Mixed Race Britain in The Twentieth Century by Chamion Caballero & Peter J. Aspinall

Author:Chamion Caballero & Peter J. Aspinall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London

Image 8.8Reuben St Claire with his wife, Ruth, and child, circa 1950s. Courtesy of Bristol Archives: 41948/25

Where such archival material exists, further glimpses of the challenge to the stereotyped fixity of the mixed race experience can be seen. As across Britain generally, the unfolding of the war engendered change, willing or otherwise, on communities, families and individuals and those from mixed race backgrounds were no exceptions. In many cases, the war provided an opportunity for those who had been socially bypassed and excluded to have their presence and contribution recognised. A number of those whose archived interviews and material we have drawn on—Alfie Laws, Nora Richer, Charles Jenkins and Reuben St Claire—contributed to the war effort, either as soldiers or auxiliary services. Though racism was engrained at the higher levels of the military, their accounts suggest that on an everyday basis, though encountering racism was not uncommon, it was not always present. Alfie Lawes remembers that he was accepted by fellow soldiers though the military authorities saw him differently:

In 1939, I volunteered for India. And I couldn’t go. Because I was the wrong colour. It’s the God’s truth. They marched me off the parade ground in Cardiff—all the boys are lined up in their KDs as we called it, ready to go out to India and the big boys noises came down, looked like that, see. ‘Hey!’ A boy said, ‘they pointing towards you Alf, what’s wrong?’ ‘I don’t know,’ I said. The sergeant-major comes up, see. ‘Attention. One pace forward. Slow march, quick turn,’ and marched me off the barracks in Cardiff. I said, ‘what’s the matter, sergeant-major?’ ‘Quiet, quiet!’ closed up, when they all marched off I fell in behind. ‘What’s the matter Alf?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘We’ll find out.’ I was the wrong colour to go to India. And that was the first time [I had experienced prejudice] you see.34

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