In Memory.

I have started a list dedicated to the men who formed army regiments and contingents from Britian's Caribbean Colonies and Bermuda and who died during the First and Second World Wars. The list is not complete and will grow as time and research permits.

There is a CD-ROM available at the United Kingdom Public Record Office, Kew, England  which gives details of those who died while serving in the British Army during the First World War. Sadly, it does not include the casualties suffered by the men from Britain West Indies Regiment (1915 - 1919). It does list those who were born or resided in the Caribbean Colonies and Bermuda (usually of European origin) who joined or were attached to British Army Regiments.

Memorial For Commonwealth Soldiers.

H.M. The Queen laid the foundation stone on Constitution Hill, in London today (1st August 2001) for a set of gates commemorating the five million soldiers from South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean who fought alongside Britain in two world wars.

The gates, which are the UK's first national memorial to the soldiers of the Commonwealth, are expected to be finished by next February (2002). They were designed in consultation with the Prince of Wales and the project was formally launched at a ceremony at the Commonwealth Secretariat on 24th February, 1999.

Baroness Shreela Flather, who chairs the Memorial Gate Trust, said it will cost £2.2 million raised from the UK's Millennium Commission and private sources. She said it was a great compliment that the Queen had laid the foundation stone.

Baroness Flather, who is originally from India, became involved initially because she felt not enough recognition was being given to the contribution of the soldiers from South Asia who had fought on the side of Britain and helped win the wars. "I just felt we had to claim our place in this country. We were volunteers, not conscripts. And then I thought that Africans and Caribbeans had also been forgotten . . . and sadly, the young people don't know about our contribution. So this memorial is a powerful message for race relations."

There are also plans for an educational project to teach the young about the sacrifices made by the Commonwealth soldiers.