1. Mary Seacole (1805-1881) was born in Kingston, Jamaica.  During the Crimean War, Mary helped to look after the troops by feeding them and treating their wounds.  She also went to the front line to then to the wounded.  In 1856 she returned to England penniless and remained this way until 1867 when the Seacole Fund was set up, supported by Queen Victoria.  This provided her with enough money to continue practicing as a ‘doctress’ until her death in 1881.

2. Vincent Bunting was born in Panama in June 1918 and raised in Kingston, Jamaica.  He became a fighter pilot and joined No 611 Squadron in December 1942.  After being promoted to Warrant Officer, Bunting served with No 132 Squadron flying Spitfires.  In October 1944 he was transferred to No 154 Squadron.  Whilst leaded a section of Mustang IVs from his squadron on he 27th March 1945, Bunting destroyed an enemy aircraft near Lübeck in Germany.  In April 1945 he was commissioned as a Pilot Officer and in June he received his last flying post in the RAF, joining No1 Squadron.

3. James Durham was born in the Sudan and was the first African to be accepted into the Army on the same conditions as white recruits.  In 1902 James was sent to England and then posted to Ireland in 1905.  On 8th August 1910 he died of pneumonia in Fermoy Hospital, County Cork and was buried with full military honours in the local cemetery.

4. Born in British Guiana (Guyana), Cy Grant volunteered for the RAF at the start of the war.  He became a navigator and served with 103 Squadron.  His Lancaster bomber was shot down on his third mission over Holland on the night of 25th June 1943 during an attack on the Ruhr Valley.  The crew had to parachute out of the plane and five of the seven survived.  Grant was a prisoner of war in Germany for the next two years.  His war memoir, “A member of the Royal Air Force of Indeterminate Race”, is published by Woodfield Publishing (2006).  After the war he qualified as a Barrister-at-Law but went into show business where he pursued a successful career.  He was a Chairman/Co-founder of the Drum Arts Centre in the 1970s and Director of Concord Multicultural arts in the 1980s.

5. Surgeon Major James Africanus Beale Horton (1835-1883).  James Horton was born in Sierra Leone and his parents were freed slaves.  He was educated by the Church Missionary Society.  In 1855, at the request of the War Office, Horton and two other young men were sent for further medical training at King’s College, London.  In 1859 he joined the British Army Medical Service where he was appointed assistant staff surgeon. Horton was one of the first Africans to qualify as a medical doctor and one of the first to serve as an officer in the British Army, and in 1874 he achieved the title Surgeon Major.

6. More than 20,000 Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals volunteered to serve in the British Military during World Wars I and II.

7. During World War Two some 350 000 troops from East, West and Central Africa fought with distinction alongside British, South African, Indian and local forces in defeating Italian forces in Somaliland and Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in East Africa.

8. Born in Jamaica, Sergeant William Gordon enlisted in the West India Regiment on 9th July 1885.  In March 1892 he won the Victoria Cross in Sierra Leone after throwing himself into the line of fire to save his commanding officer.

9. Able Seaman William Hall VC, RN. William Hall was the first black man to win a Victoria Cross.  Born in 1827 in Nova Scotia, the son of a freed slave, Hall volunteered for the Royal Navy some time before 1852.

10. Sergeant Major Bawa Bazabarimi was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery during the East African Campaign at Bulo Erillo (in the former Italian Somaliland) on 13th February 1941. On that day his Company had come under heavy machine-gun and grenade fire from opposing Italian troops. After the death of one of the officers in the Company, Colour Sergeant Major Bazabarimi organised and led a successful bayonet charge against a machine-gun post. Despite being wounded in this attack, he continued to be involved in the fighting and took over the leadership of another platoon after the death of their officer.

11. The integration of overseas recruits into RAF units placed great emphasis upon the need to stamp out any sign of discrimination. An Air Ministry Confidential Order issued to commanding officers in June 1944 stated that: “All ranks should clearly understand that there is no colour bar in the Royal Air Force. Colonial personnel who come to this country are volunteers. They feel a close tie with the Mother Country and the mainspring of their desire to serve is a strong sense of loyalty…. Any instance of discrimination on grounds of colour by white officers or airmen or any attitude of hostility towards personnel of non-European descent should be immediately and severely checked.”

