Norma Best

1. Norma Best Norma Best was 20 when she came over to England to join the ATS (Auxilliary Territorial Service – the reserve part of the British Army) in 1944. She wanted to be a Jeep driver, just like her father had been during WW1 but ended up doing office work. “Serving in the armed forces was wonderful. It was the best experience I have ever had. We were treated well. Our officers looked after us like our mothers. Every step I made in the army was fantastic. I didn’t experience any racism because at that time all the people in England wanted to win the war, so colour didn’t come into it. We were all fighting for the same thing, to win the war. The English people opened their homes to us, we were invited out for dinners, teas, no problems at all … but as for the Americans …”

2. Adelaide Hall Adelaide Hall, originally from New York, was a famous jazz singer who lived in London during WW2. She owned a nightclub in central London called the New Florida. During the war Adelaide performed regularly for the armed forces. “ The first time I played in Regent’s Park an air raid started and, when the guns started blasting, I thought my head was going to be blown off when they opened up! I’d never heard such a loud bang-bang. I turned to my pianist and asked: ‘Are you all right, Ron?’ He looked terrified and said, very quietly ….”

3. The Coziers A young Black boy evacuee leaving London July 1940 Christopher, Joan and Joseph Cozier grew up in Canning Town, East London during WW2. As a result of the heavy bombing in the area by German planes, many children were evacuated to the countryside for safety. The Coziers were sent off to Wiltshire. “We were taken to the village hall where the vicar and some women offered different children to villagers for fostering. Each child had its name called out and was told to stand on the stage. The villages came and picked the children that they wanted, but we were left out. They only picked the white children …”

4. Hubert ‘Baron’ Baker West Indian members of the Royal Air Force Hubert ‘Baron’ Baker joined the Royal Air Force in 1944 as a policeman. When he arrived in England, the vast majority of British people had never seen a Black person before. “ This is the first time they have ever set eyes on me and my kind. There were white people running away from us who thought we were monkeys, that we were something coming from a different planet. They didn’t really believe we were human beings. The children played a great part in improving this because …”

5. Fernando Henriques Fernando Henriques in the Fire Brigade (second from right top row) Fernando Henriques was born in Jamaica in 1916 and came to London when he was 3. When WW2 broke out in 1939, he attempted to join the Royal Air Force. “There was no thought that through my colour I would be thought to be outside the conflict. My experience at the recruiting centre was traumatic. An RAF sergeant told me quite bluntly that ‘wogs’, that is people of non-European descent, were not considered officer material …”

6. Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson The Cafe de Paris ‘Stunning looking’ Ken Johnson was a famous dancer and band leader from a middle-class family in Guyana. He and his West Indian Dance Orchestra were top billing at the glamorous Cafe de Paris nightclub in Soho, - a place for the rich and famous to dance and forget the war. “The Cafe de Paris called itself ‘the safest restaurant in town – even in air raids. Twenty feet below ground!’ At 9.30 pm on Sunday 8 March 1941 Ken was having drinks with some friends. An air raid was raging and his friends begged him to stay, but Ken ran all the way to the Cafe de Paris through the blackout and falling bombs. He arrived at 9.45 p,m but five minutes later......”

7. Isaac Fadoyebo – ‘the Burma Boy’ A West African soldier in Burma. Isaac Fadoyebo from a village in Nigeria was one of 100,000 Africans who fought for Britain against the Japanese in Burma. He joined up aged 16 without telling his parents. “In March 1944 his unit were deep in the jungle having breakfast, unaware that the Japanese were on the opposite bank. “Gunshots rang out – we all ran for cover. I didn’t know at the time that I had been wounded ...I peeped at my right leg and the left hand of my body and I saw a lot of blood.” Isaac was stranded behind enemy lines and close to death. “They don't take us prisoner, no. They kill us. They came to me, two or three of them. The leader threatened me with a bayonet and said…”

8. Johnny Smythe Johnny from Sierra Leone joined the RAF because he wanted to fight against Nazi racism. He became a flying officer in charge of a Lancaster bomber in 29 missions. In November 1943 his plane was shot down over Germany. “There were flames everywhere. Then the searchlight caught us. I was hit by shrapnel. Pieces came from everywhere, piercing my abdomen, going through my side. We all parachuted and I landed among some trees. This seemed to be the end. I hid in a barn but German soldiers opened fire, spraying the barn with bullets. The Germans couldn’t believe their eyes. They were shocked to see a black man and they…”

9. Noor Inayat Khan – ‘the Princess Spy’ Princess Noor Inayat Khan was a British Special Operations Executive Agent in World War 2 and the first female radio operator to be sent into German occupied France to aid the Resistance. “Noor moved from place to place in Paris to transmit her messages to England. Although the Gestapo (Nazi police) could detect when she was transmitting, by the time they arrived to arrest her, she had gone and was somewhere else entirely. She was betrayed by a woman for 1,000 francs. Noor returned to her room on the 13th October 1943, to find a Gestapo agent waiting for her. As he tried to arrest her she fought and scratched and bit to get away. He was forced to get out his gun and threaten her and then...”

10. Eric Ferron Eric Ferron came to Britain from Jamaica during the Second World War and served in the RAF. After the war he stayed here and settled in South London. “‘Who the hell do you think you are, serving these blacks before us?’ We Jamaicans sat at our tables, quiet now, and waited. The two Englishmen went on shouting at the waitress, calling her all the dirty names they could think of. One of us finally got up and went over to their table.  ‘Leave her alone, she is only doing her job. You don’t have to insult her.’ The Englishmen got up and walked out. We settled back to our food and the evening went on. At one corner table were two Jamaicans due to return home on the first boat. They were brothers and this was the first time they had met for over two years. They were the first to get up and leave the restaurant. As one opened the door to go out a gun was fired...”