A Memoir Of Roots, Routes and Resilience
THEY CALL ME GUESS
ABOUT THE BOOK
'AN ILLUMINATING AND IMPORTANT PIECE OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY'
This Memoir is Beulah Smith-Coombs’ second published book. It includes first hand narration of life in the 1950s and 60s, details of which she first wrote in 1973, aged 24, as a 12,000 words dissertation for her English degree
Beulah ‘Guess’ Smith-Coombs’ memoir chronicles her early childhood in 1950s rural Jamaica and follows her windrush era upbringing and teenage years in ‘swinging 60s’ England; student life and community activism in the 1970s black power era, and the decades beyond.
She was born in Kellits, Clarendon, Jamaica and this was where Beulah ‘Guess’ spent her early childhood years before arriving in Manchester, England, aged 8, in 1957.
Guess is an inspiring read spanning decades and portraying Jamaica’s rich cultural heritage which informed Beulah’s character from an early age. The book also lays bare the challenges faced by her parents’ generation and witnesses a number of events which during the 60s and 70s marked the lives of many young black people in similar situations. The book intermingles local, national and world history seamlessly providing a ready backdrop to events in an individual’s life. ‘
Diary entries pulled together in her first dissertation manuscript in 1973 retains the immediacy of the narrative as it unfolded at the time. Beulah’s tale about navigating adversity as well as celebrating successes - the first graduate in her family; one of Britain’s few Black teachers in the 1970s; a College Lecturer and senior manager - is compelling.
It movingly documents the story of a generation and in doing so, Beulah creates an illuminating and important piece of social and cultural history.
Original folder for 1973 dissertation, then entitled: 'Chapters From My Life'
READER REVIEWS
J. Fraser
“A wonderful, well-paced and informative narrative that should be used in schools as a reference. I hope this important document also gets distributed in the Caribbean and everywhere the diaspora finds itself. "
J. Oliver
"It beautifully distils a generational narrative that I think our children should read."
Philip Bourke, Podcaster
“Beulah’s nostalgic and inspiring story is a lesson in determination, perseverance and resilience”
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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PRESS
Visit, organised by The British West Indies Heritage Trust, to Uncle Robert's cemetery, Ypres Belgium, October 2025
Listen to song especially composed for Uncle Robert
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.
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.
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.
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