Stephen Bourne’s interest in documenting the experiences of black Londoners on the Home Front began with the stories his Aunt Esther told him. Esther Bruce, born in Fulham in 1912, was a black Londoner who worked as a fire watcher during air raids. Read her story here. After recording his aunt’s memories, Stephen began searching for other stories of black Londoners in wartime Britain, and he discovered many who have been ignored by historians in the hundreds of books and documentaries produced about Britain and the Second World War.

It is not generally known that many black people volunteered as civilian defence workers while others helped unite people when their communities faced devastation. Black children were evacuated, and entertainers risked death when they took to the stage during air raids. Nurses and factory workers were recruited from Africa and the Caribbean. Despite some evidence of racial discrimination, black people contributed to the war effort where they could.

For example, in 1944 the Jamaican-born Harold Moody, a highly respected family doctor and community leader who lived and worked in Peckham, south London, was one of the first on the scene of the terrible V2 rocket incident in New Cross. Nearly 200 were killed and hundreds injured. Though an English Heritage Blue Plaque is displayed on his former home in Peckham, Dr. Moody, described by Stephen as Britain’s Dr. Martin Luther King, has never been given proper credit for his role as Britain’s leading black community leader in the 1930s and 1940s. He is featured prominently in Keep Smiling Through, and Stephen is proud to have been instrumental – with Dr. Moody’s niece Cynthia - in helping Southwark Council purchase the Dr. Harold Moody bronze portrait sculpted by his brother, Ronald, in 1946. The portrait had been thought lost for several decades, until it was recently rediscovered. It is displayed in the exhibition.

Other highlights in Keep Smiling Through is one of the wartime stage dresses of the glamorous American singer and expatriate Adelaide Hall. In 1939 Adelaide could have returned to America, but she had made London her home with her Trinidadian husband, Bert Hicks. In 1940 their popular West End nightclub was destroyed during an air raid in the Blitz. Undeterred, Adelaide continued to support the British war effort by touring variety theatres, entertaining the troops, and singing to the public in air raid shelters. Adelaide also made several trips across the war torn battlefields of Europe to sing to the troops. In 1941 she was named Britain’s highest-paid female entertainer. Though she remained popular with British audiences after the war for several decades until she died in 1993, Adelaide’s war service remained overlooked. Unlike many of her white contemporaries, she was not awarded an OBE or CBE.

Many black entertainers like Adelaide helped raise the morale of the British public. Others included the cabaret star Leslie ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson and the Trinidadian folk singer Edric Connor. Among the most prominent was the bandleader Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson whose swing band was one of the first to include musicians from the West Indies. They enjoyed a long residency at the Cafe de Paris, a famous nightclub situated underground in London’s West End. It was publicised as the safest in the city, but Snakehips’ career came to a tragic end there in 1941. Two high-explosive bombs crashed through the ceiling and one exploded in front of the bandstand, killing Snakehips, and several band members.

Keep Smiling Through features many rare and previously unseen photographs. The sources for these include Dr. Harold Moody’s family and biographer Dr. David Killingray, the Imperial War Museum and Stephen Bourne’s private collection. Film clips include West Indies Calling, a wartime documentary featuring the Jamaican poet Una Marson and Trinidadian community leader Learie Constantine. The exhibition also features music from, amongst others, Adelaide Hall and the bandleader Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson. A reconstruction of two wartime BBC radio broadcasts by the Nigerian air raid warden E. I. Ekpenyon are available to hear. He gives a vivid picture of being on duty during London air-raids. It is also possible to listen to the wartime memories of several black elders from the London Borough of Southwark who have been specially interviewed about their experiences of the Second War World on the Home Front in Africa and Caribbean.

Keep Smiling Through illustrated talks by Stephen Bourne. No booking required.

Wednesday 23 April, 6 to 7.30pm Cuming Museum

Thursday 22 May, 6.30 to 8pm Peckham Library

Tuesday 14 October 6.30 to 8pm Peckham Library

Wednesday 22 October 6 to 7.30pm Cuming Museum

Stephen Bourne’s Mother Country: Britain’s Black Community on the Home Front 1939 to 1945 will be published by Greenwood World Publishing in 2009.