4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2019
⏱️ 9 minutes
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0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service. |
0:04.6 | We are weekly guides the numbers in our past, present and sometimes even future and I'm |
0:09.3 | Tim Halford. |
0:10.6 | Loyal listener Tony wrote into us at more or less at bbc.co.uk to ask us about the First |
0:17.3 | World War and a statistical claim that surprised him. |
0:20.8 | I was amazed to hear on BBC London that 30% of the British army were black, which if true |
0:26.8 | should be a blighetry to share on all programmes about World War One. |
0:31.0 | Well, with me is our historical wars correspondent Lizzie McNeil and Lizzie. |
0:35.8 | Hi Tim. |
0:36.8 | So who said this? |
0:37.8 | The clip is from the Robert Elm show on BBC London Radio where the regular guest historian |
0:42.7 | Dr Louise Raw introduces writer Stephen Bourne. |
0:46.2 | Bourne's book, Black Poppies, includes untold stories of black British people and their |
0:50.4 | experience of World War One. |
0:52.4 | A third of those who fought for Britain were black and Asian. |
0:56.9 | And is Dr Raw correct? |
0:58.7 | Well, ethnicity wasn't recorded in the British army at the time, so any figure would only |
1:03.6 | be an estimate. |
1:05.0 | I looked at regiments that were recruited from specific parts of the British Empire. |
1:09.4 | Records and articles from the National Archive of Australia, the National Army Museum |
1:13.1 | and the Imperial War Museum show that approximately 30% of people who served in the British |
1:18.2 | Army during World War One were from these regiments that were recruited from parts of the |
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