Toxteth, Liverpool: Black Soldiers

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Author Herman Melville once described Liverpool as “a port in which all climes and countries embrace” and with one of Europe’s oldest black communities, the city can certainly boast that. The community in Liverpool dates back three centuries, with freed slaves and servants and student sons and daughters of African rulers coming to the port in the 1750s and settling there. The numbers grew, and by 1914 and the outbreak of World War One, the black community in the city was well established. During the conflict, many signed up along with thousands of other men to fight in the King’s Liverpool regiments. Others joined the British West Indies Regiments: these men are remembered on the Anfield War Memorial. However, their contribution seems to have been overlooked with few photographs or records detailing their involvement. Despite their role with and alongside the British troops in the Great War, just one year later, race riots broke out in Liverpool, and some firms had discharged their black employees as white workers refused to work with them. Since 1919, diversity and multiculturalism has grown in Liverpool, and Melville’s description of the city remains relevant. Location: Toxteth, Liverpool L8 Image: Ray’s grandparents; Albert and Ethel James, courtesy of local historian Dr Ray Costello