'I Felt Like a Man': West Indian Troops under Fire during the First World War

Title'I Felt Like a Man': West Indian Troops under Fire during the First World War
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2018
AuthorsMaguire, Anna
JournalSlavery & Abolition
Volume39
Issue3
Pagination602 - 621
Date Published08/2018
Abstract

This article examines representations of the British West Indies Regiment’s service during the First World War to explore how limits on their service were negotiated and how tropes of ‘martial races’ were adapted to ensure the contributions of West Indian men were recognised. The article examines West Indian experiences in Europe and the Middle East, drawing on a rich variety of textual and visual sources: official histories of West Indian regiments, memoirs written by padres who served with the troops, letters from the men as published in newspapers like the Daily Gleaner and the Jamaica Times, and official photographs. It argues that ‘combat gnosticism’ was replicated in another form within these representations to construct a definition of military service that included these black men and validated their contributions. [Author]

URLhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0144039X.2018.1489944
Entry by GWC Assistants / Work by GWC Assistants : 
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