Their Service, Our History: Black servicemen & the World Wars

Do you know about the substantial contribution made by black servicemen during the World Wars? Join us as we explore and share their stories.

Black servicemen in the World Wars

Black service on land, air, and sea

Image: A group of East African soldiers takes a visit to Buckingham Palace, London, 1945 (Image: IWM (D 24610))

The experiences, trials, and sacrifices experienced by Black servicemen and women are sadly often overlooked aspects of the World Wars.

Black personnel served in all major military branches during these world-changing conflicts. From frontline combat in the African and Asian theatres, to providing vital battlefield logistical support, to serving in the Merchant Fleet ensuring supplies kept flowing, their roles were many, varied, and important.

As was sadly the case at the time, many of these men and women faced discrimination. For example, British West Indian Regiment soldiers on the Western Front were restricted from serving alongside their white compatriots in combat roles, kept instead as purely labour units.

The Gold Coast Regiment, British West Indies Regiment, and Military Labour Corps are examples of regiments and organisations predominantly made up of black servicemen. The Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, and Merchant Fleet also had black service personnel. 

In the case of the First World War, black combat units were deployed in theatres where the enemy was typically non-European, such as in East Africa and the Middle East. The Second World War saw African regiments, such as the King’s African Rifles, play a crucial role in the campaigns in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Wherever and however they served, these people’s stories deserve to be shared, and their contribution recognised.

A global force

Image: Fighter pilots A.O. Weekes of Barbados and Flight Sergeant C.A. Joseph of San Fernando, Trinidad (IWM (CH 11478))

Black men and women from across the British Empire served in important capacities alongside comrades from different backgrounds. Emphasising the global nature of the World Wars, their service took them to theatres of combat far from their homelands. Many would sadly never return.

More than 700,000 Black Africans served in the labour regiments during the Great War, including 60,000 South Africans. The British West Indies Regiment numbered close to 16,000 men and officers.

Over 500,000 Black personnel served in the British Armed Forces and Merchant Fleet during the Second World War.

They came from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, the Ivory Coast, the Caribbean, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the islands of the Pacific. Others came from the small black communities in Canada, Britain and elsewhere, mainly from port towns and cities with maritime connections to the wider empire. 

Motivations varied. Hundreds of thousands of men were coerced into service, particularly East Africans who served in labour units during the First World War, but others volunteered. Indeed, the first wave of those travelling from the Caribbean to enlist in the Great War did so at their own expense. Others saw service in the “white man’s war” as a way of asserting their own agency and strengthening their own political standing in unequal colonial societies.

Beyond the battlefield

Image: Mr Koi Obuadabang-Larbi, originally from the Gold Coast, BA, Superintendent of West Indies House, a Merchant Seamen's hostel in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (IWM (D 5768))

As we touched on earlier, Black personnel fulfilled vital roles in logistics, engineering and support. Without these unglamorous, often-overlooked roles, no victory in either World War could have been possible.

Without food, fuel, and ammunition, no army can fight. 

Black porters, stevedores and more support staff ferried these important cargoes to frontline units, especially in theatres where the conditions made animal or vehicle transport virtually impossible, such as East Africa.

Elsewhere, in places like the Western Front, black labour units complemented organisations like the Royal Engineers in supporting frontline logistics. As well as portage and transportation, black labour units built and repaired roads and fortifications, dug trenches, loaded and unloaded cargo ships and lorries, and acted as stretcher bearers, among other duties.

This backbreaking work was carried out in trying conditions. Labourers on the Western Front at times came under German sniper and artillery fire, while the unarmed carriers and porters in the African Theatres were often caught up in frontline fire.

Merchant fleets, by their nature, were highly cosmopolitan, and it was not uncommon to find black seamen from across the globe serving alongside international crewman.

Black service personnel were also featured in propaganda. 

For example, Nigerian Princess Adenrele Ademola, who had travelled to the UK in 1937 and worked as a midwife in Guy’s Hospital, London, was filmed by the Ministry of Information’s Colonial Film Unit.

