Bajan People

Bajan’s (Barbadian’s) that have done outstanding things or have made outstanding contributions.

Children of the Barbados Ashkenazi Jewish Community circa1954

Peddlers All: Stories of the First Ashkenazi Jewish Settlers in Barbados

In 1932, three Polish Jews, Moses Altman, his niece, Dina Mass, and her husband, Moses Mass, arrived in Barbados looking for refuge from the harsh economic conditions and anti-Semitism in Europe. Moses Altman’s wife and children (Henry, Simon, Edna (Pillersdorf), Doris (Kaplan) and Mary (Speisman) arrived not long after and were followed by the families …

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Major Teddy Goddard a Bajan policeman from below the cliff

Major Teddy Goddard – a Bajan policeman from below the cliff

Major Teddy Goddard (Theodore Percival Alleyne Goddard) was born ‘below the cliff’ in Clifton Hall Woods, Barbados in 1883. Children born into poor white families had little prospect of bettering their position. Teddy Goddard, had little idea when he enlisted in the army in 1903 for three years that he would be transported to the …

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Barbados Island life photographs and stories by Craig Burleigh

Barbados Island Life

Craig Burleigh is an American born, Bajan bred, San Francisco Bay Area based professional photographer. He grew up on Rockley Beach with sand between his toes from 1955 to 1965 and at Lamming’s St. Joseph and Edgecliff, St. John later on. Craig has been scanning his back-catalogue of Barbados photographs from the 1970s and is …

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Andromeda House location of a covert submarine tracking facility in Barbados

Andromeda Gardens – the location of a covert US Navy cold-war submarine tracking station in Barbados from 1954 to 1985/87

The US Navy NAVFAC Barbados at Harrison’s Point, St. Lucy was operational from 1957 to 1979. Did you know there was another, hush – hush and “covert” NAVFAC cold-war submarine tracking facility located in Barbados from 1954 to 1985/87. It was located within the workshop of Dr. Harry Bayley’s bay-house at Andromeda in St. Joseph. …

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Wendell Valentyne Byer World War I Commonwealth War Grave St Barnabas Churchyard St Michael Barbados

World War I Commonwealth War Graves – Barbados

On 25th August 2021 it will be exactly 100 years since the death of Wendell Valentyne Byer. Who was Wendell you may ask? A famous cricketer? A politician perhaps? No, he was none of these, Wendell was once a trainee schoolteacher in St George. He was strong and fit – 5 feet 11 and a …

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Aircraft landing at Kai Tak airport Hong Kong

Kai Tak airport, Hong Kong – the Bajan connection

Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong closed on 6th July 1998. Landing at Kai Tak was a one-of-a-kind experience for pilots and passengers alike. It was breath-taking. With mountains on the port [left hand] side as you flew through a very distinct urban corridor of medium rise buildings bound by high rise buildings on either side, …

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Empire Windrush docking at Tilbury Docks, Essex, on 21 June 1948

Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? The Empire Windrush story.

Only five of the 1,027 passengers on board the Empire Windrush began their journey in Barbados. Bill Hern writes about them here and explodes some myths about the iconic ship and its historic journey to England in June 1948. Background:The Windrush scandal erupted in 2018 where people mainly of Caribbean descent were wrongly classified as …

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Black Bajan footballer Walter Tull

Black Bajan footballers who were English Football League Club pioneers

Thanks to a select group of pioneering black Bajan footballers, no country in the world has had a greater impact on the history of English football than Barbados. That statement might come as a shock to some. After all, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica have reached the World Cup Finals whereas Barbados has never come …

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