Caribbean Regiment

British Armed Forces regulations barred recruitment of non-Europeans (anyone not entirely of white European ancestry) into the Home forces (most of the professional moveable branches, corps, and units of the British armed forces, including the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, and units of the British Army that were depoted in the British Isles, as well as reserve forces in the British Isles). The British military (ie., land forces) within the British Isles had been re-organised through a succession of reforms through the latter 19th and early 20th Century that had seen the abolishment of the Board of Ordnance in 1855, with its military corps (the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and Royal Sappers and Miners), along with previously civilian departments, including the Commissariat, Ordnance Stores, transport and others, absorbed into the British Army (previously composed of regular cavalry and infantry units), and the taking over from local authorities by the War Office of control and funding of the home-defence Reserve Forces (usually referred to after that period as the Auxiliary Forces or Local Forces to avoid confusion with the newly-formed Regular Reserve of the British Army), which were increasingly integrated with the British Army while remaining nominally separate forces: the Yeomanry, Militia (or Constitutional Force), and Volunteer Force (whether a force or a unit was considered part of the British Army or auxiliary to it was determined not by its organisation or control, but purely by whether or not it received Army Funds from the War Office). Militia and Volunteer units also existed in various colonies, funded wherever the British Government was able to oblige it by local authorities, and under the control of the Crown-appointed Governors of colonies who, with the additional appointments of Commanders-in-Chief or Captains General, exercised the same control over only reserve forces within their territories as the Lords Lieutenant had within counties of England and Wales before the War Office had stripped them of this responsibility. In Imperial fortress colonies (Bermuda, Gibraltar, and Malta, and at one point also Halifax, Nova Scotia), the military Governors had command over both the reserve forces and the regular military forces (though not generally naval forces, which fell under Royal Navy Commanders-in-Chief). In Bermuda, by example, the Bermuda Garrison included part-time units able to be mobilised for full-time service in the event of war: the Bermuda Militia Artillery, Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, Bermuda Volunteer Engineers, and Bermuda Militia Infantry, were funded by the War Office and all units of the British Army rather than auxiliaries, and tasked primarily with defence of Bermuda as the main base for the America and West Indies Station of the Royal Navy, though raised under local Acts of the colonial Parliament of Bermuda. Similar home defence units in colonies of no strategic significance were generally deemed as auxiliaries due to being funded entirely by the local governments, as had previously been the case for reserve forces within the British Isles. As, from the end of the 19th Century, this status was generally only true for colonial home-defence reserve units, it has resulted in the unfortunate widely mistaken assumption that colonial units are not part of the British military (corollary to the also widely mistaken assumptions that colonies are not parts of Britain, where "Britain" connotes the sovereign territory of the British state, and that colonials, at least the darkly-complected ones, are not "British").

Whether from the British Isles or a colony, non-European British persons were often recruited by the British armed forces into "Home" forces during wartime, when faced with manpower shortages, though usually under different terms, for local service only, and only for the duration of the war. The Royal Navy had made use of many free or enslaved black sailors, by example, in the Americas, but by the Twentieth Century its practice was to recruit blacks only as "Auxiliary" personnel, and to employ them in a limited number of roles, including as cooks. The British military included a number of regular regiments, such as the West India Regiment (disbanded in 1927), the West Africa Regiment (disbanded in 1928) and the King's African Rifles that recruited blacks in the West Indian or African colonies, but not all of these were considered parts of the British Army, blacks were barred from commissions, all were depoted and recruited outside of the British Isles, and they were normally employed only in the West Indies and Africa, and never in the British Isles or elsewhere in Europe. During the First World War, before conscription was introduced, recruiters in the United Kingdom, desperate for volunteers, enlisted many blacks into regiments depoted in the British Isles, contrary to regulations. The available non-European manpower in colonies in the Americas was greater than the manpower requirements of the various home-defence forces, and many colonials wanted to enlist for active service overseas but had no opportunity to do so unless they could make their way to the British Isles, or to another British colony (such as Bermuda) or Dominion (such as Canada) that was recruiting for the Western Front. The British Army had ultimately raised the British West Indies Regiment in 1915 to recruit in the west Indies for active service in Europe. Most blacks who had previously succeeded in enlisting in Home units of the British Army were also forcibly transferred to this regiment, whether they were West Indian or not. although trained and equipped as an infantry regiment, its personnel were often used for demeaning duties, and the unit was disbanded at the end of the war.