12. Members of the RAF drawn from the Commonwealth and Empire during the Second World War served on an identical basis to their European counterparts and were eligible for the full range of gallantry medals. One Distinguished Service Order (DSO), 21 Distinguished Flying Crosses (DFC), one Bar to the DFC, two Air Force Crosses (AFC) and 45 Mentions in Dispatches were awarded to officers and airmen of the fledgling Indian Air Force in the period up to November 1946.

13. 
Flight Sergeant Lincoln Orville Lynch DFM, 
No 102 Sqn RAF.

Flight Sergeant Lynch was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal for his determination and great skill as an Air Gunner in bombing sorties over Germany during the Second World War. These sorties often encountered heavy opposition from German fighters. Such was Sergeant Lynch's ability that he shot down an enemy fighter during his very first sortie.

14. During WWII some 372,500 African troops fought in East Africa and Burma.

15. Lilian Badere was born in Liverpool.  Her father was from Barbados and had served with the Royal Navy, her mother was white and from England.  Lilian was orphaned at the age of 9 and lived in a convent until she was 21.  She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) at the beginning of 1941.  In December 1941, Lilian became the leading aircraftwoman (LACW) and soon gained the rank of Acting Corporal.  During the war she married a black soldier named Ramsay Bader and in 1944 she left the WAAF.  The couple had two sons and she later trained to become a teacher.

16. A stamp was issued in 1998 to mark the 80th Anniversary of the Royal Air Force. It reflects the portraits of African Dominicans who served with Honor as RAF Aircrew.

17.   Squadron Leader Ulric Cross was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC_|) in 1944 for his gallantry during the Second World War.  While serving as a Pilot Officer with 139 (Jamaica) Squadron he participated in bombing attacks across occupied Europe.  In 1945 he was also awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in recognition of his “fine example of keenness and devotion to duty” and “exceptional navigational ability”. Cross was the only person of color in his unit, and as Squadron Leader completed 80 missions over occupied Europe and Germany.

18. The First World War (1914-1918) saw a significant number of Africans arrived in Britain to fight. The second (and larger) wave of Afro-Caribbean’s arrived in Britain during the course of the Second World War (1939-1945). In all, several thousand workers migrated as volunteers fight in the RAF and other branches of the armed forces, and to serve as military technicians. Many others were also recruited by Britain to work in its Merseyside munitions plants.

19. Not many people in Britain today are aware that during World War II, there were over 400 air crew from the Caribbean who flew with the RAF - about 70 receiving commissions, 103 decorations for distinguished service, and over a hundred who gave their lives fighting for the 'mother country.'

20. Group Captain Larry Osbourne, the first Afro-Caribbean Officer to achieve the rank, having joined the RAF from Trinidad as a navigator in 1943. An accomplished pilot, who saw active service flying Catalinas and Liberators during World War II, Osbourne remained in the RAF after the cessation of hostilities, before receiving an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his work in the service. His son later followed him into the RAF as a pilot.

21. Walter Tull was the second black British professional footballer—as a forward playing for Tottenham Hotspur and, with great success, for Northampton Town. In 1914 he signed up for the British Army, joining the Football Battalion. Tull saw action at the Battle of the Somme before being sent to officer training school. In 1917 he received his commission, becoming the first black combat officer in the British army. A popular officer, he served on the Italian front and was killed on the Western Front in March 1918 at Favreuil.

22. During the First World War (1914-1918) a significant number of Afro Caribbean people arrived in Britain to fight. Soon after thousands arrived to work in the war industries and the merchant navy.

23. The following wave of Afro-Caribbean immigration in Britain was during the Second World War (1939-1945). Many workers came as volunteers to fight in the RAF and the armed forces to serve.

24. Born in Trinidad in 1902, Lord Leary Constantine became the first person ever to successfully challenge colour discrimination by a service industry. He was a welfare officer in the RAF, and was refused service in a London Hotel, he later wins damages. Constantine was made an MBE in 1945, knighted in 1962, and elected a life peer