First World War: Commemorations

Lord Taylor of Warwick Excerpts

Thursday 20th June 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Taylor of Warwick]

My Lords, I add my thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Hornsey, for securing this timely debate. My grandfather was one of the 15,601 men and women of the British West Indies Regiment who served with the Allied Forces in the First World War. He was a Jamaican; indeed, Jamaica contributed two-thirds of those West Indian volunteers. Others came from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Bahamas, British Honduras, Grenada, Guyana, the Leeward Islands, St Lucia and St Vincent. More than 1,200 of those Caribbean servicemen were killed or died, while more than 2,500 were wounded. Eighty-one medals were won for bravery and 49 men were mentioned in dispatches. My grandfather said very little about his First World War experiences, describing them only as “horrific”.

My father was not deterred and joined the Jamaican Army. He was then transferred to the British Eighth Army, fighting in Italy in the Second World War. Again, my father was very reluctant to talk about what he saw of combat. But his medals, which he left to me after his death, spoke volumes. Ironically, although my father became experienced enough in the British Army to train white soldiers to become officers, because he was black he was not allowed to become an officer and attained only the rank of sergeant.

I pay tribute to the British and Caribbean Veterans Association, which tries to keep the memories of these brave men and women alive to this day. It has a simple mantra, but it is one that says it all: “We were there”. The King’s African Rifles were the largest force of African troops in British Africa. First formed in 1902, the force saw action throughout the continent during the war, especially in east Africa. The West African Frontier Force, formed in 1900 was comprised mainly of African troops and consisted of the Queen’s Own Nigeria Regiment, the Gold Coast Regiment, the Royal Sierra Leone Regiment and the Gambia Regiment. Much like the descendants of the West Indian Regiment, descendants of the African regiments who fought in both world wars today form the bedrock of membership of Britain’s black-majority churches.

On 11 October last year, the Prime Minister said that the objectives of next year’s anniversary are as follows: to honour those who served; to remember those who died, and to ensure that the lessons learnt live with us not as a monument to military glory, but as a record of toil and sacrifice. After all, the good book does say, “Blessed are the peacemakers”. Ultimately it has to be discussion and diplomacy, not wars, that move our world forwards. I am glad to hear that the Government intend to use a variety of means to achieve these objectives next year, but I echo the noble Baroness, Lady Young, when she says that these issues need to be on the national curriculum.

Much has been said about Britain’s disaffected youth, and in particular black youth. It is my personal view that part of that disaffection is a feeling of not belonging to Britain, and I suspect that the majority of these young men do not know that their ancestors played a full part in the First World War and the Second World War. That is why young children need to know about their own heritage, and that those valiant soldiers were not only white. As the years pass by, it becomes increasingly important that the Government’s initiatives should ensure that the contribution of people from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean to British efforts in the First World War is recognised.