In the Second World War, many non-Europeans were permitted to enlist in the Home forces as a wartime expedient, a policy that was eventually made official for the duration of the war only. Those in West Indian colonies, though, were still faced with little opportunity for enlistment unless they could first make their own ways abroad. There had been resistance from the War Office to forming a new West Indian regiment, but those who made their own way to the UK were able to enlist in the British Army. Nearly 10,000 British West Indians travelled and joined the army in Britain.

Following discussion between the Colonial Office and the War Office, the Caribbean Regiment was formed in April 1944 of 1,200 volunteers. The recruits were drawn from the Imperial fortress of Bermuda and all over the British West Indies;[1] most were members of local Volunteer Defence Forces. A few officers and non-commissioned Officers were also drafted in from other British Army units.

Many Bermudians were already serving in various regiments and corps of the army (a Bermudian officer becoming a prisoner-of-war at Dunkirk), as well as in the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force (the first Bermudian killed in the war having been fighter pilot Flying Officer Herman Francis Grant Ede, DFC, of No. 263 Squadron RAF, killed on the 8 June, 1940, when the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious was sunk while evacuating 263 Squadron and 46 Squadron from the Battle of Norway) when the Second World War began, with many others joining thereafter.

In Bermuda, the manpower of the reserve units (the Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, raised in the 1890s, had been joined in 1931 by the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers and in 1939 by Bermuda Militia Infantry), recruited primarily to defend the dockyard (which had been joined in the 1930s by the Royal Naval Air Station Bermuda and RAF Darrell's Island, the pre-war international airport which had been taken over by the Royal Air Force as a staging point for trans-Atlantic flight) was increased by additional recruiting, which began before the declaration of war (The Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers had been embodied and mobilised for full-time service at mid-day on 24 August, 1939, in anticipation of the 1 September invasion of Poland by Germany, and preparatory to the 3 September declaration of war against Germany, with the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps preparing for embodiment, but not actually embodied until 4 September, 1939; the Bermuda Militia Infantry was formed after the declaration of war), but with the regular component of the garrison having been drastically reduced during post-First World War cutbacks to the regular army, the garrison would remain under-strength 'til the establishment of the Bermuda Base Command of the United States Army. Despite this, and the threat posed by German surface vessels, submarines, and aircraft, as during the First World War (when the Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps had each sent two contingents to the Western Front) volunteers from the local units were soon formed into a contingent for overseas service. This was nominally a Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps contingent to the Lincolnshire Regiment, but a handful of volunteers from the Bermuda Militia Artillery and Bermuda Volunteer Engineers were attached for the transit, separating to join their parent corps in England. This contingent departed Bermuda in June, 1940, following which concern of denuding the garrison meant a moratorium was placed on any further drafts being sent overseas by the local units (although many soldiers were to train as pilots at the Bermuda Flying School on Darrell's Island, and those that qualified were discharged and transferred to the Royal Air Force). By 1943, the United States Army and United States Marine Corps establishment in Bermuda was larger than that of the British Army, the threat posed by the German navy had greatly diminished, and the moratorium against overseas contingents was lifted.[2][3]

A detachment of 104 officers and men (Major W. W. Fuller in command, three other commissioned officers, one warrant officer, 2 Company Quarter Master Sergeants, 3 other sergeants, 14 junior non-commissioned officers, and 80 privates) from the Bermuda Militia Artillery and Bermuda Militia Infantry (conscription had been introduced to Bermuda shortly after the declaration of war, but those servicemen who were drafted to the Caribbean Regiment volunteered to serve overseas) , arrived on two ships on 13 and 23 April 1944 to form the training cadre of the new regiment at Fort Eustis, a US Army base near Williamsburg, Virginia.

The Bermudians prepared for the arrival of the volunteers from West Indian colonies (which had been divided militarily into South Caribbean and North Caribbean areas),[4] who meanwhile had collected into two contingents beginning on 1 April, 1944, one at Trinidad and the other at Jamaica. They arrived under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Wilkin, OBE, MC, The Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), who became the Commanding Officer of the new regiment. Whether a badge was authorised for the regiment is unclear. Although created as a regular line infantry regiment of the British Army, the regiment never appeared in the Army List, in which the badge of a unit, if one was authorised, is described. At least some of the Bermudians wore the General Service Corps cap badge, which was used by the Bermuda Militia Infantry (for which no unique badge had been authorised) while serving with the Caribbean Regiment. A blue, yellow, and green regimental flash was authorised for the Caribbean Regiment, and the Bermudian contingent was authorised to wear the name Bermuda as a distinguishing mark.[5]

