Black and British: A Forgotten History

by David Olusoga

That month, tensions over relationships between black GIs and British women were exposed in the British press through the actions of an unlikely figure. Mrs May, the wife of the vicar in the village of Worle, near Weston-super-Mare, took it upon herself to draw up a six-point code designed to limit contact between white women and black soldiers. 1. If a local woman keeps a shop and a coloured soldier enters, she must serve him, but she must do it as quickly as possible and indicate as quickly that she does not desire him to come there again. 2. If she is in a cinema and notices a coloured soldier next to her, she moves to another seat immediately. 3. If she is walking on the pavement and a coloured soldier is coming towards her, she crosses to the other pavement. 4. If she is in a shop and a coloured soldier enters, she leaves as soon as she has made her purchase or before that if she is in a queue. 5. White women, of course, must have no social relationship with coloured troops. 6. On no account must coloured troops be invited to the homes of white women. Mrs May then held a series of public meetings at which copies of her new code were distributed, and she addressed the ladies of Worle, alerting them to their new responsibilities. The result was a scandal in the national press as the women of Worle turned, not against the black GIs, but against Mrs May.