Dear Angela,
There are a number of references to this in Jamaican newspapers from the
time. The British Library has The Vanguard from 1940, which contains
several articles. I have notes to one of the articles, see below. The
article is by George Padmore, the paper's London Correspondent and
spends abit of time admonishing Harold Moody. But it does confirm that
he was the first to overturn the colour bar in WWII.
Best,
Leslie
"Negro Training As Britain Army Officer" Our London Correspondent, The
Vanguard 30 Mar 1940.
- Man is son of Harold Moody, native of Jamaica.
- Moody approached MacDonald, Secretary of State for Colonies at
beginning of war, but declared officers must be 'of pure Eur descent'.
Moody then approached Creech Jones, Labour MP for Shipley, who raised in
House of Commons and afterwards Colonial Office in consultation with War
Office agreed to permit coloured colonials already living in England
permission.
-----Original Message-----
From: The Black and Asian Studies Association
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Angela Allison
Sent: 17 October 2011 18:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 'coloured candidates' WWII Officers
I'm hoping to find earlier refs. Charles Arundel Moody, Dr Harold's
Moody son, in 1940, became an officer in the British Army (Royal West
Kent), later rising to the rank of colonel. According to the October
2011 BBC documentary 'Mixed Britannia' pt 2: 1940-1945, Moody is
credited with overturning the colour bar re. the military, during WWII.
--
Angela Allison, Coventry UK
"I know the one thing we did right,
was the day we started to fight.
Keep your eyes on the prize, Hold on!"
---- Marika Sherwood <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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> While looking for info on WWI, I found this among my notes:
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> From The Times, 5/6/1948, p.8, report from House of Commons:
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> 'Coloured candidates will in future be able to join the Royal Navy and
> the Army on the same conmditions as the Royal Air Force.'
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> I did not look at the full report in Hansard. The RAF had been forced
> into accepting Black crew during WWII, even at officer level, because
> of the shortage of qualified men.
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>
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