meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
History Extra podcast

Black Britons in WW2

History Extra podcast

Immediate Media

History

4.34.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2020

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Stephen Bourne discusses the experiences of Britain’s black community during the Second World War Historian Stephen Bourne, author of Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime, discusses the experiences of black civilians and service personnel in Britain between 1939 and 1945, and charts their contributions to the war effort. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the History Extra Podcast from BBC History magazine,

0:15.0

Britain's best-selling history magazine. I'm Ellie Korthorn. In today's episode you'll be hearing from the author and social historian Stephen Bourne.

0:32.0

Stephen's latest book, Under Fire, Black Britain in wartime,

0:36.8

explores the experiences of black people in Britain between 1939 and 45.

0:42.4

Our production editor, Spencer Misen, called him to find out more.

0:47.0

Stephen, your new book Under Fire, Black Britain in wartime documents the experiences of black citizens on the home front and in the

0:55.6

services during the Second World War. Now just to give our listeners a little context, how many

1:01.1

people are we talking about here? And where did they hail from?

1:07.4

I would answer this. I've said this in the introduction to the book, we'll never know what the numbers are.

1:17.1

Statistics in relation to black people in Britain, black people in the armed services in the

1:22.3

Second World War. in the recruitment papers of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.

1:38.9

So there are no accurate figures.

1:41.5

So what I've done is quote various historians who give

1:44.4

very conflicting figures I don't know where they got their figures from what I

1:48.7

have done which has never been done before and I'm very proud of this.

1:53.2

I trawled through the 1939 register for England and Wales which was a kind of

1:59.2

census if you like taken in September 1939 for the government and so on and so forth.

2:05.6

The authorities to try and establish who was who, where they were living,

2:09.9

how old they were for the war work.

2:14.2

And I found, I wanted to find, my target was to find 100 black Londoners,

2:19.9

and I did.

2:21.2

Black people that I knew of or knew about and a few that I didn't.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Immediate Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Immediate Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.