The now-lost silent newsreel Nurse Ademola, showed the princess treating wounded soldiers. Inserted into the “The British Empire at War” propaganda film, the segment was viewed across West Africa and was allegedly instrumental in drumming up support for the war effort there.

Some of those who came from overseas settled in the United Kingdom following their military service, becoming fixtures of their local communities. Regretfully, many faced discrimination and prejudice in their day-to-day lives, regardless of their wartime experiences.

Now, more efforts are going into uncovering, preserving, and appreciating the stories of black servicemen and women of the World Wars, particularly those who served and fell on battlefields far from their homes.

Our work continues: commemorating Black servicemen

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission commemorates all Commonwealth war dead of the World Wars equally, regardless of nationality, rank, or branch of military service.

Following the findings of the Special Committee in 2021, a significant portion of work carried out by our Non-Commemoration Programme to address historical inequalities in commemoration after the world wars has included archival research.

One such research project included a new estimate for the number of soldiers and carriers raised from across East Africa who died in British imperial service during the East Africa campaign of the First World War.

By better understanding the number of servicemen, we are better equipped to tell the stories of the men and women who served and provide a deeper understanding of this dimension of the war. 

A recently released report on commemoration during and after the Second World War continues this work to uncover forgotten names and incomplete records, including civilian war deaths across the British Empire.

Black Serviceman Stories of the World Wars

Here is a small selection of black servicemen’s stories from the World Wars. 

Sergeant Grey Doyle Cumberbatch

Image: Grey Doyle Cumberbatch

Greystone “Grey” Cumberbatch was born on 2 June 1921 in Grapehall, St. Lucy, Barbados. He was the only son of headmaster Charles Wilkinson Cumberbatch and his wife Octavia. Grey was educated at St. Giles School and later graduated from the prestigious Harrison College. 

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, two waves of recruits left the Caribbean for the United Kingdom. The second, featuring just 12 Royal Air Force recruits, set out in November 1940 with Grey among them.

Grey arrived in Liverpool on 27 December and, making his way to London, attested on the 30th, joining the Royal Air Force, serving as a Bomb Aimer. He spent time training with the 1656 Heavy Conversion Unit at Hemswell before joining 100 Squadron flying out of RAF Grimsby, Lincolnshire.

Grey and his new crewmates flew their first operational mission on the night of 4/5 March 1943. It would tragically also be their last.

Grey and his crew left Grimsby aboard Lancaster ED549 JA-S at 18:32 on minelaying operations off the French coast. 

Successfully dropping its payload, the British bomber turned for home. However, a blanket of fog had wrapped itself around Grimsby, greatly hampering visibility and making it impossible to land.

Lancaster ED549 was diverted to RAF Langer, where visibility was a little better. She made three attempts to land, but the aircraft went down, crashing near the village of Plungar, Nottinghamshire, at just after 03:00. 

Grey was one of the six, out of seven, airmen killed aboard ED549 that night. The only survivor was a Sergeant Davies, who was found thrown from the wreckage on a nearby railway, severely dazed.

Grey is buried at Long Bennington (St Swithun) Churchyard, alongside two of his crewmates Flight Sergeant Gerald Avey and Flight Sergeant Rene Landry. 

Second Lieutenant George Edward Kingsley Bemand

Image: Second Lieutenant George Edward Kingsley Bemand

On 30 December 1916, as the Christmas spirit began to subside and a new year beckoned, Minnie Bemand received a tragic telegram. Her eldest son, Second Lieutenant George Bemand of the Royal Field Artillery, was dead, wounded in action on Christmas Day.

The impact of receiving such a message must have been devastating for Minnie. Just eight years earlier, she had travelled from her home in Jamaica with her four children to live with her husband, Englishman George Bemand Snr., for a new life.

George was educated at Dulwich College, London, before moving on to study engineering at University College London. His peers knew him as a “cheery soul, always inclined for a joke.”

