Lives of the First World War

Originating from Colon, Panama and travelling via Trinidad, West Indies stopping at Plymouth (where 120 men of the British Guiana Militia Contingent of the British West Indies Regiment were landed) arriving in London on 6 September 1915. Between October 1915 and March 1916, Seaford was used as a training camp for the men from the West Indies in preparation for fighting in Europe. Withnoe camp, Whitsand Bay, Plymouth was also an arrival camp. The new arrivals were inadequately clothed for the harsh realities of the British cold in winter and the huts badly insulated. As a result the camps became rife with diseases and men lost their lives totally unnecessarily. 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. Still to find: Trinidad: Norman Carter Rackstraw RNVR, Otto Lancelot Walter, Robert Henry Bunbury, Cecil Irving, Roderick James, Arthur Clive Telfer, Grenada: William ET Harford, Charles Bertram Golding, Panama: Percy John Parsons, St. Lucia: Frances Windsor Pelham Kingdom, Guyana: JWF Douglas, Edward J Dryden, Charles Edward L Cox, RL Lambert BWIR, St. Kitts: Charles Sheppard,

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