By Larry Smith
Monday, August 4,
2014.
One
hundred years ago, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was
assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist struggling for
independence.
Germany,
then the new rising power of Europe, supported its neighbour Austria-Hungary
against Serbia and its patron, Russia; with war declared at the end of
July 1914. The British, French and Turks joined in the following month, and by
Christmas the various armies had suffered more than three million
casualties.
By the time the war ended in November 1918, over 16 million had died and 20
million had been wounded, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in
human history. It was known thereafter as the Great War - replacing the
Napoleonic Wars for pride of place in European memory.
A hundred years ago, the British Empire encompassed nine million square miles
and 348 million people. And about a third of the troops that Britain
raised during the war came from the colonies— a million Indians, half a million
Canadians, half a million Australians and New Zealanders, 250,000
Africans, and 16,000 West Indians.
The British government has committed over £50 million to this year's centenary
commemoration of the First World War. The money is paying for a major
refurbishment of London's Imperial War Museum, as well as a national series of
commemorative events and lectures which launches in August.
No special events are planned here as far as we know, except for the usual
Remembrance Day service in November. But although no veterans from this
great conflict survive today - the last died in England two years ago at the
age of 110 - some 700 Bahamians were posted overseas during the war.
The last of these Bahamian veterans was Tribune publisher Sir Etienne Dupuch,
who died at his home in Camperdown in 1991 at the age of 92. His
autobiography (Salute to Friend and Foe) provides the only first-hand account
of what it was like during the war for a Bahamian soldier in Europe.
The British formed a West India Regiment in 1795 to provide black troops for
imperial garrisons around the Caribbean and in Africa. For most of the
19th century some were stationed in Nassau - until they were replaced by the
new Bahamian police force.
This regular West India Regiment saw action in Africa and the Middle East
during the First World War, and was disbanded in 1927. But the unit for
which Bahamians and other Caribbean nationals volunteered in their thousands
was known as the British West Indies Regiment. It was formed in 1915 and
disbanded in 1921.
Jamaica contributed two thirds of these volunteers. Others came from Trinidad,
Guyana, Barbados, Belize, the Eastern Caribbean islands and the Bahamas.
They served in the Middle East and Europe, winning 86 medals for bravery on
the battlefield.
The first group of Bahamian volunteers turned out on the Eastern Parade, where
the governor's wife presented them with a flag bearing the colony's Coat
of Arms. In September 1915 this first contingent (known as the 'Gallant
Thirty’) sailed for Jamaica, from where they transhipped to Alexandria,
Egypt.
They were followed by other contingents - Sir Etienne Dupuch being in the fifth
draft. And other Bahamians joined the regular British, Canadian or
American forces, making a grand total of about 700 men in all. They joined
volunteers “drawn from every island and hamlet in the West Indies”, Dupuch
wrote in his 1987 autobiography.
Initially, the War Office in London had rejected black troops, but following
massive battlefield losses the British West Indies Regiment was formed in
mid-1915. This regiment served on all major battle fronts, but was used
only for manual labour in Europe to avoid black troops fighting whites. As
a result, West Indians were engaged in combat mainly in Palestine and Iraq.
“At the age of 17, as an orphan and still a child, I went overseas with the
British West Indies Regiment and served on both the eastern and western
fronts for three years,” Etienne Dupuch recalled. “I saw men fall at the right
and left and all around me. But it has been truthfully said that ‘a miss
is as good as a mile.’”
The first battalions of the BWIR were stationed on the Suez Canal, and later
formed part of General Edmund Allenby’s force, which drove the Turks out
of Palestine and contributed to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Additional
battalions were sent to the western front, in France and Belgium. Dupuch
himself was deployed in both Egypt and Europe - ending up in Belgium near
Passchendaele Ridge - site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
"We were taken there to expedite the delivery of shells to the heavy
artillery,” he wrote. "Our location was a real danger spot. We lost a
lot of men there. The Germans laid down a barrage that covered a wide
area.”
After Armistice Day, on November 11 1918, the eight BWIR battalions in
Europe were concentrated at Taranto in Italy to prepare for
demobilisation. They were subsequently joined by battalions from Egypt and
Mesopotamia. But growing resentment over unfair labour practices, pay and
promotion issues led some men to attack their officers in early
December.
According to Glenford Howe of the University of the West Indies, "During
the mutiny, which lasted about four days, a black NCO shot and killed one
of the mutineers in self-defence and there was also a bombing...The BWIR men
were all subsequently disarmed and about 60 soldiers
were court-martialled. One man was executed by firing squad."
This unrest led to meetings that discussed issues of black rights, self-determination
and closer union in the West Indies. An organisation called the Caribbean
League was formed to further these objectives, and the soldiers decided to
strike for higher wages on their return home.
"When the disgruntled BWIR soldiers began arriving back in the West Indies
they quickly joined a wave of worker protests resulting from a severe
economic crisis produced by the war, and the influence of black nationalist
ideology espoused by Marcus Garvey and others,” Howe wrote. "Disenchanted
soldiers and angry workers unleashed a series of protest actions and riots
in a number of territories.”
The
war had stimulated profound changes and laid the foundation for the social
upheavals of the 1930s in the British Caribbean, in which veterans
played a big role. As Sir Etienne noted, "the reputation that the riot in
Taranto gave the BWIR pursued us on the way back home."
And,
he added: "Like millions of young men drawn from Britain’s far-flung
empire, I was a changed man when I returned to my island home at the age
of 20 after having seen the peoples of Europe wallowing in a cesspit of human
degradation. I was a very bitter man."
According to the late Jamaican historian and labour leader Richard Hart,
"The principal causes of working class unrest and dissatisfaction were the
same throughout the region: low wages; high unemployment and
under-employment; arrogant racist attitudes of the colonial administrators and
employers in their relations with black workers; lack of adequate or in
most cases any representation; and no established structure for the resolution
of industrial disputes by collective bargaining."
This widespread unrest led to the appointment of the West India Royal
Commission, which reported in December 1939, although the report
was suppressed until after the Second World War. In the Bahamas our labour
riots occurred in 1942, when workers marched from Burma Road to Bay Street
demanding higher pay and better conditions. The regional revolt convinced the
British of the need to reform labour laws throughout the colonies.
First
World War veterans had an enormous impact on social and political development
in the Caribbean. For example, Norman Manley became active in the trade union
movement in 1938 and went on to form the People’s National Party, which paved
the way to independence from Britain in 1962.
The Bahamas generally took a more
conservative road. This
is perhaps best exemplified by the most prominent Bahamian veteran of that
conflict, Sir Etienne himself. In his book Dupuch wrote that his bitterness at
the discrimination he had experienced during the war soon diminished.
“One
needs only to look out on the world today to realise that the (grand British
ideal) did exist," he wrote in 1987, "and, if it meant nothing more,
it represented the rule of law, without which freedom dies aborning.”
Larry Smith writes a
column called Tough Call every
Wednesday for the Nassau Tribune. A former reporter and editor, he operates a
communications agency and book distributor in Nassau (www.bahamasmedia.com). In
2003 he led a transition management team at the Nassau Guardian after the paper
was acquired by new investors. He launched his Tribune column in May, 2004, and
was a member of the board of directors of the Broadcasting Corporation of The
Bahamas from 2007 to 2012. Mr Smith has a degree in political science and
journalism from the University of Miami. He can be reached at larry@tribunemedia.net