British Guiana and the war effort

TIMES INT'L

When Britain declared war against Germany in Sept 1939, many Guianese, including women, volunteered in the war effort. British Guianese men joined the British Caribbean Forces that comprised Caribbean colonial citizens, and served in the Royal Air Force and the British Navy as well. Celebrated Guyanese author ER Braithwaite was among the British Guiana volunteers, and served as fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force.

This poster image is taken from the Imperial War Museums website, and, according to the site, it shows a female worker from British Guiana working for the Auxiliary Territorial Service. The poster is of Private Diana Williams, a recruit from British Guiana. According to the poster, part of Diana's work consisted of helping with the maintenance of army vehicles. Here she is seen beginning the job of retreading a tyre in the corner of a repair depot in the Midlands. Many girls from the West Indies volunteered for service with the Auxiliary Territorial Service. Some, volunteering for service abroad, went to Britain. The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) was created in the UK in September 1938 from three organisations: the Emergency Services, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and the Women’s Legion. When war was declared in September the following year, for women this meant volunteering for the ATS so that men could be released from day-to-day tasks to fight on the frontlines. The BBC notes that the first women who joined the ATS worked in traditional female roles as cooks, clerks and storekeepers. Later recruits were asked to carry out trade tests to establish which area they should go into. For example, if a woman had been a shorthand typist she would almost certainly be assigned clerical duties. During the course of the war, the range of duties undertaken by the ATS expanded and women worked as telephonists, drivers, mess orderlies, butchers, bakers, postal workers, ammunition inspectors and military police. There is no record of the year of the poster’s publication nor who was its artist.
This poster image is taken from the Imperial War Museums website, and, according to the site, it shows a female worker from British Guiana working for the Auxiliary Territorial Service. The poster is of Private Diana Williams, a recruit from British Guiana.
According to the poster, part of Diana’s work consisted of helping with the maintenance of army vehicles. Here she is seen beginning the job of retreading a tyre in the corner of a repair depot in the Midlands.
Many girls from the West Indies volunteered for service with the Auxiliary Territorial Service. Some, volunteering for service abroad, went to Britain.
The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) was created in the UK in September 1938 from three organisations: the Emergency Services, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and the Women’s Legion. When war was declared in September the following year, for women this meant volunteering for the ATS so that men could be released from day-to-day tasks to fight on the frontlines.
The BBC notes that the first women who joined the ATS worked in traditional female roles as cooks, clerks and storekeepers. Later recruits were asked to carry out trade tests to establish which area they should go into. For example, if a woman had been a shorthand typist she would almost certainly be assigned clerical duties.
During the course of the war, the range of duties undertaken by the ATS expanded and women worked as telephonists, drivers, mess orderlies, butchers, bakers, postal workers, ammunition inspectors and military police.
There is no record of the year of the poster’s publication nor who was its artist.

In the colony itself, a voluntary Civil Defence Organisation was established, and locations leased to the U.S. Army. By the time the Americans entered the war in 1941, they had already begun building an air base at Hyde Park, EBD that was later renamed Atkinson Field after its base commander, Major Atkinson.
Food and commodity shortages were common as British and American merchant ships plying the route to the colony were endangered by German submarines patrolling the seas. Consequently, some items such as flour were in short supply while fuel was rationed, and others, like bicycle tires, required local innovations. However, fruits, vegetables, provisions, sugar and rice were being supplied by local farmers, though prices were high.
Later, the Americans would patrol the Guiana coast with a Zeppelin, keeping watch for German submarines.
British Guiana became a major bauxite supplier to the U.S during the war years, where about two-thirds of the allied aircraft manufactured during the war years used aluminium made from Guyanese bauxite. According to historians, Guyana’s bauxite exports increased from 476,000 tons in 1939 to 1,902,000 tons in 1943. While there was an increase in unemployment because of the war, the bauxite industry created many jobs for Guianese at the time, and by the time the war ended, the Treasury had earned a surplus from the industry.
Many local businesses and individuals also contributed to the war effort. A rice farmer from Windsor forest donated 9,000 lbs of rice to the UK, which was sent to soldiers fighting overseas, the Red Cross and Londoners affected by the war. A jeweller donated his private coin collection to be auctioned at the famed Christies of London, and several small organisations raised funds to donate to various British organisations and institutes.
Additionally, the colony accommodated Jewish refugees from Spain, and several skilled Guianese tradesmen went abroad to work in British munitions factories. Some Guianese also joined the Trinidad Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve.
There were also Guianese casualties during the war. According to “The Guyana Story (From Earliest Times to Independence)” by Dr Odeen Ishmael, Guianese sailors, pilots and soldiers all lost their lives and some are mentioned here:
“Stanley Roza […] died when a torpedo struck his ship in 1943. Mohamed Hosein was disabled during the war and had to return home. T.R.R. Wood received the posthumous award of the Distinguished Flying Cross for services rendered as a pilot. Sergeant Pat Nobrega sent a letter to his family from the Japanese camp where he was imprisoned. He was captured by the Japanese during the Battle of the Malay Peninsula, but was finally released in 1945. A Rose Hall, Corentyne, resident, Private Clarence Trim of the Canadian Army Corps, died in a battle in Germany on April 27, 1945. And a Berbician, Leslie Augustus James of the Royal Air Force, died in a hospital in England on May 19, 1945…” (Chapter 111: Guyana during the Second World War)
When the war ended in 1945, some Guyanese in the military forces returned home, but many remained in Britain.
During the 1939-1945 World War II, propaganda posters were produced and printed in Great Britain for distribution to the Colonies to aid the British Empire war effort. British Guiana was one of these colonies for which some of the posters were printed.

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