Men of the West India Regiment

A caribbean history blog... I am researching images of the British West India Regiment. The WIR was formed in 1795 and served in the British Caribbean colonies and West Africa.

[westindiaregiment]

Last Friday I had the pleasure of catching the penultimate evening show of the Chiggerfoot Boys at Tara Arts. The play, by Patricia Cumper, focuses on the experiences of ww1 of five Jamaicans, four of whom are soldiers. Two of the men were part of the British West Indies Regiment and Cumper goes into detail about their recruitment and experience of the war in Egypt and Italy. She presents a contrast between their experiences on the two fronts through the character of Mortie, a country boy who is a talented sniper. In Egypt he receives commendations for his work, yet in Italy he and the rest of his comrades are left to dig latrines. This was a humiliating task for the men and Mortie has a particularly bad experience when digging. An Italian officer taunts him as he digs and urinates on him. This leads to an altercation and Mortie knocks out the white Italian officer. He runs away, seeking refuge with another Jamaican but is court martialled and executed. In this way Cumper highlights the reasons for the mutiny in Italy amongst the West Indies Regiment and evokes sympathy for the men who took part. She highlights that these men had proudly tried to sign up to fight and were prevented from doing so due to fears about how whites facing blacks on the front lines could challenge ideas about white European dominance amongst colonials. The play was excellent, the actors brilliant, and the plot engaging and fascinating. #london #blackhistory #blackandbritish #theatre #militaryhistory (at Tara Arts)

[westindiaregiment]

Last Friday I went to the opening of Autograph ABP's new exhibition 'MAKING JAMAICA: PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE 1890S'. The exhibition explores how a new image of Jamaica was created through photography in the late nineteenth century. I was on the look out for photographs connected to my research on the West India Regiment. Images of these soldiers were important to representing and maintaining a certain image of Jamaica. Two images of the WIR feature in the exhibition. The photographs were from a series taken by Valentine and Sons during their time in Jamaica covering the Jamaica Exhibition of 1891. They aimed to make the local people look industrious and hard working in order to attract foreign investment and settlement, particularly from the US. In 1893 these photographs were taken to Chicago and displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition. #westindies #jamaica #london #art #arthistory #photohistory #photography #caribbean #usa #chicago #kingston #exhibition #gallery #blackhistory (at Autograph ABP)

[westindiaregiment]

This time last year I was in Nassau, visiting the numerous attractions in the city that relate to the Regiment. I enjoyed a trip to Fort Fincastle, where I was able to learn about the defences of Nassau and pose in a cut out of a WIR soldier in zouave uniform. I also visited Fort Charlotte, which was more of an 'experience'. At Fort Charlotte I was able to interact with soldiers of the Regiment who were carrying out their duties and pose with them drawing water, guarding rum, guarding munitions, and see what their sleeping quarters may have looked like. #nassau #bahamas #westindies #armylife #soldier #caribbean #caribbeanhistory #fortcharlotte #fortfincastle

[westindiaregiment]

Last night I had the pleasure of being part of a panel of black historians at the Black Cultural Archives. We discussed the recent BBC Show Black and British: A Forgotten History as well as the role of the historian in disseminating and sharing information with the community. It was a pleasure to be amongst so many great minds and to hear more about the decision making and production behind the tv series. The BCA will be launching an advocacy programme to promote black historians next year and I can only hope this is one of many such great events. #blackandbritish #london #brixton #bca #historian #blackhistory #research #caribbeanhistory #africanhistory #britishhistory #bbc #phdlife (at Black Cultural Archives)

[westindiaregiment]

