Introduction

You have already had the chance to gain a base understanding of the term ‘soldiers of the Empire’. Now, you have a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the contribution of Caribbean soldiers. Many parts of the Caribbean were still under control of the British crown and had been called to fight. However, their contribution has largely been ignored until this last decade, when historians are unearthing more and more facts about the valuable contribution, but also sad treatment, of Caribbean soldiers.

You will need to log in to your Kerboodle account to access the reading for this topic:

READ - Caribbean Soldiers in WW1 (Kerboodle)

It would be great for you to start with this video link:

WATCH - World War One’s Forgotten Black Heroes (YouTube)

Working through the reading (using the above Kerboodle link)

Study pages 1–2. Can you explain to your observer why WW1 was a ‘global war’?
Next, complete the ‘Over to You’ section on page 2 to check your facts and understanding.
Read pages 1–4 and complete a fact file on the British West Indies Regiment. You could consider headings for your fact file like ‘journey’, ‘experiences’, ‘jobs’ etc to develop key points on your fact file.
Use your fact file to answer questions 1–2 in the ‘Over to You’ section on page 4 to test the detail in your fact file. Then use your textbook to complete questions 3 and 4.
Pages 5–6 gives an excellent account of men in the Merchant Navy but also develops some of the experiences after WW1. Complete the ‘Over to You’ section on page 6 to summarise this.

Extension activity for this topic

The Source Analysis task on page 2 offers a very good challenge on questioning the usefulness of a source. Give this a go.

Optional resources

These will be useful to extend your knowledge for assignments.

This is an excellent article that offers a summary of the overall contribution of people of colour in the British, French and Germany armies. A must read if you only have time for one optional resource.

READ- Black Soldiers in World War One (The Black Presence in Britain)