MERTON MULTI CULTURAL HISTORY GROUP
Newsletter
No.4 – April 2004
‘THE REAL MCCOY’ KICKS OFF
THE GROUP’S PROGRAMME OF TALKS ON 17 MAY
What has the name of a packet of crisps got to do with Black Scientists and
Inventors? Come and hear about the connection from Di Reynolds, who opens the
Group’s talks programme on 17 May at Morden Library, Morden Civic Centre, at
7.30pm.
Other talks in the programme are:
21 June - Steve Martin on London Blackface: Black performers on the 19th century stage
19 July – Sean Creighton on Black & Asian MPs, Councillors and candidates in the UK 1880s –
1950s
20 September – Jon Newman on Lighting the World. Price’s Candles
18 October - Caz Bressey on The representation of Black people in portrait paintings
15 November – Di Reynolds on Nelson's Black connections
17 January - Sean Creighton on Merton’s Economy and Colonial Labour
21 March – Di Reynolds on the Influence of Indian design on William Morris
Di Reynolds is Manager of Morden Library, and was a member of the North East Mitcham
Community Association Merton Black & Asian Heritage display project (2000).
ADJUSTING TO COMMONWEALTH IMMIGRATION 1950 TO 1953
With large numbers of Britons leaving the country to go and live and work in Canada, Australia,
New Zealand and Southern Africa, there was a shortage of labour after the Second World War.
This created opportunities for people from the colonies to come to Britain to work, and it was
actively encouraged by the Government. In 1948 the arrival of the Empire Windrush from the
Caribbean with its passengers of mainly Jamaicans made the headlines and has become the
symbol of the post-war migration.
Conditions in Jamaica
Mrs Frances Berner, a Justice of the Peace
gave some insight to the members of the
Mitcham and Merton Townswomen’s Guild,
into the conditions which led many to come to
Britain, from a visit she had made to Jamaica.
‘As soon as one arrived, one was
exceedingly conscious of the social gulf
between white and coloured peoples. All
work in house, shop and market was done by
the natives.’ She ‘found the natives housed in
incredibly poor shacks, made of corrugated
iron, petrol drums, cardboard, and almost
anything.’ She attended a conference
organised by ‘coloured’ people, which
highlighted ‘illiteracy as a stumbling block’.
Someone said to her “What a pity the British
people know so little of the West Indies.” She
also attended a ceremony of the one of
religious sects which was a ‘survival of tone
of the African cults brought over by slave
workers in the 17th Century.’ After the singing
of the hymn ‘There is a green hill’, the
Shepherd asked “What were our fathers?”
The congregation replied “Slaves”. The
Shepherd responded “Slaves no longer”.
(Wimbledon Borough News, 2 November
1951.
Celebrating Empire Day
With the end of the War ideas about the
Empire were beginning to change and the
Labour Government began to slow process of
decolonisation, the main event being
independence for India and Pakistan in 1947.
For some however it was still important to
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celebrate Empire Day. On 24 May an Empire
Day Rally was held at Wimbledon Town Hall.
The Mayor extolled the ‘family feeling’ of the
Empire and offered to put children in touch
with pen pals – but only in Australia. L. S
Amery talked about the Commonwealth as a
‘brotherhood, a family of peoples which
transcended all differences of race, colour
and creed.’ An Indian Chinnan Durai said that
India was very much in the Empire. ‘He knew
what Britain had done for India, and their way
of life in India was the British way. They had
to go to India to see the way in which the
British and Indians were working together’
(Wimbledon Borough News, 25 May 1951,
p.5) Two years later India was devastated by
extreme flooding. The Mayor promoted the
Indian Relief Committee appeal to raise
money for the flood victims. (Wimbledon
Borough News, 20 November 1953, p.3)
Persian Pupils
In the early 1950s there were three main
categories of Black, Asian and other nonwhite people living in Britain. Firstly, those
coming to work. The second group were
those coming for education, like the two
Persian (Iranian) schoolboys to be pupils at
Ridgways School at Edgehill. Siavash, aged
13, and Homayon aged 9. They were sons of
the ex-Minister of Labour in the Government
of the Prime Minister who had been
assassinated. The boys hoped to go to
Edinburgh University to train to become
doctors. (Wimbledon Borough News, 14
September 1951, p.5) It was Siavash’s
birthday in September 1951, and there is a
photograph of him cutting his birthday cake
with his brother. (Wimbledon Borough News,
20 September 1951, p.7)
Dr M A Rashid
The third group were those who had been
living in Britain since before the War, like
Wimbledon’s Dr M A Rashid. At the
beginning of October 1951 a Hindu wedding
took place in a marquee in the garden of his
house in Haydon Park Rd. He had lived in
England for the previous 31 years. He had
arranged the wedding ceremony for his
goddaughter Marjorie Hopkins to Dr P N
Behl, the son of an Indian millionaire. The
bride wore a scarlet sari. The best man was
Dr Vivian Behl, a Professor of Mathematics.
