15,000 Caribbean Men and Women served in World Wars, giving £2 Million to the efforts; We Remember

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, November 16, 2022 – Veterans were honoured on Sunday as the UK and several Commonwealth states participated in the 103 year old tradition which included wreath laying ceremonies on the observed Remembrance Day, marked on Sunday.

Described by the Royal British Legion as “a physical reminder of all those who have served and sacrificed, with British and Commonwealth soldiers, sailors, airmen and women represented” the event was marked in the TCI at St. John’s Anglican in Salt Cay and St George’s in South Caicos.

Remembrance Sunday is held in honour of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women who died in both World Wars and later conflicts.  It follows Remembrance Day which passed on Friday November 11.

The UK countries, Commonwealth and Overseas Territories observed the traditional 2 minute silence on Sunday at 11am as a throwback to the end of World War I. The ceremony, as is tradition, was held at the Cenotaph, an empty tomb which ‘symbolises the unprecedented losses suffered during the First World War.’

Included in that number are the more than 15 thousand men that the Caribbean sent to the First World War from its British West Indies Regiment (BWIR). The Imperial War Museums say it was formed in October 1915 and two-thirds of its men were from Jamaica, the rest hailing from the Bahamas, British Honduras, Grenada, the Leeward Islands, St Lucia, St Vincent, and Trinidad and Tobago. Specific mention is also made of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps. Every single man was a volunteer.  It was an especially difficult job at a time when racism was still rife, and \the British War Office refused to accept them until King George V stepped in.

The IWM detailed even more contributions from the Caribbean to the Crown during the war

“The West Indies offered not only men but also money and materials towards Britain’s cause.  Approximately £2 million was given to Britain by West Indian authorities and charities, along with nine planes for the Royal Flying Corps and 11 ambulances.

Through the Jamaica Agricultural Society a large number of goods were donated for the men on the fighting fronts, including 3,800 boxes of oranges and 2,700 boxes of grapefruit, as well as chocolate, sugar, cigarettes, clothing, bandages, walking sticks and crutches.”

Around 1,200 of the men died by the time the war ended in 1918, less than 200 in combat, the rest from disease and 81 medals for bravery were earned.

During the ceremony in the Turks and Caicos the Islands’ last surviving WWII veteran was honoured, James ‘Bobby’ Fulford.

Mr. Fulford read the Roll of Honour of those lost in the Second World War; his comrades.

Fulford read the roll in the presence of Governor Nigel Dakin, Premier Washington Misick and dozens of other Members of Parliament and community members.