In order of the number of strength, the regiment was made up of draughts from Trinidad (22%), Jamaica (at the time including the Turks and Caicos Islands), Barbados, British Guiana, Bermuda, the Windward Islands, and the Leeward Islands. Newly recruited men were tested in Virginia for fitness, with those not found fit returned to their colonies. With more experience, and a generally higher degree of education, many of the Bermudian men were made non-commissioned officers and distributed around the regiment. Some of the South Caribbean soldiers had already trained for deployment to the Pacific. The Bermuda Militia Artillery and Bermuda Militia Infantry contingent had previously joined with the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps' Second Contingent to the Lincolnshire Regiment in 1943 to form the temporary Command Training Battalion, stationed at Prospect Camp (the location of the Command Headquarters of the Bermuda Garrison) while training for the war in Europe (the two contingents had separated before proceeding overseas).

The new regiment trained in Virginia, where the regiment was the first to celebrate the King's birthday in the U.S. since the American Revolution. The King's Birthday Parade was attended by Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Nevil Macready, 2nd Baronet KBE, CB, CMG, DSO, MC, the Head of Mission of the British Army staff in Washington DC, who reviewed the regiment and presented the Commanding Officer with special messages from the Secretary of State for War and the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The message from the Secretary of State for War (Sir Percy James Grigg), KCB, KCSI, PC) read:[6]

I should like to send to you and to all the officers and men in your batallion my best wishes on your departure for an active theatre of operations. the army is glad to welcome you and I feel sure that the men from the Caribbean and Bermuda will carry on the fine traditions founded by their fathers in the last war.

The message from the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Major (Honorary Colonel, TA) Oliver Stanley, MC PC MP, Royal Field Artillery) read:

Now that your battalion has left its home base to take its place overseas with Allied Forces, I should like to send you and all ranks my best wishes for your success. I know how much you and your friends in the Caribbean and Bermuda have wished for this opportunity, and I have no doubt that you will make the very most of it, and that your bearing and discipline, in all circumstances, will fulfil the high expectation of us all. Good luck to all of you.

The Regiment left the USA for Oran, in North Africa, in June 1944. Oran was handed over to Free French Forces before their arrival, and the Regiment went on to Naples, Italy, in July 1944, where it was employed in general duties behind the front line. L/BDA/95 Private W.C. Baxter of the Bermuda Militia Infantry died there on 4 September 1944 of an abscess of the liver and was buried at the Naples War Cemetery.[7][8] In October, it escorted 4,000 German prisoners of war from Italy to Egypt, where it was used in mine clearance work around the Suez Canal area.

The regiment never saw front line action. This was due partly to inadequate training (with only a single battalion, it had not trained as part of a larger brigade; the smallest unit the British Army normally fielded on its own) and partly because of the anticipated political impact in the British West Indies if heavy casualties had been incurred.

The Caribbean Regiment left Port Said in December 1945 on the HMT Highland Monarch, reaching St. George's Town, Bermuda, on 5 January 1946. The Bermudian contingent disembarked there and was transferred by the rescue tug HMS St. Blazey (W 46)[9] to the City of Hamilton, from where the one-hundred officers and other ranks were driven in lorries to Prospect Camp. The remainder of the Caribbean Regiment departed Bermuda aboard HMT Highland Monarch for the West Indies (the ship, which also carried other British armed forces personnel returning to their homes, then continued on to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where it collected the crew of the Graf Spee and other Germans for repatriation to Germany),[10] where the Regiment was disbanded. The Bermudian contingent members were returned to their original unit (the Bermuda Militia Artillery, into which the remaining personnel of the Bermuda Militia Infantry had been transferred) before being placed on the Reserve and discharged from active service. Some were recalled to form part of the contingent sent from the various Bermuda-raised units to the London Victory Celebrations of 1946, and placed back onto the Reserve on their return to Bermuda.[11]

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  Bermudian CSM Edward A. Lee (right) of the Caribbean Regiment circa 1940, during his earlier service with the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps.
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  1st Battalion, Caribbean Regiment soldiers armed with a Lee-Enfield No. 4 rifle and Bren light machine gun training in Egypt in 1945
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  1st Battalion, Caribbean Regiment soldiers train with the Thompson submachine gun in Egypt in 1945
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  1st Battalion, Caribbean Regiment soldiers training in Egypt rush from a Universal carrier to take up position with a Bren gun in 1945
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  1st Battalion, Caribbean Regiment dance band in Egypt in 1945

• West India Regiments
• British West Indies Regiment
• Jewish Brigade

• The Royal Gazette: Bermuda's losses in the Second World War
• Channel 4 Black and Asian history
• Daily Gleaner