About
Colin Douglas
About
Colin Douglas
As a second generation West Indian - my parents came to the UK from Jamaica in the 1950s - I have always had an interest in the Caribbean. My latest book, The Caribbean and the Second World War (published by Lawrence Wishart, 2025), describes the pivotal role of the Caribbean in the Allied victory against Germany and the impact of the war in the Caribbean.
Who Is Colin Douglas?
Who Is Colin Douglas?
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, 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’.
The fortieth anniversary celebrations in 1988, centred around Lambeth, were the biggest up to that date. I met and worked with Sam King, one of the Windrush passengers and a leading campaigner for recognising the Empire Windrush as a landmark event in British history.
I was struck by the fact that many of the Windrush passengers I met and interviewed for ‘Forty Winters On’ were veterans of the Second World War. Shortly after the 1988 anniversary celebrations, a work colleague (Ben Bousquet) came across an old article from the Picture Post magazine about a group of West Indian women serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the women’s branch of the British army during the Second World War.
Ben had a long interest in West Indian history and he suggested we work together to produce a book about these women. The book we wrote and published in 1991 was called ‘West Indian Women at War’ (published by Lawrence Wishart), and it has been widely referenced in historical publications about the Caribbean’s contribution to the war.
Ben and I had always hoped to write another, broader history of the Caribbean role in the Second World War but, unfortunately, never managed to get around to doing so before his death in 2006. Finally, in 2024, I wrote ‘The Caribbean and the Second World War’ (published by Lawrence Wishart).
My latest book highlights the little-known facts about the pivotal role of the Caribbean in the Second World War - much of Britain’s oil supply came from the region along with the bulk of bauxite used by the Allies to produce aluminium which was essential for building military aircrafts and munitions. As a result of the Caribbean’s strategic importance, Germany launched a massive U-boat attack on the region during much of 1942 turning the West Indies into the most dangerarous shipping zone in the world that year - a military campaign that is known as the Battle of the Caribbean.
The book also describes the Caribbean's role in European wars over hundreds of years, and the history of struggle against colonial oppression and inequality.
What Others Are Saying...
What Others Are Saying...
"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)
"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)
Book Colin To Speak At Your Event!
Book Colin To Speak At Your Event!
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...or just drop a line to make contact!