I have just started reading a history of the Seychelles by Deryck Scarr (The Seychelles Since 1770; London: Hurst & Co., 2018). The book is written in a convoluted style with a lot of digressions, although it is interesting nonetheless. The index is terrible. I am still in the C18th and looking ahead I don’t think there’s much about WW2. This has made me curious about the extent to which Seychellois men participated in the War effort. Did some of them go to the East African mainland and join the King’s African Rifles, for instance? Surely some of them served in the Royal Navy? I shall research this a bit and I hope to learn more from the Scarr book, but I would be interested if anyone here knows anything.
The Role of Seychelles in World War II | International Magazine Kreol Although the people of the Seychelles have never officially gone to war as a nation, that doesn’t mean that its people have not made contributions on the world stage when evil and hatred threatened to throw the world out of balance. As a member of the British colonial empire prior to and during World War II, some Seychellois people served in the British Army during the conflict. The most notable contribution of forces came from some 2,000 Seychellois men who served in the Pioneer Companies throughout Egypt, Palestine, and Italy. TD https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060028933
Thank you very much for that TD. It is an interesting and very informative article. It makes clear that enough has been written about the strategic significance of the Seychelles or the contribution of Seychellois men to the War effort. I have joined the mailing list of International Magazine Kreol as I would be interested to learn some Kreol Seselwa; I know a bit of Antillean Kwéyòl, which is a fairly similar language. The IWM article refers to the Chagos Islands, which were I’m afraid treated shamefully in the 1960s.
A curious (if irrelevant) fact I learned about the Seychelles is that their Rugger team play on an area flattened by a landslide from a cyclone. Apparently Rugby Union was introduced by British sailors during the colonial era (not sure when) and the country was a founder member of Rugby Africa in 1986.
Welcome James. Picking-up casualties at the CWGC is a bit hit and miss as the country of service for all the Seychellois that I found was given as the United Kingdom. The attached list includes those that I could find with an association with the Seychelles, regardless of nationality, and includes for instance, the crew of a FAA Walrus buried at Victoria (Mont-Fleuri) Cemetery. N.B. It may not be complete.
Thank you Richelieu for the welcome and for the fascinating list of Seychellois. There is a wide range of names reflecting the multiethnic nature of the islands. The Seychelles Pioneer Corps is a new line of inquiry. I am really grateful for this. James
Search results: seychelle pioneer corps | The National Archives If you cannot get to Kew to copy files then we do have a couple of members who provide a service at exceptionally good rates, and in no particular order they are Drew5233 and PsyWar.Org Using the search facility there are other files at Kew but you need to be selective in your parameters 1925 - 1949 alone produces Records 1,324 TD
Thank you TD! There’s a lot to work through there. I can get to Kew from time to time but the two contacts are welcome. I see one of them is from my favourite northern county.
I also notice that a few of the Seychellois men listed were indeed members of the King’s African Rifles, as I thought likely.
This article offers a bit more information, including more details about the Seychelles Pioneer Corps. It also has some good photos of ex-Servicemen. Seychellois in the Second World War
A good source of information will be the Annual Reports by the Colonial Office. These were suspended 1940-45, but the 1946 edition presents a summary for the entire period. They provide a fascinating insight to the contemporary goings on in their respective colony through the lense of the colonial stuff running the place.
See... Island bases in the Indian Ocean during WW2 With... IWM film... ISLAND BASES IN THE INDIAN OCEAN: ISLE OF MAHÉ, ADDU ATOLL AND DIEGO GARCIA [Allocated Title] Reel 6: (Seychelles) View of a large hill on the Seychelles isle of Mahé; camera tilts down to show men standing on a bridge watching activities at a water mill. Local people at work; a water wheel drives machinery for the production of coir, or coconut fibre, used in rope, sacking and matting. A radio mast under construction. British other ranks on a beach. Local men. A bullock drives a mill. British servicemen carrying their baggage through a forest. A small portable generator is manhandled into a hut. Locals carrying luggage. British servicemen on a beach. British other ranks walking along a main road in town before entering the colonnaded Carnegie Hall. A number of officers being served tea by British women in civilian dress. At a jetty a number of servicemen and civilians (including a number of female nurses) board a motor launch. Onboard an RAF seaplane tender; the vessel circles a moored Catalina (Mk IB serial FP227 'E'). The Catalina taxis before taking off. View of the harbour (probably Port Victoria). A transport ship at anchor in the bay. Full description Reel 7: (Seychelles) A small lighthouse with windsock. A swimming pool with radio mast in the background. Two naval officers leave a building. A wireless operator at work. A lorry passes along a road before stopping and a number of men dismount. Men swimming in the sea and playing with a ball in the water at Beau Vallon bay. A local fishermen attends to his nets. Two local people digging in the sand at the water's edge (cockle picking?). Two British men with a dog under a palm tree. A church (likely the Cascade Church) on Mahé. Three young local boys. Scenic shots. Men relaxing outside their billet. Interior footage in an Operations Room., three men seated at a table. The main street in Victoria with a diminutive clock tower styled after Big Ben. Three airmen visit a shop and examine the shopkeeper's wares (apparently handicrafts made from polished coconut shell). A Catalina comes in to land in the harbour. The pilot, apparently playing up for the camera, adopts a high angle of attack just before touch down and stalls onto the surface of the water. The Catalina rears several times before settling. The crew are brought ashore by a launch. Men coming ashore at the harbour. A sign reads ' RAF personnel are forbidden to bathe in this harbour'. Interior Operations Room; a man chalks information onto a blackboard. The crew of the Catalina arrive and are debriefed. Scenes from the high street in Victoria; one building is marked 'Paradis de Dames'. People leaving church; the congregation clearly includes both local people and British servicemen and other European civilians. All are wearing their 'Sunday best'. Palm trees and tortoises.
A few suggestions to try: The British Empire at War Research Group The books by Professor Ashley Jackson: The British Empire at War and Jonathan Fennell, though his focus is just on manpower. IWM has a project: What role did the British Empire play in the Second World War? This film archive: Themes | colonialfilm A forthcoming online event (very broad though): Round Table: The British Empire and the Second World War For naval activity try searching: Family History - Royal Navy and Naval History.Net It has a search box! Yesterday I found a document on the process of closing bases after VJ-Day, alas that is for the Pacific RN bases, not the East Indies Fleet that covered the Indian Ocean.
