In her article “One million untold stories” (G2, 17 October), Kamila Shamsie avers that the British West Indies Regiment “were not allowed to fight because black men could not be trusted with guns”. While it is true that on the western front BWI troops were used mainly as labour units, they were certainly armed. Photograph Q1202 in the Imperial War Museum shows troops of the BWI regiment with their rifles on the western front in 1916. In his book The British West Indies Regiment 1914–1918, Guyanese historian Cedric Joseph says the reason the regiment was not employed as frontline troops (on the western front) was that their fighting qualities were suspect.
However, BWI troops did see action – against the Turks in Palestine and Syria as part of General Allenby’s forces. Major General Sir EWC Chaytor, who commanded Australian and New Zealand troops in Palestine, wrote to the regiment: “... all the troops in my division ... like to fight alongside you; ... in fact, they could never wish for anybody better” (quoted in Caribbean Wars Untold: A Salute to the British West Indies, co-authored by the late Major General John Graham, in which photograph Q1202 appears).
Ian Wishart
Chislehurst, London
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