Greetings were sent by the workers at Behl’s
father’s factories in India. Guests included
and high officials from the Pakistani
Embassy, and Krishna Menon, the Indian
High Commissioner, who had been a Labour
Party St Pancras Councillor in the 1930s. A
picture made the front page of the
Wimbledon Borough News. (‘Picturesque
Hindoo Ceremony’. Wimbledon Borough
News, 5 October 1951, p. 1). It is not clear
which house Rashid lived in as he does not
appear on the surviving electoral registers for
1950 and 1952. There were however a
number of houses not recorded on the
registers: which show several houses as not
have registered electors living in them.
Afro Music Jazz Influences
From time to time Wimbledon Borough News
reported on local events at which there were
Black and Asian guests or speakers. There
were also indications of cultural influences as
well. The Wimbledon Town Hall Mardi Gras
Ball on Friday 9 February featured Kenny
Graham’s Afro Cubists. (Wimbledon Borough
News. 9 February 1951. Advert, p. 4) This
early bebop jazz band of white musicians had
for a while a guest playing bongos - the Gold
Coast (later Ghanaian) drummer Guy
Warren. It is not clear whether he played at
the Ball. However, before he returned to the
Gold Coast, he also played with the AfroCuban Eight. (Details about Guy Warren can
be seen on:
www.retroafric.com/html/sl_notes/016_3.html
Indian Christians in Britain
M G Dharmardj, the General Secretary of the
Young Men’s Christian Association in Nagpur
in India, attended a Goodwill Supper at the
Wimbledon YMCA on Thursday 15
November 1951. There were 35 nationalities
represented. He told the gathering: ‘Perhaps
we as common men and women can
represent the world much better than some of
the statement can.’ (Wimbledon Borough
News, 23 November 1951 (p.7|)
In June 1952 Shoran Singha, the Indian
Christian, who had been active in Britain
since the 1930s, addressed a mass meeting
of the Brotherhood and Sisterhoods of South
West London at the Second Advent Chapel,
Montagu Rd in Wimbledon. He ‘pleaded for a
return of the spirit of brotherhood without
recognition of race or colour as the solution to
the ills of a troubled world.’ A few days later
he became President of the National
Brotherhood Movement. (Wimbledon
Borough News, 13 June 1952, p.7)
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Emmanuel Bailey, Olympic Athlete
In October there was a Grand Carnival
Dance held at the Crown Hotel, Morden, in
aid of the United Appeal for the Blind.’ Among
the guests was E Macdonald Bailey and Elise
Moss, both Olympic champions. (Wimbledon
Borough News, 24 October 1952, p.1) Bailey,
whose first name was Emmanuel had
represented either Trinidad or Great Britain at
the 1948 London Olympics, when he had
come 6th in the Men’s 100 metres final, and
third representing Great Britain in the 1952
Olympic Games in Helsinki. (www.athleticsheroes.net - different sections of this site
record him as representing Trinidad and
Great Britain.)
Liberian Students
Liberian students in Britain had the
opportunity to meet the Vice-President of the
Liberian Republic W R Tolbert at a reception
held at the Wimbledon home of the Hon. S
Edward Peal on Wednesday 10 June 1953.
(Wimbledon Borough News, 12 June 1953,
p.6) (Tolbert was a Baptist preacher and
served at some stage as President of the
World Baptist Alliance. He was Liberia’s VicePresident from 1951 to President Tubman,
until the latter’s death in a London Clinic in
1971. Tolbert was then President until 1980
when he was assassinated.
www.liberiapastandpresent.org/WilliamTolber
t.htm)
Southfields Mosque
Activities at the Mosque in Southfields were
reported. A festival, including a meal of curry,
was held in August 1953. (Wimbledon
Borough News, 28 August 1953, p. 7)
Students and teachers from abroad were
staying at Queensmere House, by
Wimbledon Common, including someone
who is black. (Wimbledon Borough News, 28
August 1953, p. 8)
Debates about Racial Discrimination
This was a period when white Britons were
still going to the colonies as soldiers,
workers, and missionaries. Frank Norman,
the civil servant who had been out in the
West Indies in the late 30s and during the
War, was keen to promote public debate
about racial discrimination. In November
1951 he proposed the motion ‘Racial
discrimination between the white and
coloured people is neither expedient nor
justifiable’ at a meeting of the Wimbledon
Community Association Literary and
Debating Group. He particularly highlighted
the racial discrimination in the United States.
He was opposed by a Leslie Davis. Norman
lost the debate, but the report of the debate
promoted Helen McNutly of 12 Lancaster Rd,
Wimbledon, and Patrick McGuchin of Quinton
Ave, Merton Park to write to the paper
challenging Davis, which Norman was then
able to comment on in a follow-up letter.
(Wimbledon Borough News, 23 November,
p.7, 30 November, p.4, and 7 December, p.4)
In January 1952 Norman spoke to the Merton
Park Townswomen’s Guild about
discrimination in the USA and in Panama,
and to the discrimination between the Indians
and Africans in British Guiana, which meant
they ‘would not be members of the same
Trade Union.’ (Wimbledon Borough News, 1
February 1952, p. 4)
In April his book ‘From Whitehall to the West
Indies’. (Photo, Wimbledon Borough News,
25 April, 1952, p.4) His book made clear how
poor the West Indian economic and social
services were.