Just two days over 110 years ago on 14th January 1907 an earthquake shook the capital of Jamaica at around 3:30 pm. It had a magnitude of 6.5 and at the time was considered one of the deadliest earthquakes in history. Every building in Kingston was damaged by the earthquake and subsequent fires, which lasted for three hours before any efforts were made to check them, led to the deaths of 800 to 1,000 people, left approximately 10,000 homeless and caused $25,000,000 of damage. The fires in the city burned for 5 days. The 2nd Battalion of the West India Regiment were stationed in Kingston at this time. The earthquake destroyed most of Up Park Camp where they were quartered. Accordingly to Brian Dyde the earthquake was tragic for the Regiment. Twenty-four black soldiers of the WIR burnt to death in their military hospital from which they could not escape and eighty others were wounded. Further to this two WIR officers were killed outright and seventeen were wounded. The Daily Gleaner described these two officers. The first was 'Major William Henry Hardyman, 1st battalion WIR, who died from injuries received in the earthquake was in his 42nd year and had been nearly 17 years in that regiment'. The second was Lieutenant John Lamont who 'joined the WIR in May 1900, having previously held a commission in the 1st Dunbarton rifles. He became a lieutenant at the beginning of 1901, and was serving at the Jamaica depot at the time of his death, having nearly completed his 29th year'. The National Library of Jamaica holds a range of images related to the earthquake and the regiment. One shows the destruction wreaked upon the paymasters office, another the ruins of the church, another shows Major Ogilvie and a group of twenty men in regimental attire among the ruins of the Kingston Club House. The most personal show the spouses and children of army personnel gathered outside of what remained of the married quarters at Up Park Camp. #jamaica #kingston #earthquake #caribbeanhistory #militaryhistory #westindies #armylife #blackhistory #rgs #geography #onthisday

[westindiaregiment]

Today I’ve been looking into the presence of blockade runners in Nassau during the period of the US Civil War. My interest in this was piqued by coming across a photograph that I had seen twice before in two archive collections in a photograph book called ‘Reminiscing: Memories of Old Nassau’. In the book the text accompanying this photograph reads: ‘it is believed that these men are some of the swaggering blockade runners of the American Civil War’. Thelma Peters writes that between 1861 and 1865 about 400 vessels entered Nassau from Confederate ports and that a clear profit of $300,000 for a round-trip was not uncommon. These blockade-runners gave Nassau’s society a much needed buzz during the period and entertained themselves at the barracks, Victoria Hotel, and local dances. The safe return of a runner was always occasion enough for a dance. Teas, picnics, boating parties and balls kept social circuit running and society turned out to watch cricket matches played at Fort Charlotte. Bi-weekly band concerts and dress parades of the Second West India Regiment also provided popular entertainment to the southerners stationed in Nassau for the duration of the war. One such inhabitant, Frank Wilson (initially from North Carolina) described the regiment as a ‘parcel of fine looking darkies’ who ‘could do good service in a rice or cotton field’. These more racialised attitudes that such visitors brought with them were a problem for Nassau’s black inhabitants who had been free from slavery for nearly 30 years by this time. Wilson went on to further disparage the Regiment stating that he ‘was told that it was almost impossible to learn them to drill correctly, and quite a difficult matter to get them to face the foe’ he also said of the Regiment’s band ‘It has the reputation of being a very good band…but as I am no judge of that commodity I can only present the evidence of others’. His account presents him as an individual who refused to credit any of Nassau’s black inhabitants with any intelligence or talent, including the Regiment’s soldiers. #photohistory #photography #nassau #bahamas #carolinas #civilwar #caribbean #UShistory #charleston #raleigh

[westindiaregiment]

This week I have been reading more about the soldiers of the WIR and their involvement in various World's Fairs. Following on from looking into the 1885 fair in New Orleans I looked into the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London for a WIR presence. According to primary source evidence at the Exhibition the islands were grouped as follows – Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Windward Islands, Leeward Islands, and the Bahamas. The courts were entered through screens decorated in a Moorish style. Each island had a section decorated with their name and crest. Large islands had a large amount of bays but smaller islands had just one to showcase their goods. The band of the 1st West Indian Regiment was indeed present. Frank Cundall recollected in his account of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition that 'the band of the 1st Native West Indian Regiment from Jamaica, played daily in the exhibition during the summer months: their picturesque uniform is very like that of the Zouaves'. Interestingly a Supplement to the Art Journal dating from 1886 specially dedicated to the exhibition featured an illustration of a black NCO of the WIR captioned as 'a harmony in black and white'. He holds what looks like a cup of coffee and is engaged in conversation with a white female visitor and a white soldier. The caption seems to want to present the image as evidence of the racial harmony of the British Empire. Unfortunately none of the accompanying text references the image or the West India Regiment. The top image is of the West Indian court at the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition, the bottom left is the illustration from the Art Journal, and the bottom right is of Corporal Gale in New Orleans. #jamaica #London #arthistory #photohistory #worldsfair #militaryhistory #westindies #caribbean #caribbeanhistory #blackhistory #victorians #tourism

