George Blackman

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George Blackman (1897 – March 2003), was born in Barbados and served as a Private in the 4th British West Indies Regiment during the First World War. Following the death of former Jamaican soldier Eugent Clarke in 2002, George Blackman was the last living man from the Caribbean who was known to have served in the Great War.

Black soldiers from the British Empire rarely saw front line action during the First World War, often having to do logistical duties to support their white comrades. Blackman, however, saw action against the Germans and the Turks, fighting hand to hand in many cases, before returning home to Barbados via the British base in Taranto, Italy.^[1]

Once he returned home he was given no support from the British government and he spent his whole life as a labourer.

On November 6, 2002, he featured in an article in the British newspaper The Guardian entitled "There were no parades for us", which highlighted the plight of soldiers from the British Empire who served in World War One and World War Two and received little recognition from the British government for doing so. A few months after this article was published, he died in Barbados.