“Invisible soldiers, forgotten sacrifice”: inside the campaign to rediscover Yorkshire’s black military history 

Filey’s Armistice Remembrance ceremony on the 11th of November is set to face fierce competition from a rival service as part of an ongoing dispute over the Town Council’s stance on a war memorial. 

At 11am on Saturday the 11th of November a separate meeting will take place at the RAF Hunmanby Moor Monument on Queen Street. It is the site of a plaque that commemorates the 4,000 servicemen who traveled from the Caribbean to train as ground crew at RAF Hunmanby Moor, a former Butlins Holiday Camp that was requisitioned by the RAF in 1941. The plaque was erected by a campaign group in April 2023, after the Council had rejected a plea for an official memorial to be placed alongside Filey’s other war memorials in the Memorial Garden on Murray Street. 

Glenn Parsons — whose two uncles Gilmore Westcarr and Edwin Samuels were amongst the men who travelled from the Caribbean — has lead the campaign for the last three years and has even offered to pay for the plaque to recognise their contributions. 

He’s determined to have Filey memorialise his uncle’s memories of the “warm welcome” they received from Filey residents after they had volunteered to travel thousands of miles “to come and help the motherland” during a “period [of the war] where England was in great peril” —  with Nazi forces only 26-miles-away across the English Channel. Those memories have convinced him of “the depths of our combined history” and the importance of officially remembering them.  

He says the initiative has “fallen on deaf ears” from the side of Filey Town Council. 

Glenn says “We’re now going to be having two ceremonies. One for the Caribbean contingent down on Queen Street and one for everybody else up at the Memorial Gardens. It simply shouldn’t be like that. And we might say it’s not what those men fought and died for” 

The Council’s official stance is that the Garden “was produced to honour the men and women of Filey who have died in conflict.” 

A spokesperson said, “There are no plaques to commemorate the Caribbean servicemen or any other of the many nationalities of servicemen who attended RAF Hunmanby camp for training during World War Two.” He also said that they have offered Glenn’s group alternative sites around Filey and Hunmanby.

The campaign consider these alternative sites to be “wholly unacceptable” since they are on private land and are inaccessible by foot.

Glenn maintains that the Caribbean contingent deserve their place in the Memorial Garden.

“It’s an affront to the servicemen from Filey and from the Caribbean who fought, lived and sometimes died shoulder to shoulder without any division” that serves to further “add to the insult that’s been payed to the memory of their service — by completely eradicating it from the history books.”

“He told stories of going into public houses, Americans coming in and saying, well, we don’t want those black people in here and the locals saying, well, you know, either you drink alongside them or you get out— nothing short of a warm welcome.”

Glenn says that it was because of the warm welcome his uncles received that his own parents —alongside thousands of others throughout the following decades— were encouraged to move to the UK. It is an important legacy of the Caribbean contingent that has been “rendered invisible” by Filey Town Council. 

“Gilmore settled in Gloucester [while] Edwin and my dad came to Leeds. They lived in this country for the rest of their lives and and contributed to this country.”

What eventually allowed for the creation of the Queen Street Memorial was the efforts of the people of Filey. Just as the thousands of servicemen from the Caribbean in the 1940s were warmly accepted in the 1940s, when it came to putting the plaque on Queen Street in place, Glenn says “The good people of Filey that have carried the day in the end.”

It was Filey homeowners Linda and Bryan that volunteered up their own property to hold the plaque — when Glenn’s initial plea was rejected by the council. 

Linda said, “I really got involved as I thought Filey TC were making a decision on behalf of people without their knowledge. Anyone who fought and defended this country during the wars should have recognition. I want to remember everyone who gave things up.” 

Whether the service on Saturday generates enough pressure to change the Council stance or not, Glenn maintains hope that “the time will come when perhaps a younger generation of counsellors will see the benefit of this.” 

The service at 85 Queen Street, Filey starts at 10:30am this Saturday the 11th of November. You can read more about the contributions of the Caribbean RAF contingent at www.africansinyorkshire.co.uk and www.theforgottengenerations.com.