Catherine McCormack – week 8 – C.L. Joseph The British West Indies Regiment 1914-1918

The article I will be discussing is C.L. Joseph’s ‘The British West Indies Regiment 1914-1918’ published in the Journal of Caribbean History in May 1971. The main argument put across in the article is that the war office undervalued black West Indians during the first world war and reduced them to menial jobs, despite their best efforts in volunteering and aiding the war effort. To support this argument, Joseph made several points throughout the article. One of the first is that the British war office refused to consider the West Indian Regiment as anything other than a labour corps and would not let them fight in Europe. He mentions that they then sent the 1^st battalion to Jamaica and the 2^nd to East Africa to remove them from the European frontlines. The war office also never justified this and there was plenty of evidence as to why this shouldn’t have been the case such as the previous training of soldiers in the west African regiment, and numerous medals awarded which Joseph lays out on page 123. Some black soldiers then formed the Caribbean League to argue for better treatment after the events of Taranto where they were made to clean latrines and dirty linen, they were also segregated with separate canteens and cinemas as well as hospitals where some died of neglect, When they enlisted they were promised the same treatment as British troops but Joseph makes it clear that this was not true.

All of these points are backed up with stable evidence. Throughout the article Joseph relies heavily on primary sources such as Government letters and other forms of communications, statements and statistics. There is also a good use of tables to express data such as the monetary contributions made to Britain from the West Indies, the amount of West Indian soldiers from each region, and the amount and type of medals awarded to black soldiers. The article was published in 1971 so it was an early work in relation to what is available today, however he does make use of what secondary sources were available at this time and engages where necessary. Within the conclusion he gives reflections on other historians works and opinions. He is exceedingly critical of some of these, most notably, he denounces H. G. deLisser for whitewashing the events and nit-picks at Cundall’s work also. Though the work he is most admirable of is C.L.R. James.

The theme of this week is “black people’s experience in the first world war,” of course this piece fits well in this week’s topic as it focuses on the experiences of soldiers in the West Indian regiment as they struggled to receive fair treatment while representing the British army. Overall, it was a convincing article. Joseph goes very in depth and gives piece after piece of evidence that the British war office belittled the West Indian troops at every step. He engaged well with the sources available and supported his argument well with solid points and evidence throughout.