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Colin Douglas Caribbean Historian

Want to know more about the contribution of the Caribbean in the second world war and other military conflicts?

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Colin Douglas
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The Caribbean

and the

Second World War

"If you did not know how reliant Britain was during the Second World War on all it received from its Caribbean colonies, read this book! No Caribbean, possibly no victory!" - Marika Sherwood, Historian.

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Who Is Colin Douglas?

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My deep interest in Caribbean history started many decades ago.

Whilst working in the Press Office of Lambeth Council in 1987, a journalist from the South London Press showed me a press cutting from 1948 about the arrival of the Empire Windrush.

We discussed doing an article on the Empire Windrush to coincide with the fortieth anniversary the following year.

This idea snowballed and I developed proposals for the council to run a full-blown anniversary celebration, including a Mayoral reception for Windrush passengers.

So an exhibition, essay writing competition, lectures and talks on Black history, media interiviews, and an oral history of West Indians who came over during the 1940s, 50s and 60s entitled ‘Forty Winters On’... read more

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More About Colin

Video preview

Black Cultural Archives, Windrush Square

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Endorsements

What Others Had To Say ...

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"If you did not know how reliant Britain was during the Second World War on all it received from its Caribbean colonies, read this book! No Caribbean, possibly no victory!"

Marika Sherwood

Author: Kwame Nkrumah and the Dawn of the Cold War

"Often Europe is seen as the only theatre of war that matters, and Europeans the only combatants worthy of historical investigation. Colin Douglas forthrightly challenges this prescription in an accessible and readable way"

Onyeka Nubia

Author: England’s Other Countrymen: Black Tudor Society (2019)

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"A welcome addition to the growing number of books that focus on Black service personnel in wartime. The author has undertaken rigorous archival research with diligence, passion and an outstanding attention to detail"

Stephen Bourne

 Author:Britain’s Black Servicemen and Women 1939-45  

"This is a gripping account of twentieth-century world history, one that restores the Caribbean region to its rightful place in global geopolitics."

Vron Ware

Author:Military Migrants: Fighting for YOUR country (2012)

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West Indian

Women At War

Based on original research and interviews, the book charts the obstacles placed in the way of the recruitment of Black women by a very reluctant war office.

Author(s): Ben Bousquet, Colin Douglas

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Book Colin To Speak At Your Event!

...or just drop a line to make contact!