[westindiaregiment]

This illustration comes from Lady Brassey's book 'In the Trades, the Tropics and the Roaring Forties: 14,000 Miles in the Sunbeam in 1883' (London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1885). In the book, Lady Brassey records her travels around the Caribbean where she visits Trinidad, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. Whilst in Jamaica she stayed with Major Woodgate of the 1st West India Regiment and visited the barracks at Up Park Camp and Newcastle. For most tourists at the time these were two important pit stops. The parade ground in front of Up Park Camp was a venue for band performances and walks. When Lady Brassey visited Up Park Camp she commented on how well the ranks of the WIR complimented the tropical scenery. Like other aspects of the landscape such as flora and fauna they helped to create beautiful scenes for tourists to take in. She said of the scenery at Up Park Camp: 'The whole group of buildings in surrounded by the parade ground, which resembles a beautiful English park, covered with bright green turf and studded with splendid trees, among which tamarinds, the imposing silk cotton tree, and the shiny leafed akee, with its peculiar and beautiful red ovate fruit, are conspicuous, contrasting picturesquely with each other and with the dark blue, red, and white Zouave uniforms of the soldiers of the West India Regiment’. For her Up Park Camp seemed like a place of relaxation as well as a place of work for the men. She recalled that: 'A wide verandah extends along both stories on the south side the buildings, shading them effectually from the sun, and affording a cool lounging place for the men, quite open to the sea-breeze, which there is nothing to intercept'. She also mentions that the barracks had 'a fine swimming-bath of clear running water'. #Kingston #jamaica #jamaicatourism #westindies #militaryhistory #travelogues #travel #exploration #caribbean #caribbeanhistory #jdf #upparkcamp

[westindiaregiment]

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a curator led tour of the two new exhibitions at Autograph ABP. Autograph was established in 1988 with the aim of advocating the inclusion of historically marginalised photographic practices, Autograph ABP also collaborates with peer organisations, nationally and internationally, to develop, exhibit and publish contemporary and historical photography. The exhibit that I visited was called Miss Black and Beautiful and featured the photographs of Raphael Albert, a photographer of Grenadian descent who lived in West London. The photographs depict the winners and contestants of black British beauty pageants in the 1960s and 1970s. The photographs show black women embracing their beauty at a time when they did not fit into ideals of beauty at the time. The contestants and their portraits challenge conventional notions of beauty implicated in the social, cultural, and political contexts of the time. It is an astonishing and beautiful exhibition and features 60 portraits of black women, something that you are unlikely to see anywhere else! #London #photography #art #arthistory #blackhistory #blacklivesmatter #afrocaribbean #grenada #westlondon #shoreditch #oldstreet #exhibition

[westindiaregiment]

This photograph was captured by Robert Charlotte, a photographer from Martinique, who in a personal search for identity and knowledge about the Black Caribs and their descendants, played with light and sceneries to capture the strong history of this people. The Garifuna are mixed-race descendants of West African, Central African, Island Carib, and Arawak people. In this photo the Garifuna woman is connected to the earth by the way in which the patterns on her dress mesh with the green plants that she stands amongst. Her grey hair mingles with the clouds connecting her to the sky. Through this she is rooted to the landscape that her ancestors have inhabited for centuries. #photohistory #arthistory #caribbean #antilles #martinique #stvincent #garifuna #photography #art #caribbeanart (at Warwick Arts Centre)

[westindiaregiment]

