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Witness History: Britain's World War Two 'Brown Babies'

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Britian's World War Two 'Brown Babies'

11/10/2019 GMT

Britain's World War Two 'Brown Babies'

BBC World Service - Witness History, Britain's World War Two 'Brown Babies'

The stigma of growing up as a mixed race child in post-war Britain

The story of the children born from relationships between British women and African-American soldiers during World War Two.

The US first began sending troops to the UK in 1942 to help in the war effort. It is estimated that at least two million American servicemen passed through the UK during World War Two and tens of thousands of them were black. The  African-American GIs stationed in Britain were forced by the American military to abide by the racial segregation laws that applied in the deep south of the US. But that didn't stop relationships developing between British women and the black soldiers, some of whom went on to have children. Babs Gibson-Ward was one those children. She has been speaking to Farhana Haider about the stigma of growing up as mixed raced child in post-war Britain.

(Photo: Hoinicote House children, c.1948.  Boys and girls whose parents of mixed ancestry met during WWII. Credit: Lesley York)

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