By 1941 95 Guyanese had
joined the British forces: 22 went into the RAF, 42 into the navy and 31
recreated for specialised work. Scores of Guyanese also worked in the
merchant navy. In 1943, 32 Guyanese enlisted in the British armed forces, 20
travelled to the UK to serve as munitions workers in factories and 48 (one of
whom was the pioneering author Edgar Mittelholzer) joined the Trinidad Royal
Naval Volunteer Reserve.
Mittelholzer’s experiences
as a naval rating are shrouded in mystery, but his comment that this period was
“one of the blackest and most unpleasant interludes” of his life perhaps
suggests that the involvement of colonial subjects in the 2nd World War was a
complex and ambivalent one. For one, people of colour were not allowed within
the TRNVR to rise above the position of naval rating no matter how intelligent
or able. In a letter dated 5th July 1942 Mittelholzer describes his Lt.
Commander as a ‘monstrous tyrant’, complains about the treatment of the ratings
and of their/his wages, which were notoriously low. Below is an excerpt of
Mittelholzer’s letter (courtesy of Michael Gilkes) to Captain Denison:
"No, I cannot
tolerate this. Shortly after posting this, I shall give myself up for arrest
and will come before you for trial. […] It is the price I must pay for having
left my civilian comforts to come forward voluntarily and offer services to the
Empire. In fact, I shall accept many more such sentences of imprisonment, for I
absolutely refuse to give service under such a commanding officer as Lt.
Commander Wilkinson, and no matter what suffering I may have to undergo in the
future, I shall never be shaken in this resolve."
When informed by the Lt.
Commander that he could not leave the navy so “long as he was wearing the
King’s uniform”, Mittelholzer “stripped himself naked and walked off the ship”.
He was discharged on medical grounds in August 1942, presumably as a result of
this incident, and was for some time afterward, kept under naval surveillance.
Mittelholzer, it has to be said,
has become a hero of mine. Full of integrity to his end.
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