Krishna Menon 1896 - 1974,
Menon was educated at the Presidency College and the Law College of
Madras and at the London School of Economics and University College,
London. During his long stay (1924-47) in England he joined the Labour
party, was admitted (1934) to the English bar, and served (1934-47)
as borough councillor of St. Pancras, London. He worked as editor for
Penguin Books, the first non-European to hold such a post.
As secretary (1929-47) of the India League and also as a journalist,
he worked hard for Indian self-government and became closely associated
with Jawaharlal Nehru. After Indian independence (1947), Krishna Menon
served as high commissioner for India in Great Britain (1947-52) and
as Indian delegate to the United Nations (1952-62), where he was an
outspoken critic of the United States and a staunch supporter of mainland
China. In 1957 he was appointed Minister of Defense, but in 1962, following
the Chinese invasion of India's northern frontiers, he was severely
criticized for India's lack of military preparedness and was relieved
of office. In 1967 he lost his seat in the national legislature, where
he had served since 1953, but he was re-elected in 1969.
However, when I had some time in the afternoon I went back to the council
almanaks of the 1930's and 40's. The address Krishna Menon gave for
most of his time as a councillor was 165a Strand but for the years 1938
to 1940 he gives his address as No 7, The Terrace, Camden Square. A
search of the voter's list for this time shows Krishna Menon clearly
registered at this address. This house still exists today (Camden Archives)
See TJS George, Krishan Menon, London 1964; Suhash Chakravarty, Krishna
Menon and the India League, New Delhi 1997
BACK TO TOP
Mary Prince c.1788
- c.1830s
Mary
was born in Bermuda to enslaved parents. When the owner died, she and
her mother were sold; aged 12 Mary was sold again to work both in the
field and as a domestic. In about 1806 she was sold again and set to
work in salt pans. In 1818 she was sold yet again, to Mr & Mrs Wood
of Antigua, to work as a domestic. In 1826 she married a free Black
man, Daniel Jones, a carpenter. As she had not asked her owners' permission,
she was severely beaten. Mary was brought to England in 1828 when the
family came to put their children in school. Mary suffered from rheumatism
which was made worse by the English climate. She refused an order to
launder 'a great many heavy things' and took her mistress at her word
when told she would be turned out if she did not obey orders.
She found her way to the Anti-Slavery Society whose secretary offered
her employment as a domestic servant. Though according to Shyllon she
could not write, with the help of her new employer and a houseguest
of his, her autobiography, History of Mary Prince: A West Indian
Slave, was published by the Anti-Slavery Society, 1831. John Wood
sued the publisher, but lost the case.
Address: with the Woods: Leigh St
See Folarin Shyllon, Black People in Britain, London 1977; Gretchen
Gerzina, Black London, London 1995
BACK TO TOP
Shapurji
Saklatvala
1874 - 1935, first Asian-born Communist MP (1922, Battersea), anti-imperialist
activist.
See Mike Squires, Saklatvala, London 1990
BACK TO TOP
Ladipo
Solanke 1884 - 1958
Solanke was born Abeokuta, Nigeria. He came to London in 1922 to complete
his legal studies and subsequently became a barrister. With Amy Ashwood
Garvey he founded the Nigerian Progress Union in London in 1924 and
then in 1925 the West African Students' Union (WASU), the main social,
cultural and political focus for West Africans and many other Africans
in Britain for the next 30 years. Solanke was a prolific writer and
the first person to make a radio broadcast on the BBC in the Yoruba
language. In 1933, after a three year fundrasing tour of West Africa
he opened the first African hostel and restaraunt in London 'Africa
House' at 62 Camden Rd., NW1. Subsequently further hostels were opened
at 1 South Villas, Camden Sq., NW1 in 1938 and at 13 Chelsea Embankment
in 1949. All three hostels became centres of African anti-colonial activity
in London, as swell as providing accommodation, African food etc at
a time when the colour bar was ubiquitous.
See Hakim Adi, West Africans in Britain 1990 - 1960, London 1998
BACK TO TOP
Walter
Tull 1888 - 1918
Walter and his brother Edward grew up in the NCH Orphanage in Bonner
Road, Bethnal Green. His grandfather was a slave in Barbados. His father,
a joiner, came to Britain in 1876, married a girl in Folkestone and
had six children. When Walter was seven, his mother died. Two years
later his father died. His stepmother was unable to support all six
children, and the local church arranged for Waiter and Edward to be
taken into care.