James Johnson, a Wimbledon resident and
Labour MP for Rugby, told the Wimbledon
Labour Party Discussion Group in May 1952
was critical of the investment in the colonies:
the ‘money voted for colonial welfare was
very inadequate for a country which has no
amenities.’ He also stated ‘The idea that the
black peoples are backward, ignorant and
shiftless is all nonsense.’ He thought that
Therese Kharma, was the’ finest African in
the country.’ (Wimbledon Borough News, 30
May 1953, p.3)
South African Apartheid
Concern was also growing among some
quarters about the growth of apartheid in
South Africa. A South African, Naidoo came
to the Wimbledon District Labour Party
Discussion Group to talk about this on
Sunday 9 December 1951. ‘Mr Naidoo
believes that public opinion should make it
plain to the British Government that it has the
right and power to intervene in South Africa
to ensure that white and non-white people
have equal rights.’ (Wimbledon Borough
News, 14 December 1951, p.7) The issue
was discussed by Methodists at the South
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Wimbledon Methodist Chapel on Tuesday 26
May 1952. Rev Norman Thompson, a former
pupil at Rutlish School, who had grown up in
Merton, had been in Africa for the previous
13 years as a Methodist missionary. He
spoke against apartheid in South Africa in
May 1953. (‘The Christian Answer to the
Colour Bar’, Wimbledon Borough News, 29
May 1953, p. 7)
That year Cyril Black, Wimbledon’s
Conservative MP, visited South Africa. He
reported on it to a large meeting at the Town
Hall on Tuesday 15 September. He explained
the treatment of Africans and their poverty.
He considered their economic and social
advance important towards obtaining full
citizenship. ‘A West African Negro in the
audience said he thought Ald. Black’s factual
treatment of the South African situation was
“very fair” but he thought the promotion of
unity among the Europeans in the Union was
purely self-preservation.” (Wimbledon
Borough News, 18 September 1953, p.7)
-
Sean Creighton
MERTON MULTI CULTURAL
HISTORY GROUP
Joint Convenors:
Iqbal Husain, Arts Development Officer
London Borough of Merton. E:
Iqbal.Husain@merton.gov.uk
Sean Creighton, 18 Ridge Rd, Mitcham, CR4
2ET. 020 8640 2014. E:
sean.creighton@btopenworld.com
Newsletter compiled and edited by Sean
TWO BOOKS OF INTEREST FOR CHILDREN
A Child's Guide to Tropical Foods. Foods from
all over the world, complete with information about
their origins, nutritional content and recipes. ISBN:
1-903289-03-3 RRP: £3.99
A Guide to African Caribbean Foods from A Z.. ISBN: 1-903289-01-7 RRP: £5.99
Both by Karlene Rickard, retired science teacher,
counsellor, and parenting programme facilitator.
Published by:
BIS Publications Ltd
P.O BOX 14918
LONDON
N17 8WJ
www.bispublications.com
THE WEB AS A RESOURCE
The last Newsletter contained details of a
number of websites containing material on
the UK’s Black and Asian History. New
material is constantly being posted on these
websites and new websites started. Recent
new material includes:
Black Freemasonry. Article by Andrew Prescott
and Sean Creighton on the website of the Centre
for Research into Freemasonry at Sheffield
University: www.shef.ac.uk/~crf.
John Archer. Text of biographical talk by Sean
Creighton at Labour Heritage Race & Labour
Conference 27 March. Contains new material on
Archer and discusses him in the context of other
Black and Asian Councillors in the period from
1904. www.labourheritage.com. The site also
includes an interim report on the Conference.
Sikhs in Britain. www.sikhheritage.co.uk/heritage/heritagebritain/sheribritain.
htm - inc. details and images about Sikh soldiers
in the First World War, Duleep Singh and family,
and Indian meetings at London’s Caxton Hall.
Indians in London.
www.indianymca.org/History.htm. History of the
YMCA Indian Student Hostel, London, founded
1920. It was a ‘sounding board of public opinion.
Prominent Indians spoke there. Ghandi ran an
Inter-Faith dialogue programme. Tagore spoke to
the students. After being bombed in the War, a
new building was erected in Fitzroy Square.
Shoran Singha was Acting Secretary 1945- May
1946. Krishna Menon laid the foundations stone
on 5 May 1950.
Indians at LSE. Lord Desai writes about Indians
who were students and staff at London School of
Economics.
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/studentRecruitment/doc
ufind/india_mag.pdf
AND A BOOK
British Christians, Indian Nationalists and the
Raj. Gerald Studdert-Kennedy, Reader in Politics,
University of Birmingham. ISBN 0-19-564878-1
Oxford India Paperbacks 1999.
GROUP WEBPAGE
Keep up-to-date with the Group’s activities by
regularly visiting its web section on Merton
Council’s website:
www.merton.gov.uk/multiculturalhistory/index.asp
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