WATCH: Black History Month: A Conversation Between Generations
To mark Black History Month, the Royal British Legion brings together retired RAF Flight Sergeant Cliff Walker BEM…
Service and Sacrifice
Constance Winifred Mark MBE BEM, Army veteran and activist
Constance was born in Kingston, Jamaica. Her father taught in a British Army school and when she was…
Gilbert Clarke
Born in Jamaica in 1925, Gilbert, his brother and sister lost their father when he was three. A…
Robert Adolphus Smith
Despite this enthusiasm, the War Office was reluctant to allow Black soldiers to fight against white European forces…
Pte James Munroe Franklin, Battle of the Somme
James was born in Mississippi and while still young his family moved to Hamilton, a port city in…
Ralph Ottey Service in the ‘Dambusters’ Squadron
Born and raised in Little London, Jamaica, and a descendant of a Scottish military doctor who settled there,…
Ena Collymore-Woodstock OD MBE, WWII veteran, magistrate and Girl Guides commissioner
Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, in 1917 Ena Joyce St Clare Collymore was a pioneer from the beginning of…
Black British Service and Sacrifice in the Second World War
The Second World War was not fought by Britain alone. It was a global conflict, drawing on the…
Wing Commander Joan Ochuodho, RAF
Joan Ochuodho was born in 1979 in Kenya, the 11th child in a happy family of 12 siblings….
Richard Akinwande Savage – The Trailblazing Officer
Richard Akinwande Savage (Jnr) was born in Edinburgh in 1903. His father claimed descent from a freed Nigerian…
Richard “Dickie” Barr: Service, Sacrifice, and a Cornish Life
Richard “Dickie” Barr was born in 1888 at Perranuthnoe, near Penzance, the son of a miner of African…
Private Pessima Lamboi From Sierra Leone to Burma
Pessima (Peter) Lamboi was born on Christmas Day, 1921, in Moyamba District of the Kori Chiefdom in Sierra…
Michael Adjivon A celebrated Military and Sporting Life
Michael’s story began in Togo in 1920, but he moved to Ghana when still a child to live…
John Henry “Johnny” Smythe – RAF Navigator and Windrush Voice
Johnny Smythe was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 1915, when the country was still a British colony….
Ulric Cross – Pathfinder and Diplomat
Philip Louis Ulric Cross (1917–2013) lived one of the most extraordinary lives of the twentieth century. From a…
Lilian Bader – RAF Pioneer and Educator
Lilian Mary Bader (1918–2015) was one of the first Black women to serve in Britain’s armed forces and…
Walter Tull – Footballer, Soldier, Trailblazer
Walter Daniel John Tull (28 April 1888 – 25 March 1918) is remembered as one of the most…
Sue Liburd MBE – Caribbean Roots, Military Routes
Born in 1962, Sue’s father hailed from Nevis and her mother from Jamaica, both part of the Windrush…
Sgt Sidney Cornell – Second World War Heroism
This year saw marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a pivotal moment in the Second World War, when…
Roma Taylor BEM – Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps
Ever since childhood, Roma has demonstrated that she has a big heart, and a determination to help others….
