The Mixed-Race War Babies
British White women were involved with African-American GIs, and in many cases, a baby was the result of a sporadic relationship.
Because of the novelty, as many had never seen a Black person before, because they had money, access to food that was hard to get, and because they were kind and friendly, the involvement led to pregnancies and undesired children. Since these cases were not isolated or in a small number, Britain and the US were forced to ‘deal with the matter’, as Black men could not marry White women, becoming impossible to take a wife and a child back to America. And Britain needed to know what was going to happen to so many mixed- race children that were abandoned and end up in orphanages.
The discussion between the two countries was about mixed-race children, who could be adopted by Black couples or accepted by the American father, being sent to him. In December 1945, a report carried out for the League of Coloured Peoples uncovered 135 such cases, of an estimated 1,700 children born to black G.I.s. in the UK, with the recommendation that they should be treated as a ‘war casualty’.
The report came as a consequence of a survey made to ascertain how many children had been born from relationships between White British women and Black GIs, and what were the women’s situation and position regarding these babies.
Moreover, they were looking to find means to support those women that could decide to keep the children
Click on each image to enlarge
(Source: National Archives)
However, some sources allegeadly speak about these babies in a greater number, around 2.000 babies being born out of such relationships with Black American men. If we examine the date of the report, 1945, it represents a year where troops had been in Britain for a few years already, which would mean that these less than 600 children were the offspring of the troops that were in Britain for just a few days or weeks, as the troops moved around quite often, or were dispatched abroad.
In an article from the 21st November, presumably later than 1945, it is referred that ‘Illegitimate births doubled in England in’ 45 – 64.064 are reported for that year’
Source: ‘LSE Library: The British Library of Political and Economic Science’
But if this is the case, it would mean that the 550 certainly would not be something alarming, as it is stated in the document, as the mixed-race children would be less than 2% of the number of 64,064 for illegitimate children born in England, during 1945, and still much below from the normal levels of 30,000 illegitimate children being born in other years. And, if compared, Devon presents 83 cases, whilst Yorkshire, for instance, records just 5 cases, which is still a bit distant from the more than 2.000 mixed-race babies.
The fact that these children were delivered to the Waifs and Strays organisation (known today as Children’s Society) makes the matter even more confusing, when trying to understand how many there were, and where they had come from. Richard Wilson, the Archive Manager at The Children’s Society (and someone that has given us an outstanding support), explains: ‘Unfortunately we don’t have statistics on the number of mixed-race children in our nurseries and homes. We have admission registers for each establishment but these do not record the ethnic background of the children. The only way to obtain this information would be to look at individual case files and this would be a major piece of research.’
These images are copyright of The Children’s Society – Reproduction is strictly forbidden
Richard has confirmed that two residential nurseries were operating in the North of England during WWII:
- West Lodge Nursery, Burley in Wharfdale. This operated between 1940 and 1947 as the wartime premises for the Beckett Home for Babies, Meanwood, Leeds.
- Fieldhead Nursery, Battyeford, near Mirfield. This opened in 1940 and closed in 1971.
Kindly supplied by Richard Wilson, Archivist from The Children’s Society
By way of background, babies and toddlers were usually admitted to a residential nursery or foster home rather than a standard children’s home. The nurseries took children from a wide geographical area, not just local cases. After several contacts with the Black Cultural Archives, regarding descendants of these African-American troops, and following the concept that there were thousands, they replied that ‘Thank you for contacting Black Cultural Archives. Unfortunately, we do not have this information in our collections. We wish you all the best in your search.’
This search took us to the GI Trace forum, an online forum were people searching for their American fathers may have further information.
Some of these descendants were registered there, but all connected to the South and none to further North. We have collected contacts and experiences with Black GIs for more than a year, from people that lived in the same areas where they were for many years. They told us about their experiences and the sadness they felt to see most heritage gone, from memories to the places that once stood occupied by the military.
It is quite touching to see people’s feelings when we ask about their memories, because most of their acquaintances are deceased and they have less people to share memories.