When the First World War broke out, George enrolled in the university’s officer training corps. Following his training, he was later commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. He arrived in France in late 1915.

During his time on the continent, George served in an ammunition column, supplying artillery units with shells and ammunition.

He saw service at the Battle of the Somme, were British units fired over 1.5 million shells in the week preceding the 141-day battle. George and his men had a tough, unforgiving, dangerous job, but one that was essential to keep the guns firing.

George was transferred to a trench mortar battery in October 1916, where one officer described his subsequent work as “dangerous and lonely, though extremely important”. In this role, George gained praise for his remarkable courage under fire.

December 1916 came with George eager to head home and see his family. As we know, George never saw them again. 

He was wounded on Christmas Day, 1916, but despite his injuries, he stayed on duty to supply a bombardment on enemy positions. Counter battery fire claimed George’s life on Boxing Day.

Writing to George’s mother, his commanding officer wrote: “He was a fine fellow and a brave and fearless soldier, always most cool and exemplary under fire. My best officer, I feel his loss very much.”

George was taken and buried behind the lines in what became Le Touret Military Cemetery, where he rests alongside over 900 fellow Commonwealth officers and enlisted men.

Storekeeper Ephraim Higgins

Image: Storekeeper Ephraim Higgins

Ephraim Higgins was born on 5 August 1898 in St Lucia to parents Thomas and Emmaline Higgins. He was part of a large family with an elder brother, also called Thomas, and four sisters from his father’s first marriage, and a younger half-brother from his father’s second.

The family moved to Panama, where his father secured a job as a blueprint writer working on the construction of the Panama Canal. Emmaline died in Panama in childbirth. Shortly after, his father moved to Jamaica, leaving his family in the care of a godmother.

Ephraim and his older brother, Thomas Alexander, joined the Merchant Fleet at some point in the 1910s. It is believed that both Higgins brothers saw service during the Great War, each surviving.

The brothers stayed in the merchant marine following the First World War and both served again in the Second World War. They had settled in Cardiff, Wales, joining one of the small immigrant communities which sprang up in the UK’s port cities at this time.

In January 1942, Ephraim was serving aboard the SS Tacoma Star as a Storekeeper, having formerly worked as a Stoker or Fireman on other vessels. The Tacoma Star was a refrigerated cargo ship, ferrying food and other supplies between the UK and Argentina.

On the afternoon of 31 January 1942, Tacoma Star was sailing alone unescorted on her way to rendezvous with a convoy for an Atlantic crossing. She was spotted by the lurking German U-boat U-109 several hundred miles north of Bermuda. 

At 03:30 on 1 February, U-109 struck. She fired a spread of torpedoes at the isolated cargo vessel, one hitting Tacoma Star’s forward hold. Another torpedo slammed into her amidships, striking the engine room, causing tremendous damage. Tacoma Star went down after just four minutes.

The crew abandoned ship in five lifeboats, sending out distress signals. These were picked up ashore, and the American destroyer USS Roe was set to find and rescue survivors. In the chaos and confusion of Tacoma Star’s sinking, however, her position was misreported. No trace of the ship or her crew was found.

All 97 of those aboard the Tacoma Star lost their lives that day, including Ephraim Higgins.

His brother Thomas survived the war, settling with his wife Lilian in Cardiff. Ephraim’s photo took pride of place on Thomas’ mantle, a reminder of the kind, gentle soul mournfully lost at sea.

Our thanks to Ephraim’s Great-Niece, Cheryl Hancock, for sharing Ephraim’s story.

Share your black servicemen and women’s stories on For Evermore: Stories of the Fallen

For Evermore: Stories of the Fallen is our online resource for sharing the memories of the Commonwealth’s war dead.

It’s open to the public to share their family histories and the tales of the service people commemorated by Commonwealth War Graves so that we may preserve their legacies beyond just a name on a headstone or a memorial.

Do you have a story of a black serviceman or woman in our care? Head to For Evermore: Stories of the Fallen to upload and share it for all the world to see.