I remember my mother telling me about a lady she met at the local shop, who she spoke to, her son who had very dark skin with black curly hair, telling mum she go £2 for him in WW2 and times were hard. so they did anything to make money to survive.
Anyway this leads me think there was black troops billeted in the Huddersfield area of Yorkshire England where mum lived then in 1944 ish
Hello, thank you for this. There is no certainty about numbers, but there were around 2.000 mixed race children that were the result of relationships between British women and African-American troops, from 1943/1944 onwards.
Only a very tiny percentage were accepted by the British family, and almost all suffered a lot due to racism, from the family and from the society.
Either they were abandoned to an orphanages, that were dedicated to children that would be 'impossible to find a family', like disabled children.
They were so many that there are documents recording conversations between the American and the British Governments, regarding 'the mixed-race children problem.'
Unlike their White counterparts, the Black soldiers could face a military tribunal and be arrested with they had relationships and children with White women.
They were also forbidden to take their brides or girlfriends to America, and those that paid a lot of money under the table to take them, were ostracised in America, many beaten and the British women were neither accepted by White people or by Black people.
There are several records of documents calling British women 'sluts and low lives' because they were caught in relationships with Black military.
Despite so many mixed-race children, only a small percentage is known to go forward trying to find their American families, their British families or both, and books, TV programs and websites could only find a handful of people, altogether.
And although there were several in Yorkshire, Northumberland and other surrounding areas, none has contacted us, despite our constant appeals, where we just wanted to ask some questions and keep them absolutely anonymous and confidential.
Maybe one day
