A True Story of A Forgotten Jamaican World War 1 Soldier
My Uncle Robert
ABOUT THE BOOK
The true story of a World War 1 Jamaican soldier and how, through a series of amazing and incredible coincidences, his family came to discover his fate, nearly 100 years after his death.
This was written in response to the realization that the contribution of Afro Caribbean soldiers like Uncle Robert, and their heroism, in society, have generally been unrecognised.
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Beulah Coombs
BIOGRAPHY
Beulah Coombs (née Smith) was born in Clarendon, Jamaica, in 1948, the same year that the ship HMT Empire Windrush first docked in England, bringing the first wave of West Indian immigrants from Jamaica.
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Beulah arrived in Manchester to join her parents in 1957. She attended St Paul’s Primary School, Claremont Secondary Modern School for Girls and Moston College of Further Education where she achieved GCEs and secretarial qualifications.
At that time, in the 1960s, as a Black woman, she was unable to obtain employment commensurate with her credentials in Manchester. She then relocated to London in the late 1960s, into a suitable job she was offered there.
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Beulah later qualified as a teacher and gained a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of London in 1974. She began her teaching career at a Camberwell, London, Comprehensive School and later became a lecturer in a South London College of Further Education, where she remained before retiring after 26 years.
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Beulah is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and lives in the London Borough of Croydon.
BLACK HISTORY
Aspects of Black history is also British history, and so should be part of the general curriculum and not just one month of the year. For example:
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How the slave trade played a major part in financing Britain’s industrial revolution.
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How and why the Windrush people, whose descendants, are now 5th generation, come to be in Britain
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