Lives of the First World War

Remembering the 8th Battalion of the British West Indies Regiment - 23 officers and 981 men, which sailed from Trinidad (405 men of 4th Trinidad Contingent) and Barbados (110) on HMT Magdalena on 7/11 July 1917, including men from Antigua (1), Dominica (54), Grenada (53), Guyana (92), Montserrat (13), St. Kitts (12), St. Lucia (100) and St. Vincent (131). All of the men were volunteers. There were also 12 men from 6th Battalion (5th Jamaica War Contingent) who had been landed at St. Lucia suffering from pneumonia following an outbreak on HMT Briton in April, and they disembarked in Brest, France on 31 July. Returning from special leave in Trinidad were Sgt. 281 Leonard Fitzgerald Browne and Corporal George Arthur Roberts 1st Middlesex Regiment who according to the Every Week newspaper, the latter had 'helped to recruit more than 250 men by his vigorous speeches'. For those who died extra information has been collected from the Soldiers' Effects records, but for lots of these men there are only medal records because they managed to survive; (the medal rolls are however split by island and show their original battalion). So they sailed from home, served in the war and then sailed home again, with the regiment not invited to the Peace (Victory) Parade held in London July 1919 // incomplete.

http://caribbeanrollofhonour-ww1-ww2.yolasite.com/4th-trinidad-contingent-bwir.php

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