Barbados during World War I and World War II

Stories about Barbados during the war years 1914 to 1945.

2nd Lt Walter Tull – first black infantry officer in British Army (1888 – 1918)

Walter Daniel John Tull was born in Folkestone, Kent, on 28 April 1888 to Barbadian carpenter Daniel Tull and Kent-born Alice Elizabeth Palmer.  In 1895, when Walter was seven, his mother died of cancer. A year later his father married Alice’s cousin, Clara Palmer. She gave birth to a daughter Miriam, on 11 September 1897. …

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Sidney Graham 2005 A forgotten Bajan WWII hero

Sid Graham. A forgotten Bajan WWII hero (1920 – 2017)

Sid Graham was born in Tidal Basin, Custom House in the London’s East End in 1920, the son of Sidney “Siddy” Graham a seaman from Barbados and his English wife Emma an East Ender.  Sid made it to his 97th birthday on 28th January 2017  and sadly passed away on 30th April 2017.  Until then …

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CNS Cornwallis torpedo damage

Torpedoing of the Cornwallis in Carlisle Bay, Barbados, 11th September 1942

The torpedoing of the Cornwallis in Carlisle Bay, Barbados on the afternoon of Friday 11th September 1942 by German U-Boat 514 is remembered by older Bajans as the dark day in 1942 when World War II reached Barbados’ shores. The 75th anniversary of the torpedoing of the CNS Cornwallis in Carlisle Bay was Monday 11th …

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HMS Victorious 1942 commanded by Bajan Henry C. Bovell

Vice Admiral Henry C. Bovell (1893 – 1963)

Henry Cecil Bovell was born in Barbados on the 4th of January 1893 the only son of the Sir Henry Alleyne Bovell KC, Attorney General of Barbados, and Lady Annie Cecil (nee Briggs) Bovell.  He died aged 70 on 31st March 1963. He left Hazelwood School (in Collymore Rock)  in the summer of 1905 for the …

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