Victoria Cross hero Johnson Beharry has revealed his ancestors were victims of slavery – leading him to back efforts to honour the stories of slaves in the British Army who were given liberty.
Britain’s most highly decorated soldier says that while the purchase of thousands of men by the British Army is a difficult part of our history, they went on to serve as equals, many had distinguished military careers and it became the first institution to free them in the UK in the largest single act of emancipation in our history.
In a moving interview, Johnson, 42, revealed that some of his own ancestors were sold through one of the most notorious and hellish slave trading posts in the world.
And it was this discovery that has led him to support an exhibition at the National Army Museum, developed in partnership with the West India Committee and a book on the history of West Indian Soldiers.
Its aim is to tell the story of the 300 years of shared military history and heritage between the UK and Caribbean built on the service, sacrifice and courage of West Indian soldiers.
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Based in Whitehall, the committee is now working to get this important part of BAME military history on school curriculums across Britain – an effort also supported by Johnson.
Johnson, who was born in Grenada and was awarded Britain’s highest military honour after two extraordinary acts of gallantry in Iraq in 2004, said: “While I was recruited to the Army in the UK, I was born in Grenada and I am also a descendant of two slaves.
“That is part of my family history, and it is one that is shared by many other people from the Caribbean.
“Some of the British Army’s soldiers were bought as slaves.
“But what is astonishing is that they went on to serve as equals.
“Many thousands of soldiers joined voluntarily and served with distinction and there are also a number of West Indian recipients of the Victoria Cross.
“Today you have soldiers in our Armed Services coming from as far afield as Grenada, St Lucia, Fiji, Dominica and many other countries.
“I am also an example of this great story. And while I cannot pick out any individual, these soldiers are my heroes due to the legacy they represent.”
The new exhibition tells the story of the recruitment and role of West Indian servicemen and women in the British Army, the experiences of British soldiers and officers in the Caribbean, and their service in many military campaigns around the world. Chief executive of the West India Committee, Blondel Cluff, said: “The British Army was responsible for many unknown milestones in Caribbean history.
“Noting the vulnerability of European troops to tropical disease, in 1795, the Army formed its first permanent units for Caribbean service.
“Initially this entailed purchasing slaves, they received the same pay and conditions as white troops. These soldiers were freed by the Mutiny Act 1807, turning the Army from one of the biggest slave owners in history to the first British institution to abolish slavery. Later in the 1800s soldiers from the West Indies served as part of the British Army in West Africa fighting against West African slave traders.
“Although prejudice existed, limiting the ranks attained, the Army’s respect for West Indians is reflected by the fact that West Indians of every class, colour and creed had been awarded the Victoria Cross within 10 years of its creation. And that distinguished history lives on to this day through soldiers like Johnson.
“Britain’s armed forces also counted Caribbean women in their numbers with hundreds volunteering to join the ATS during the Second World War.”
Johnson said that his own ancestors were sold through the notorious Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. Around 1,500 men and women would be held in packed, suffocating dungeons at any one time until they were sent off in slave ships around the world.
Once bought, they were given the surname of the family who owned them – in his ancestor’s case the name Bernard. But his grandmother – who grew up as a free woman - rejected the horrors of her family’s past and instead used the surname of Beharry.
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He said: “Blanch Bernard was my mother’s grandmother and we discovered she is the daughter of African slaves that came over from the notorious Cape Castle. Sadly we don’t know the names of my mother’s great grandmother and great grandfather.
“Their names were changed from the African slave name to a Christian name. My grandmother went on to be given the name Adriana Bernard when she was born. But she refused to associate herself with that name.
“Instead, in the 98 years of her life she used the name Elaine Beharry – that’s what the family all knew her as although we later discovered that name is not on any paperwork.
“When I asked her about it later I said, ‘Why didn’t you tell us your name is Adriana Bernard? I was in total shock’. She didn’t want to talk about the past but said she didn’t want to associate herself with that name because of what it represented.
“When they took away my ancestors’ names they stripped them of their identity. So she said to me ‘I took my father’s surname Beharry which is an Indian name simply because I liked it’.”
Among the Victoria Cross heroes honoured alongside Johnson is Lt Frank De Pass, the first Jew to be awarded the Victoria Cross reflecting the diverse nature of Caribbean society.
His father Eliot de Pass was president of the West India Committee.
Other West Indian recipients of the Victoria Cross were Pte Samuel Hodge in 1866 – the second soldier of African-Caribbean descent to receive Britain’s highest military honour.
He was born into freedom but his parents are thought to have been enslaved in the British Virgin Islands.
L/Cpl William Gordon of Jamaica also received the VC, the highest award in the British Army.
Johnson attended a preview of the exhibition with the Secretary of State for Culture Oliver Dowden before it opened to the public.
Johnson said: “He was interested to know my view of bringing this history to the forefront as this has never been widely talked about before. I told him, ‘This story must be told. The younger generation must know the contribution that has been made’.”
But there is one key difference with the past, he added. “In the modern era I don’t see colour,” Johnson said.
“I see serviceman and servicewomen, dressed in their uniform advancing forward as one.
“So we need to teach our children about the history while looking positively to the future too. We cannot hide from the past. We have to acknowledge it, but I don’t think we should hold anyone hostage for what happened.”
Director of the National Army Museum, Justin Maciejewski, a former brigadier and Iraq veteran said: “People of West Indian heritage in Britain and overseas can be proud of the contribution made by West Indian soldiers to our nation’s history and its place in the world over three centuries.”
- Information on The National Army Museum’s West Indian Soldier exhibition is at nam.ac.uk/whats-on/west-indian-soldier
