residents travelled to Europe to enlist in white units.

Sadly the racial attitudes of the times worked against black volunteers, who were not seen by the British as acceptable for the Western Front.

(France had a much more robust and pragmatic attitude).

Harry

[bruce]

My eye was caught by this thread.

I am researching the names on the Liverpool University War Memorial. Upon it appears the name of A B Harris.

According to the Roll of Honour of the University, he gained a B. Sc. in 1909, so I guess would have been mid-twenties when the war broke out. He is listed as being in the Antiguan Light Horse. With the exception of the fact that he is on the Liverpool Town Hall Roll of Honour, I have come to a full stop.

If anyone can help put me in the right direction for further enquiry, I would be delighted. Antigua would seem a great place to go to see if his name is on a war memorial, but it is also rather of a long way on an off-chance.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Bruce

[centurion]

Well there is certainly photographic evidence of at least one black soldier in the Tank Corps and I've seen posted material on a number of black soldiers from Swansea who enlisted in Britain. I've also read a section of a published WW1 memoire where the author describes when in hospital recovering from wounds volunteering to become the ward's haircutter and finding a West Indian soldier's hair very difficult. So Harry's post may represent a general problem but can't be one hundred percent correct.

[bushfighter]

Centurion you are right.

I should have been more precise and stated "black units" instead of "black volunteers".

Harry

[daggers]

Post #7 by Bruce Hubbard asked about A.B.Harris with an Antigua link, and he now has an answer, thanks to a member of the Liverpool Family History Socy's forum. There is only one discrepancy: The GRO births 1877 index has the name as Albert Buckley Harris, but the other source has 'Beechley-Harris' Otherwise it is clearly the same man.

"The November 1914 'Xaverian' magazine for the parish and school of St Francis Xavier in Everton [Liverpool] has this item:

Quote:

DEATH OF AN OLD XAVERIAN

The news has been confirmed of the death of Mr Albert Beechley-Harris, on September 21st, at Antigua, British West Indies, where he had been for two years as an analytical chemist. The young gentleman was a former student of St Francis Xavier's College, graduating to the Liverpool University, where he took his M.Sc. degree. He also worked under Dr. Barrett in the Cancer Research Laboratory, finally leaving for the West Indies. Last year he joined the Antigua Defence Force, and took a keen interest in it. On September 21st he had to attend a compulsory drill, and left Guana Island to cross to the mainland, wearing his military equipment, on horseback, and was drowned in the channel. It has been proved that his horse must have taken fright and thrown and stunned him, for he was an expert swimmer. His body was found later in the day. He was buried with military honours by his sorrowing comrades of the Antigua Defence Force. His untimely death is deeply deplored on all sides. He was the first hero of the war in Antigua, British West Indies."

Should this count as a non-commemoration?

D

[CarylW]

This list is in the Museum in St John Antigua

In the same museum there was also a notice with information about the Cenotaph in Antigua:

"The War Memorial is situated at the top of the High Street in St John's. It was erected about 1920 in memory of those Antiguans killed in the first world war. Remembrance day is still celebrated each year on the Sunday nearest to November 11th, with a multi-ecumenical service organised by the government. The service is held in remembrance of those who gave their lives during the two world wars of 1914 and 1939. In 1965 a fence was erected around the monument by the Royal Air Force Association. In former times the monument was adorned with a field howitzer and WW1 machine guns but these have since been removed."

Any update on A B Harris Bruce or Daggers?

[Old Owl]

Hi All,

There is a site on the Caribbean called: Caribbean Roll of Honour WW1 & WW2. Just search on Google and it will come up--I think that it only includes casualties, but have not looked any further.

Robert

[bruce]

Post #7 by Bruce Hubbard asked about A.B.Harris with an Antigua link, and he now has an answer, thanks to a member of the Liverpool Family History Socy's forum. There is only one discrepancy: The GRO births 1877 index has the name as Albert Buckley Harris, but the other source has 'Beechley-Harris' Otherwise it is clearly the same man.

