Remembering the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian service men and women in World War I and World War II and later conflicts.
Originally called Armistice Day in commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the peace agreement that ended World War I (11th November 1918), after World War II it became Remembrance Sunday (the second Sunday in November).
The most recognizable symbol of Remembrance Sunday is the red poppy. In 1921 the newly formed British Legion (now the Royal British Legion), a charitable organisation for veterans, began selling red paper poppies for Armistice Day, and its annual Poppy Appeal has been enormously successful since.
This epitaph on the Kohima War Cemetery in India honours the soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of Kohima during World War II and is attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958); an English classicist, poet and author. It is thought to have been inspired by the epitaph written by Simonides of Ceos to honour the Greeks who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BC. The exact wording of Simonides’ epitaph is not known, but it is said to have read something along the lines of “Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.”
On 10th September 1945, P/O Keith Proverbs (Bajan Captain and 1st pilot) and his crew from 517 Squadron tragically lost their lives when their aircraft a Halifax Met. Mk. III crashed in dense fog trying to land. On this anniversary of that fatal crash we remember the sacrifices made by the RAF Meteorological Squadron crews …
P/O Keith Proverbs: Out Of Tragedy Came Advances in Air Safety and Science Read More »
Bajan pilot P/O George HF Inniss aged 24 and crew from 106 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command were killed-in-action on 4th/5th February 1941 when their aircraft a Handley Page Hampden Mk. I, AD750, crashed nose first at La Marronnière farm, La Marsoire, Pont-Saint-Martin, Loire-Atlantique (2 km SE of Aéroport Nantes Atlantique). Their aircraft was hit by …
P/O George HF Inniss: 31st May 1916 to 5th February 1941 Read More »
This is the story of the deep bond that developed between Errol Barrow and his commanding officer Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir William Sholto Douglas who was the Military Governor of Germany after World War II. From 1945 to 1947 Errol Barrow served as a Navigator within the Commander-in-Chief, Military Governor’s Flight with …
Errol Barrow and his commanding officer Sholto Douglas Read More »
Errol Barrow’s crew in RAF 88 Squadron, “B” Flight, Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) during World War II consisted of: English pilot Andy Cole and the two Australian rear wireless operator and air gunners (WAGs): Leo Schultz and Allen “Shorty” Stewart. BajanThings has covered both Errol Barrow’s time in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and his …
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 …
In 1915 Britain’s War Office, which had initially opposed recruitment of West Indian troops, agreed to accept volunteers from the West Indies. A new regiment was formed, the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR), which served in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “They called us darkies. But when the battle starts, it didn’t make a …
George Blackman BWIR – There were no parades for us Read More »
Errol Walton Barrow (21st January 1920 – 1st June 1987): distinguished Barbadian statesman, visionary leader and a champion of Caribbean unity led Barbados to Independence on 30th November 1966 and then served as Barbados’ first and fourth Prime Minister. Prior to that from: 1961 to 1966 as leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Errol Barrow …
F/O Errol Barrow RAF Navigator World War II & Prime Minister of Barbados Read More »
In May of 1942 there was intense activity by U-Boats in the Caribbean that resulted in heavy losses of allied shipping. Germany was trying, and succeeding, to disrupt the supplies of war material reaching Europe from the USA and Caribbean. Trinidad and Venezuela were supplying the allies with petroleum products, Guyana with Bauxite and the …
Survivors arriving in Barbados in May 1942 from merchant ships sunk by German U-Boats Read More »