Embodied Islands, a Caribbean photography exhibition, was open for the past week at Warwick Arts Centre. I was lucky enough to work with the curator, an academic researching the photographs, and a community empowerment specialist to deliver workshops to various groups alongside the exhibition. I helped facilitate visits from secondary school children, primary school children and an art therapy group. As a historian whose works centres on interpreting photographs as evidence and in relations to various contexts it was fascinating to see how those without this background information analysed the same photographs. I also enjoyed seeing how inspired young and old people were by the photographs and the photographer and curator Jean-François Manicom. Some of the young people left feeling that they wanted to pursue a career in photography and some of the members of the art therapy group identified with the feelings expressed in the photographs. I had never seen art have such a powerful effect on people first hand and this was perhaps the most exciting aspect of facilitating the workshops. It was also helpful to share some of my own interpretations of the photographs with people from varying backgrounds to see if they would agree, challenge my views, or seek further information about the region and early practices of photography. For my next few blog posts beginning tomorrow I will give some more information about the exhibition, before closely analysing some of the photographs in it. (at Warwick Arts Centre)

[westindiaregiment]

This final image that depicts an aspect of the domestic life of the Regiment initially came from an article in the Illustrated London News in 1858. I came across it in a scrapbook produced by Fred Todd in the Ann S K Brown Military Collection at Brown University. Todd was the curator at West Point and put together 6-700 albums for armies in different parts of the world. The accompanying text reads: 'soldier in the uniform of the 1st WIR together with his wife and child, and a young merger bearing upon her head a calabash of water'. The photograph demonstrates that some men of the WIR who were stationed in Sierra Leone took local wives, most likely local creole women, and began families there. #sierraleone #freetown #militaryhistory #blackhistory #armylife #arfica #westindies #caribbean #westafrica #arthistory #photohistory (at John Hay Library)

[westindiaregiment]

For my second look at domesticity and the Regiment I am going to focus on photographs taken on campaign. These photographs come from some of the eight albums of Reginald Hignett Wilford, who was a Lieutenant from the Regiment and served in Sierra Leone in 1901. He was tasked with visiting various outposts in the interior. These photographs demonstrate what the living conditions were like on such expeditions. The two photographs from inside his cabin show how he chose to decorate his bedroom and writing room with framed photographs of loved ones and other prints.. The photograph of the black private with one of the officers' pet orangutans demonstrates that when out on campaign officers did interact with the rank and file, and also that pets were a large part of campaign life. In the memoir of another officer stationed in Sierra Leone a few years earlier, much is said about pets and a range are featured in the accompanying photograph album including dogs, cats, Wildcats and even a porcupine. Animals were also used as mascots and for a while Tambi the goat was a regular feature of some photographs of the regiment on parade in the early 1890s. The photograph in the top left corner of a black soldier of the Regiment taking 'dejeuner' or breakfast in Wilford's hut again demonstrates friendly interactions between the white officer class of the Regiment and the black rank and file. The setting of the table with its very English teapot and teacup, as well as the fact that Wilford has felt the need to use a table cloth to serve breakfast at his house is intriguing and highlights that despite being in isolated locations and being trained as fighters, these men relied on the comforts of home and aimed to create a similar feel to their own houses no matter where they ended up. #Sierraleone #freetown #armylife #militaryhistory #photohistory #photography #westindies #caribbeanhistory #westafrica #mabanta #pets #orangutan #adventure #expedition

[westindiaregiment]

The more photographs that I come across that feature the Regiment the more small snippets I seem to find of their more domestic lives. Therefore, I thought it was worth dedicating three short posts to some of the photographs I have come across that give us some insights into the domesticity of the Regiment. This will be the first of the three posts and in it I will reflect briefly on two photographs from the William Walker Whitehall Johnston album held at the Beinecke. The top photograph is of Fort Nassau in the Bahamas and what I find most interesting about the photographs are the uniforms and sheets that are hung out to air and dry over the balconies. It is unusual to see military barracks looking 'lived in' in photographs of the region. Usually they are captured with no signs of life, looking neat and tidy. The clothes and sheets visible in this photo, as well as the groups of men enjoying their leisure time outside, remind us that the barracks were not just places of work, drill, and discipline, but also places of rest, play, and home life. The bottom photograph is of the barracks in St. Lucia, and again shows the clutter that was a part of life in the barracks. There are clothes over the balcony as well as on the floor, boxes and what could be brooms rest against the wall, and a small table houses jugs and other equipment perhaps used to make drinks. Both of these photographs show the disorder of domestic life, and how it contrasts to the order and discipline usually presented in photographs of barrack life. #Nassau #Castries #stlucia #bahamas #westindies #caribbean #antilles #caribbeanhistory #militaryhistory #photographs #photohistory #blackhistory #armylife (at Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library)

