Historians are working to bring to light the contribution Black soldiers made during WWI, with the Imperial War Museum seeking to fill the gaps in its collection of wartime stories 🙌
The Imperial War Museum is seeking to fill the gaps in its collection of wartime stories
According to Alan Wakefield, Head of First World War at the Imperial War Museum, Black units were barred from fighting on the Western Front, the conflict’s main theatre, so as not to undermine colonial rule by allowing them to serve alongside – and kill – white soldiers. Photos taken at the time show British, American, French, Belgian and Greek troops present, but no Black units from the West Indies or Africa were invited to take part in the procession.
‘Once you start arming colonial citizens and allowing them to kill Europeans, it basically shows that everybody is equal.’ However, Walter’s life was tragically cut short when he was killed in action on 25 March 1918, during the First Battle of Bapaum in Northern France, after being commissioned as a second lieutenant a year earlier.
‘He initially gets a job as a driver and a mechanic but eventually gets spotted as having potential because to become a pilot,’ explained Mr Wakefield. ‘You had to be recommended for that by your commanding officer, so he was obviously someone who was marked out as having the potential to do that job – especially as there were a hell of a lot of people in the RFC who get nowhere near an aeroplane.
Mr Wakefield said: ‘There were a couple of Indian fighter pilots who served. I think they learned to fly in India pre-war, so they obviously came from relatively pretty well-off families. But Robbie Clarke as far as we know he was the only Black pilot. It would be fantastic to find out that that assumption is wrong and there were others.’
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