by Audrey DewJee
On 11 March 1943, Lilian Bailey married Ramsay Bader at Corpus Christi Catholic church on Spring Bank West, Hull. As Lilian recorded, it was a typical war-time wedding. Because sugar was rationed there could be no fancy iced wedding cake: a plaster of Paris top was lifted off to reveal a plain chocolate or ginger cake (Lilian could never remember which). Her sister-in-law somehow got hold of cold meats, jellies and other festive fare for the reception, for which Lilian was deeply grateful.
Lilian was born in Liverpool on 18 February 1918, the daughter of Barbadian-born Marcus Bailey and his wife, the former Lilian McGowan who was of Irish parentage. When she was about seven years old, Lilian moved to Hull along with her father and her two older brothers, Frank and Jim, following the break-up of her parents’ marriage. Marcus, who had lived in Hull before the First World War, returned to a place where he had friends who could help him raise his children, but soon after their arrival the three children were placed in a children’s home. Frank and Jim remained in Hull. At a later date Lilian was sent on to another children’s home in Middlesbrough, though she still considered Hull to be her home.
When war broke out in 1939, Lilian wanted to do her bit for the war effort. She found a job in a NAAFI canteen, serving food and drink to servicemen but after seven weeks she was asked to leave as her father hadn’t been born in the UK. In other words, she was dismissed because of the ‘colour bar’. Lilian then got a job in domestic service, all the time looking for opportunities to do war work. One day she heard on the radio that West Indian men had been accepted into the RAF, which gave her the idea of applying to the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) where to her delight she was accepted in March, 1941. |
After a short initial spell doing domestic work for WAAF officers, she took an exam and was accepted on to a course for instrument repairers, becoming one of the first group of women to be allowed on to planes to check for leaks in their vital pipes. The WAAF uniform skirt wasn’t exactly suitable for clambering around inside twin-engined light bombers, so Lilian’s group were the first women in the WAAF to be issued with more practical overalls and battle dress. On passing the course Lilian became an Aircraftwoman First Class (with her pay doubled from twenty two shillings a fortnight, to forty four), and by the time she left the service she had been promoted to Acting Corporal.
During the war, a former employer introduced Lilian, as a penfriend, to Ramsay Bader who was serving in the Essex Yeomanry as a tank driver. The couple met for the first time on York station and romance blossomed. Lilian and Ramsay spent the first night of their honeymoon at the Station Hotel in Hull and as Lilian recorded, “Hitler celebrated with an air raid.”
The couple had two sons and after she had raised them, Lilian went back into education as a mature student, gaining an external BA from London University, after which she became a teacher of languages. After retiring, she continued teaching private pupils and U3A classes well into her eighties. She died on 14 March 2015, aged 97.
All her life Lilian fought hard against racism and prejudice, often writing letters to the media and politicians. She told her story – and the stories of six other members of her family of African descent who had fought for Britain during two world wars – to the Imperial War Museum and to journalists, and appeared on several television programmes. She was determined that the contribution made by Black and Asian Britons to the country’s defence should be recognised and remembered, so it is fitting that she was invited to meet the Queen at the inauguration of the Commonwealth Memorial Gates in Hyde Park in 2002.
Read about Lilian's father Marcus Bailey.
The couple had two sons and after she had raised them, Lilian went back into education as a mature student, gaining an external BA from London University, after which she became a teacher of languages. After retiring, she continued teaching private pupils and U3A classes well into her eighties. She died on 14 March 2015, aged 97.
All her life Lilian fought hard against racism and prejudice, often writing letters to the media and politicians. She told her story – and the stories of six other members of her family of African descent who had fought for Britain during two world wars – to the Imperial War Museum and to journalists, and appeared on several television programmes. She was determined that the contribution made by Black and Asian Britons to the country’s defence should be recognised and remembered, so it is fitting that she was invited to meet the Queen at the inauguration of the Commonwealth Memorial Gates in Hyde Park in 2002.
Read about Lilian's father Marcus Bailey.