[westindiaregiment]

This week was the public reopening of the Yale Center for British Art where I have been working for the past 2 months. It was so exciting to see the project complete and all the final touches finished. Most amazing though were the sheer number of visitors that came to see what's changed and how the collection has been reconceptualised with some works appearing in the gallery for the first time. The centre piece of the new and improved space has to be the long gallery on the fourth floor. With paintings displayed so closely together that there is not room for labels, this corridor mimics the galleries that were (and still are) present in numerous British country mansions. #ycbareopens #ycba #yale #newhaven #ct #art #arthistory (at Centro de Arte Británico de Yale)

[westindiaregiment]

Today I am in manuscripts and archives looking at documents and photographs related to black troops in the US Civil War. Although these will not feature in my thesis, it is important for me to understand what sort of attitudes and representations of black troops were circulating at the same time as the images that my thesis does focus on. The US Civil war was still ongoing in the same year as the Morant Bay Rebellion so it is possible that those involved or affected may have travelled to the Caribbean. It is also likely that images of the Civil War were seen by photographers and their patrons in the Caribbean. At present I am looking at the papers of a surgeon who served with the 22nd US Colored Troops. As part of my thesis I will closely analysing the photographs of a surgeon who served with the army in Jamaica, and looking into the murder case against the WIR's own army surgeon that resulted from his actions during the uprising. The opinions and thoughts of another army surgeon who was in the field around the same time and also worked with men of African descent could therefore be extremely useful and insightful. The print in the photograph above is held in the collections at Brown and is one of the most famous images of coloured troops that circulated during the war with the hope of recruiting them into the Union Army. ##militaryhistory #soldier #blackhistory #civilwar #americanhistory #caribbeanhistory #art #arthistory (at Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library)

[westindiaregiment]

This particular carte comes from an album held at the National Library of Jamaica, put together by Richard Glynn Vivian, Brother of the First Baron Swansea. The album is a pictorial record of a voyage from 1868-69 on board SS Atrato bound for St. Thomas in the West Indies. As well as photographs the album contains diary notes and watercolours. The carte shows a private of the WIR. He is not named but his likeness was likely commercially reproduced for collectors who wanted to take home a photograph of this type of soldier. He is not in the typical zouave turban but instead wears a turban with a covering at the neck, perhaps to protect him from the sun when on guard duty. The stance that he stands in is one that may have been adopted for guard duty or for inspection called ‘order arms’. The butt of his rifle rests on the ground on his right side and he steadies his gun with his right hand. The fact that the gun stands taller than the soldier makes us wonder how he operated and maneuvered it with ease. Instead of empowering him, in this portrait the size of the weapon makes him seem more inadequate. The length of the gun and its position at his side almost makes it look like the measuring rods that were used to show the heights of ‘types’ of people in later ethnographic photographs. The fact this portrait is of an unnamed soldier who is instead made to stand for all privates of the WIR in this collectable print strengthens this similarity. Richard Glynn Vivian was a scientist and we can imagine him using his scientific eye with regards to this print. The photo is positioned next to a landscape Carte of a harbour, on the other side of the landscape Carte is a headshot of a man with a large nose, lips and teeth. Most likely seen as a typical native. This could add to the idea that RVG is trying to present a typical view of a soldier on this page. Other photos on the page are of Strawberry Hill in March 1868. #jamaica #photohistory #westindies #caribbean #caribbeanhistory #militaryhistory #soldier (at New Haven, Connecticut)