(here)
(here)Black RAF WWII veteran honoured
A History and Honour news article
12 Mar 10
Black World War Two RAF bomber navigator, Flight Lieutenant Cy Grant, who died last month aged 90, has been posthumously honoured at a ceremony at the House of Lords. Report by Steve Willmot.
From left: Joost Klootwijk, Mrs Sami Moxon, Hans Klootwijk, Dr Kurt Barling and Baroness Scotland at the House of Lords
[Picture: SAC Stewart Paterson, Crown Copyright/MOD 2010]Flight Lieutenant Grant was shot down over Holland in 1943 while returning from a bombing mission over the Ruhr, survived capture by the Gestapo, and was imprisoned for two years in the infamous Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp in Silesia.
He has been honoured as an 'inspirational example' of how black men and women fought alongside white servicemen and women in the fight for freedom in two world wars.
His honour was planned by the Bomber Command Association before his death but his family decided to continue with the arrangements which involved a plaque being presented to his youngest daughter Sami Moxon.
She said:
"Dad was planning right to the end to make this ceremony in his honour - I am privileged to receive it on his behalf.
"He would have been very proud at this particular recognition of his contribution to the war effort. As the plaque says, he 'valiantly served in World War Two to ensure our freedom'." (MoD here)
As you read about Cy Grant's life and accomplishments, it is obvious that he really was, and is, an 'inspirational example' for so many reasons: a trailblazer. On his own website, there is a synopsis about his military life:
A Member of the RAF of Indeterminate Race - by Cy Grant
The title of the book is taken from a caption below a picture of Cy in the German Newspaper, Volkischer Beobachter, in July 1943.” Ein Mitglied der Royal Air Force von unbestimmbarer Rasse!” Presumably this was meant as a propaganda exercise for Nazi Master Race doctrine, implying that the RAF had to resort to the recruitment of people of unknown or ‘indeterminate’ race to fight their wars for them.
There is an element of truth in this. During World War II, the Royal Air Force had changed its mind about the recruitment of 'men of colour" into its privileged ranks, and by 1941 it was even prepared to recruit them from the colonies. Cy Grant was one of the first to be recruited as aircrew as well as being commissioned as an officer. As a navigator of a Lancaster bomber, he was shot down over Holland during the return leg of only his third mission, in just four days, over Germany. This period, from March to July 1943, marked the start of the massive air offensive over Germany known as the Battle of the Ruhr in which the RAF sustained its greatest losses during the entire war.
The book is a brief account of my prisoner of war experiences over a period of two years, time enough to reflect on the uniqueness of his situation, fighting a racist Nazi regime whilst himself being subject to racism in his own backyard, a situation albeit tempered by the exigencies of the threat to Britain.
Approx. 400 men from the Caribbean flew as Air Crew in the Royal Air Force during the last war – a fact that is little known. Of these, approximately 70 were commissioned as Officers and 103 decorated. Unless we are informed by the past we will never know who we are, where we are going and what we can do to help shape our future history...(here)
As with so many of our heroes, Flight Lt. Grant continued to contribute to society in meaningful ways:
Cy Grant, who died on February 13 aged 90, was the first black person to appear regularly on British television; during the war he was also one of the few West Indian volunteers to be commissioned in the RAF and spent two years as a German prisoner-of-war.
Grant sometimes struggled with Levin's lyrics, as the Wagner-loving wordsmith had a tin ear for the lilting rhythms of the calypso, but there seems to have been no question of a West Indian being allowed to write his own verses.
Cy Grant with Roger Moore in 'The Persuaders' Photo: ITV/REX
Although presented as an "unthreatening" black middle-class face amid the donnish coterie of white reporters on Tonight, the popular early evening topical magazine programme in the late 1950s, Grant later became a radical figure in black politics.
Launched in 1957, Tonight was characterised by what the commentator Christopher Booker considered "its earnest lack of respect and 'satirical' interludes". Part of the programme's edge derived from Grant's nightly topical calypso, with words written by the journalist Bernard Levin offering a cutting take on the stories and issues of the day.
Even working against the clock, Levin would often turn in highly ingenious and amusing lyrics. But at the end of each verse, Grant's refrain was always the same: "We bring you the news that you ought to know/In Tonight's topical calypso".
A handsome, strapping figure of 6ft 2in, Grant came to relish his role as the programme's resident black troubadour – "Television was like facing God!" he declared – but he left within three years because he felt he was being typecast. The show, introduced by Cliff Michelmore, continued until 1965, attracting at its peak some five million viewers. (here)
It would be impossible to do justice to such a trailblazer in a few words. Go to his site here, or here at the Beeb, 'Remembering Cy Grant,' where they also have a 10 minute video clip of an interview Cy Grant did.
From even a brief look at this remarkable life, I have no doubt that he is still trailblazing.
The world is poorer for his passing.
No comments:
Post a Comment