80th anniversary D-Day Penryn black GIs discrimination

By 1944 there were around 7,000 black GIs in Cornwall and, while they were welcomed by many Penryn people, barriers were put in place by the British government with armed soldiers preventing them going to Falmouth where white American soldiers socialised.

Black soldiers were stationed in barracks in Penryn, on Commercial Road where Just Delights now stands, and faced discrimination, not from the Cornish, but from white US Army officers and troops.

The American camp on the Beacon, Falmouth (Image: Credit David Barnicoat/The Poly Local History Group)

Many were involved in support services for the US Army, but the practice of segregation, then common in the US, was allowed in the UK to prevent any harm coming to UK/US relations.

The black and white US GIs were kept in separate barracks – with black soldiers based in Penryn and Grampound and white soldiers in Falmouth. 

The Home Guard was even deployed at Penryn Bridge, specifically to prevent black soldiers from going into Falmouth to enjoy the nightlife which was strictly reserved for the white troops stationed off Dracaena Avenue. Black soldiers were only allowed to attend dances at the Temperance Hall in Penryn.

In a scenario worthy of a film plot, former Penryn mayor and current town councillor Chaz Wenmouth, who was five at the time, recalls how local girls from Penryn would sneak out at night to meet up with the black US soldiers, with some girls even getting pregnant.

Chaz Wenmouth recalls the US GIs at Penryn and Falmouth (Image: Colin Higgs)

"It was the first time that those in Cornwall had heard of segregation and black and white soldiers were kept in separate barracks,” recalled Chaz. “My friend Eddie Marks, who was in the Home Guard, told me that he was part of an armed guard stationed on Penryn Bridge - solely to stop black soldiers crossing into Falmouth.

“Their barracks were where Just Delights is now and they were instructed to stay in their barracks so the white soldiers could enjoy nights out in Falmouth. Black soldiers were permitted to go for dances in the Temperance Hall, but that was all."

He continued: "My future wife’s sister was then only 16, but used to sneak out of her bedroom window on The Praze to meet black soldiers. Her father was not happy and she got the leather belt a few times. There were certainly a lot of mixed race babies born out of wedlock around this time.

Black GIs stationed at Grampound (Image: Credit George Ellis Photographic Collection at Kresen Kernow.)

“There were also Nissan huts with American troops all the way up Dracaena Avenue, and I remember soldiers handing us chewing gum through the window. I was only five at the time but it was the best chewing gum I’ve ever had!

 “And then we woke up one morning and they were all gone."

D-Day events are taking place in Falmouth and Penryn this week to honour the 80th anniversary of D-Day this Thursday.

In Penryn D-Day commemoration service will take place on Exchequer Quay at 7.30pm with a beacon being lit, brass band playing World War Two tune and a D-Day exhibition at the museum.