Calls for Filey plaque to be installed to remember Caribbean WW2 servicemen

A man is calling for a plaque to be installed in Filey Memorial Gardens to remember the Caribbean servicemen who fought in World War Two.

Glenn Parsons, who is a barrister from Leeds, has been campaigning for it as he does not want them, and their contributions, to be forgotten about.

The men were stationed at RAF Hunmanby.

Glenn said: "Two of my uncles were amongst those people who came to the United Kingdom in 1940 and they were in the RAF. They stayed here for the duration of the war, helping with the war effort, as volunteers, and then went to Jamaica after the war and came back again to this country as part of the windrush generation.

"When I first approached Filey Town Council in 2020, asking them whether they'd wish to mark this very historical piece of local history they said they weren't willing to put any plaque up that specifically mentioned the Caribbean allies, it could only say 'all allies' and it completely erases all contribution of those Caribbean servicemen.

"Filey Town Council's latest position is that the Filey Memorial Gardens is only for people from Filey. Myself and many others were astonished that they would say servicemen who fought together as brothers in arms in this country's hours of need should now be segregated by where they were born.

"It makes me angry and I feel let down. I feel the servicemen and their families, who all support this campaign, are being effectively not just sidelined but slowly but surely erased from history altogether. There's only one serviceman still alive who was stationed at Hunmanby. He's now 96 years of age."

There will be a plaque but it will be placed on the building of a hotel in Filey, although Glenn is wanting it to be in the Memorial Gardens eventually.

Glenn added: "My hope is that he can attend in the early part of next year the unveiling of this plaque. If this story doesn't receive any form of special notification, then sadly when that last final serviceman passes into history there's a grave danger that this whole story passes into history as well and I think that should not be allowed to happen."

We have approached Filey Town Council for a response on two occasions but it has been ignored.

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