Children at Sacred Heart School celebrate Black History Month

All the children from Year Two to Year Six listened to the captivating story of Eddy’s father Johnny Smythe who was one of the first black airmen to serve in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and the man in charge of the historic voyage of the SS Windrush.

RAF officer Johnny Smythe, pictured during World War II (Image: submitted)

Johnny Smythe, living in Sierra Leone, then a British colony, joined the RAF in 1940. When he arrived in Britain he was selected to train as a navigator, due to his high scores on mathematics tests. During the war he successfully navigated 26 bombing missions over Germany. On 18 November 1943 his plane was shot down on a bombing mission over Germany but Johnny managed to jump out of the burning plane with his parachute. He survived but was badly injured. Despite his attempts to escape, he was captured by German soldiers and sent to Stalag Luft, a prison camp for Allied airman captured by the Germans. It was a long and hard two years until 1945, when the Red Army liberated the camp. After the war ended Johnny Smythe made history in 1948 as a key figure in the story of the SS Windrush, marking the beginning of a rich period of Caribbean immigration to Britain. He was the senior officer aboard The Windrush and was in charge of taking young men from the colonies, who had served in the forces, back home. But confronted by high unemployment in Jamaica, most of the passengers asked for permission to return to Britain. As the man on the spot, Whitehall asked Johnny Smythe to decide whether to bring them to the UK. Eddy says: “My father didn’t realise that this was such an important matter. Not until he got back to Southampton and they were met by a reception committee and had planes flying past, did he sense that he had made a very important decision.”

After leaving the armed forces, Johnny Smythe trained as a barrister in London, returning to an eminent legal career in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He rose to become a Queen’s Counsel and Attorney General of Sierra Leone.

The Year 6 children have written some beautiful letters to Eddy, thanking him for giving up his time to come and talk to them and have expressed in their letters the things they found inspiring and memorable.

Eddy Smythe at Sacred Heart School (Image: submitted)

Here are some of the lovely comments from the children about Eddy’s visit:

“I think the talk was very fascinating and was full of amazing facts about Johnny Smythe. I learned lots of new things I didn’t know about before. Johnny’s life was full of surprises and I can’t wait to dig deeper and find out more about his life”. (Ruby)

“I loved the intriguing workshop that you took a lot of care about. It was stupendous how many facts you taught everyone. I am so grateful”. (Lorcan)

“The talk was really intriguing with lots of facts and pictures that brought out how courageous Johnny Smythe really was. I learned many new things and I am now interested in finding out more about World War Two”. (Finnbar)

“I found the talk about Johnny Smythe really inspirational because he risked his life for England and he was not afraid to die. Johnny Smythe is a very courageous person.” (Hannah)

Towards the end of Johnny Smythe’s life, he started to talk about his experiences in the Second World War, something which up until then he had been reluctant to talk about with Eddy and his brother. Eddy is passionate about sharing his father’s story with everyone and does so in incredible detail, bringing this extraordinary man’s history to life.