Afro Carribbean Soldiers Service in World War 1

[simplesimon]

Update: Someone took the page down. Here is a new link. History will not be erased: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-b...tely-forgotten

https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-eve...ing-forebears/

Back in 1914 at the outbreak of war the West Indies were a colony within the British Empire; however, undaunted by the cultural and climatic differences and the long and perilous voyage avoiding U-boats, thousands of fiercely patriotic black volunteers stepped forward to support what they then referred to as the ‘Mother Country’.

Initially, there was a reluctance on the part of the British military authorities to accept them and they were refused entry into any of the British Army’s regiments, discrimination and racial prejudice were after all considered a societal norm in 1914. However, such was their determination and tenacity that this contingent of black volunteers from the Caribbean formed their own regiment, the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR) that eventually became recognised and accepted by the Army’s command in October of 1915.

It is a piece of history that is today seldom mentioned, and the contributions and perhaps more significantly the sacrifices made by those black soldiers from the many corners of the then British Empire goes largely unrecognised. It is for that reason that Captain Keva Hackshaw was determined to make amends.

[simplesimon]

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-b...tely-forgotten

I have to be honest. I don't know why those guys would serve in that countrys' army.