Keep Smiling Through

by Angie Macdonald

History is full of untold stories and one such story is that of of black Londoners on the home front during the Second World War.

I don’t know about you, but in my school history lessons and programmes I’ve watched on TV, the stories and images from World War Two were always of white people. Churchill and Vera Lynne, white women in factories or dancing with GI’s, and white men in uniform are the images I’m used to seeing.

Southwark Council’s “Keep Smiling Through” exhibition at the Cuming Museum goes some way towards restoring the experiences of black people during the war into the cultural imagination and hopefully, the history books too. A lot of these stories are unknown until now.

It tells the stories of ordinary black Londoners who supported the war effort on the home front in roles as varied as doctors, entertainers, firewatchers and air raid wardens.

Ordinary people, like E. I. Ekpenyon, a Nigerian law student, who trained as an air raid warden and helped with rescue work in the Marylebone area for the duration of the war.

And Esther Bruce, who worked as a fire guard at Fulham and Brompton hospitals watching for incendiary bombs and fires from hospital roofs during air raids.

The exhibition also focuses on famous Black entertainers of the day, like Adelaide Hall and Ken “Snakehips” Johnson.

Adelaide Hall, an internationally renowned jazz performer from New York once performed until 3.45 am at the Lewisham Hippodrome during an air raid in 1940. It was too dangerous for the audience to leave, so she continued until the ‘all clear’ sounded. She toured constantly throughout the war, entertaining the troops and the public in air raid shelters and became one of the highest paid entertainers in the country.

Ken Johnson and his West Indian Dance Orchestra were very popular and enjoyed a long residency at the Cafe de Paris near Piccadilly. Unfortunately, he was killed in the ballroom during an air raid in 1941, aged only twenty-six.

Peckham based GP and community leader Dr Harold Moody is probably one of the most well-known figures in the exhibition. He was a founding member of the League of Coloured Peoples and a campaigner for racial equality. As a doctor he saved many lives in the bombing of South London.

The negative experiences of black Londoners are also documented. Some people had a hard time finding accommodation after their homes had been bombed, others were denied access to air raid shelters. Children evacuated to the countryside faced difficulty trying to integrate into communities who had no experience of black people.

The exhibition is compact and includes a 1943 documentary film, “West Indies Calling”, about West Indians in Britain involved in the war effort. It also features previously unpublished photographs and interviews with local people and is full of surprising information. Like the fact that in 1939, when war broke out, there were at least 15,000 black people living in London. This was nine years before the arrival of Caribbean immigrants onboard the Empire Windrush in 1948, which is often portrayed as the starting point of black migration into London.

“Keep Smiling Through” is certainly well worth a visit. It provides an overview of what is an important part of Britain’s untold social history and accords recognition to the many unsung heroes of the home front.

Exhibition Information:
“Keep Smiling Through: Black Londoners on the Home Front 1939 to 1945” is at the Cuming Museum, Old Town Hall, 151 Walworth Road until 1 November 2008. The museum is fully accessible and admission is free.
Opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm. Tel. 020 7525 2332
www.southwark.gov.uk/cumingmuseum

Exhibition photographs used with kind permission from Southwark Council