Lads from the West

During World War I, soldiers from more than 120 different contemporary countries passed through Belgium, including several Caribbean ones. The men from the Caribbean served with the British West Indies Regiment, which was a fascinating and versatile unit. More than 230 West Indies men lost their lives as a result of the war in Flanders Fields.

Lads from the West
The British West Indies Regiment
from the Caribbean to the Western Front and back
1915-1919

In this new volume of the List of Names series, Dominiek Dendooven outlines the wider context behind the war experience of the men from the Caribbean: their background, social relations, the internal differences between them, their motivations and recruitment, their deployment and death at the front in Flanders (and elsewhere), their demobilisation and return to society. A common thread throughout the story is the extremely decisive role of ‘race’ and skin colour. Through the life stories and testimonies of some emblematic figures who served with the BWIR, the inextricable link between the burgeoning African-Caribbean self-awareness and the war experience of 1914-1918 is exposed.

practical

thursday 30 maart
7.00 pm
museum café

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