Hull’s sailors of African descent and the Second World War
On Monday we released a follow-up story to our feature on seamen of African descent in Hull in the twentieth century. Our latest piece focuses on a selection of men who sailed as part of the Merchant Marine during the Second World War. Many of these sailors had survived the first global conflict, however sadly died during the second. Read the story of Hull sailors in WW2. Fred Weeks: Flight Engineering Officer In early 2017, we released a story on the Weeks family. This piece garnered a lot of attention and has led to the project team developing a close relationship with Richard, who has been extremely supportive of our endeavours. Recently through Caroline Gaden, Richard has found out more information about the exploits of his father during the Second World War and has kindly shared this with us for a follow-up piece on Fred which we released yesterday. Read our blog post on Fred Weeks.
0 Comments
The Wyng family: Venus Ivy Wyng
Last month we were contacted by Stuart Bell, who revealed his father, Barrie was the son of Venus Ivy Wyng and therefore he was her grandson. Barrie gave us further information about the Wyng family and travelled to the opening of our East Riding Treasure House exhibition to share his collection of beautiful photographs with us. As a result, we have been able to produce an additional story on the Wyngs which has a greater focus on Venus Ivy’s branch of the family. Read our story about Venus Ivy Wyng and her family. “My Name is Not Uncle Tom!” - Josiah Henson in Britain 1876-1877 Yesterday we released a fantastic blog post about Josiah Henson by guest writer Dr Hannah-Rose Murray. Sadly, although there is no evidence to suggest that Henson travelled to East Yorkshire during his time in Britain, a picture of him in the Wilberforce Museum Collection and his important place in Black history has meant he is a source of interest to our project. Read Hannah’s post about Josiah Henson. The Chapman-Wattley family In March we were contacted by Nadine Hodgson who had seen our blog post on the Russian Outrage. Nadine wrote, "I think that the Black man in the photo may possibly be my grandfather John James Wattley who was born in St Lucia in 1884." Nadine had already explored her family history extensively and as this story unfolded we came to realise that she was able to bring two seemingly unconnected stories together with a common familial thread, that of the Russian Outrage and Leon Riley. Read the story on the Chapman-Wattley family. East Riding Treasure House exhibition Our second exhibition opened at Beverley Treasure House last Saturday when over 30 people attended our ‘first look’ event. It was fantastic to see so many more people come and go throughout the afternoon - especially the families who have engaged with our project.
On Tuesday evening, our Lead Project Researcher Dr Lauren Darwin gave a talk about the experience of men, women and children of African descent in Hull and East Yorkshire at the Treasure House. We would like to thank those who attended. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances tomorrow's study day (Saturday 12 May) is cancelled. We apologise for the inconvenience. The Our Histories Revealed exhibition runs from 5 May until 30 June at East Riding Treasure House, Beverley. Entry is free, so please come along! The story of Lorraine Owen (née Gittens)
In February we released a fascinating feature about the Gittens family. Shortly after, we were approached by Lorraine Owen (née Gittens) who gave us further information about her family. During an oral history interview, she spoke about the happiest memories of her childhood and reminisced about each member of her family. This personal and heartfelt piece demonstrates the closeness of the Gittens family and the love they had for one another. Read Lorraine’s story. Exhibition countdown A date for your diary! Tomorrow (Saturday 5 May) is the official opening day of our exhibition at the East Riding Treasure House in Beverley. Read our latest blog post to find out about the events that we are hosting and how you can get involved. Head to the blog. |
Follow usFollow the project on social media. Archives
November 2021
Categories
All
|