"The November 1914 'Xaverian' magazine for the parish and school of St Francis Xavier in Everton [<i>Liverpool</i>] has this item:

Quote:

DEATH OF AN OLD XAVERIAN

The news has been confirmed of the death of Mr Albert Beechley-Harris, on September 21st, at Antigua, British West Indies, where he had been for two years as an analytical chemist. The young gentleman was a former student of St Francis Xavier's College, graduating to the Liverpool University, where he took his M.Sc. degree. He also worked under Dr. Barrett in the Cancer Research Laboratory, finally leaving for the West Indies. Last year he joined the Antigua Defence Force, and took a keen interest in it. On September 21st he had to attend a compulsory drill, and left Guana Island to cross to the mainland, wearing his military equipment, on horseback, and was drowned in the channel. It has been proved that his horse must have taken fright and thrown and stunned him, for he was an expert swimmer. His body was found later in the day. He was buried with military honours by his sorrowing comrades of the Antigua Defence Force. His untimely death is deeply deplored on all sides. He was the first hero of the war in Antigua, British West Indies."

Should this count as a non-commemoration?

D

[/quote

Dear Daggers

Please excuse my bad manners in not thanking you for this before, but I have only just found it!

Many, many thanks!

Might we really have come across anon-comm? How exciting!

Bruce

[Guest]

  Following on from Old Owl above (but 7 years on!), may I draw attention to the Caribbean Roll of Honour site, which does not seem well-flagged up on GWF.  It covers both wars and white and black servicemen.  I found the part of the site relating to Tridad intersting, as it lists the men of the British West India Regiment but also the 17 contingents of Merchants and Planters. As the latter seem to have served in all sorts of British regiments, it may be worth a look for those stuck on the odd member of their British regiment. King Edwards Horse seemed popular.  The Merchants and Planters Contingent listing seems to be a from a post-war Trinidad source-probably a newspaper but the source is not given.      45 of the contingent served wit The Devonshire Regiment, mostly 1/ or 2/6th Bn.   (And 4 KRRC for a Mr. MB to note)

   The site is run by Jerome Lee and -quietly-is useful. I post his blurb about the Trinidad lists, with Thanks and Acknowledgements

 

Caribbean Roll of Honour

WORLD WAR ONE

The Trinidad Contingents

During WW1 there were three distinct groups of Trinidad & Tobago Volunteers for the Armed Forces: those who made their own way (to France, England, Canada & the USA) from Trinidad; The Merchants & Planters Contingents and The Public Contingents for the British West Indies Regiment (some later transferred to regular Units of the British Army).

Silver War Badges were presented to 56 NCO's & men of the B.W.I.R.  at the Queen's Park Savannah, Trinidad on Saturday 19th October 1918, by the Commandant of the Local Forces, the Hon. Colonel G.H. May, V.D. (in the unavoidable absence of His excellency the Governor and Commander-in-Chief). Two of their number died about a fortnight before the presentation.

The following lists have been scanned from The Franklin Yearbook of 1919. Entries in this colour are additional data found elsewhere within Franklins:

Those who made their own Way (Under construction)

The Merchants & Planters Contingents 276 men (Under construction)

          1st Merchants Contingent (113 men)

           2nd Merchants Contingent (69 men)

           3rd Merchants Contingent (4 men)

            Alphabetical Listing of al  17 Merchant Contingents

The Public Contingents 1,479 men (For the BWIR)

          First Trinidad Contingent

          Second Trinidad Contingent

          Third Trinidad Contingent

          Fourth Trinidad Contingent

          Fifth Trinidad Contingent

          Alphabetical Listing of all 5 Trinidad Contingents

 

Edited 23 June , 2018 by Guest

[MaureenE]

The website above 

Caribbean Roll of Honour 1914-1918 1939-1945  includes a page within which in turn includes a link now not active, but available as an archived page Caribbean Online - Routes to Roots. Gallery - World War One and the British West Indies Regiment, Lists of honours and awards

 

This latter link is from World War One and the British West Indies Regiment now archived. commonwealth.sas.ac.uk

 

Cheers

Maureen

Edited 24 June , 2018 by Maureene