Edward ended up as a successful dentist in Glasgow. Waiter served an
apprenticeship as a printer, played football as an amateur with Clapton,
and then signed for Tottenham Hotspur in 1908. Tull was the league's
first black outfield player; the Daily Chronicle described him as very
good indeed with "a class superior to that shown by most of his colleagues".
Tull's future looked bright. Then, in a game at Bristol City in 1909,
he was racially abused by fans in what the Football Star called "language
lower than Billingsgate". The incident was deeply traumatic for Tull
and the club. The following season, he played only three first-team
games; the season after, he was sold for "a heavy transfer fee" to Northampton
Town. There, Tull flourished again, playing 110 first-team games for
the club, mostly at wing-half. He was probably their biggest star. In
1914, he was on the point of signing for Glasgow Rangers. Then came
war. He enlisted in the 17th (1st. Football) Battalion of the Middlesex
Regiment, alongside many other professional footballers. By 1916, he
had been made a sergeant. Towards the end of 1916 he was invalided home
with trench fever. Upon leaving hospital, he went to the officer cadet
training school at Gailes in Scotland. This was unprecedented; Indeed,
it was technically impossible: the 1914 Manual of Military Law specifically
excluded "Negroes" from exercising "actual command" as officers. Yet
Tull's superior officers must have recommended him - a remarkable tribute
to his charisma.
Tull's commission was clearly more than honorary. Sent to the Italian
front in 1917 as a second lieutenant in the 23rd (2nd Football) Battalion
of the Middlesex Regiment, he was mentioned in dispatches for the "gallantry
and coolness" with which he led his men in the first battle of Piave.
In 1918, he and his men returned to France, where they fought in the
second battle of the Somme. On March 25 1918, the 29-year-old officer
- the first Black officer in the British Army - was killed in no-man's
land near Favreuil. His commanding officer broke the news to Edward
Tull in startlingly emotional terms, remarking on "how popular he was
throughout the battalion. He was brave and conscientious.......The battalion
and company have lost a faithful officer, and personally I have lost
a friend."
The Walter Tull Memorial Garden next to Northampton Town's Sixfields
Community Stadium was opened recently.
Address: Bonner Road orphanage
See Phil Vasili, Colouring Over the White Line, Edinburgh, 2000
BACK TO TOP
Phyllis
Wheatley c.1753 - 1784
Probably born in Gambia, and enslaved as a child, she was taken to North
America aboard a slaveship named Phillis. Bought by the Wheatley family,
she was allowed to learn to read and write, and then to learn Latin.
Quite remarkably she was also permitted to carry on a correspondence
with friends and to attend a singing school. The Wheatleys brought her
to England when they came to visit in 1773.
Her first poem was published in 1767 in a Newport paper; in 1770 her
elegy 'On the death of Mr George Whitefiled was printed on both sides
of the Atlantic. She had enough poems for a volume, but Boston would
not countenance such a publication by a Black woman. As Whitefield had
been the personal chaplain of the philanthropist Countess of Huntingdon,
it is probable that the Countess sought out Phyllis on her arrival in
England. The Countess introduced her to 'many notable members of the
English society of her day' (eg Granville Sharp) and agreed to finance
publication. Making a very favourable impression, she received gifts
from many people and became so well known that Benjamin Franklin went
to see the 'Black Poetess' while he was in London.
On their return to America, Mary was freed. In 1778 she married and
bore three children all of whom died; she died giving birth to the last
child. Phyllis was the first black woman to be published in London.
Her book, Poems on various subjects: religious and moral' consisted
of 39 poems and sold widely throughout Britain. Abolitionists eager
to prove the "human potential of black people" reissued her poems in
the1830s.
See Peter Fryer, Staying Power, London 1985; Darlene Clark Hine et al
(eds) Black Women in America, Indiana 1993.
BACK TO TOP
Henry
Sylvester Williams
Addresses: 19 Bristol Garden,s Maida Vale; at time of election
to Marlylebone: 50 Hamilton Gdns, St.Johns' Wood; Pan-African office
1900-1901: 61-2 Chancery Lane; barrister's chambers 1906: 5 Essex Court,
Temple
BACK
TO TOP
If
you would like to nominate someone, or want to give any suggestions
or feedback, please email us at blueplaques@everygeneration.co.uk
<<<
back
<<<
back to Blue Plaques homepage
.jpg)
.gif)
