RESEARCH RELATING TO THE CARE OF CHILDREN BORN TO WHITE ENGLISH MOTHERS AND BLACK AMERICAN SERVICEMEN IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR ('BROWN BABIES')

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Repository	Somerset Heritage Centre
Reference number	A/EKG
Description	┆This research was carried out by David Stanley, the former Deputy Director of Children's Social Care in Somerset, after his retirement. He comments that the impetus to research this topic was given to him by one of the group of children who were taken into care and spent their early years at Holnicote House Nursery, Selworthy. Professor Lucy Bland, in her book _Britain's 'brown babies': The stories of children born to black GIs and white women in the Second World War_ (Manchester University Press, 2019) \[copy available in the searchroom, shelf mark S 306.846 BLA\], comments that the term 'brown babies', used in the media in the 1940s and 1950s to describe these children, has been adopted as the term used by many of these individuals to self-define. It is therefore used here to help other researchers find this collection. The collection includes research into attitudes towards black American servicemen in England and in America, correspondence at a local, national and international level relating to the care of the children of unmarried English mothers and American fathers, British and American newspaper reports, photographs of the children at the nursery and - in some cases - as adults, and records of interviews with and correspondence from some of the children in the 1990s. As the records of children in care are particularly sensitive under the Data Protection Act, some of this collection is not on general access. Please see the access conditions field of each record to see what the closure periods are, and read our "Data Protection and Freedom of Information" guide to find out how to apply for access to these records.
Date	1940s-1990s
Extent	3 bundles
Access status	Mixed
Level	Collection
Dimensions	0.0175

Research and copies of documents relating to the care of children born to white English women and black American GIs stationed in England during the Second World War. Copy photographs of children and staff associated with Holnicote House Nursery, Selworthy. Copy documents and research notes relating to the lives of 25 children of black GI soldiers who were formerly in the care of Somerset County Council. Electronic copies of photographs of children and staff associated with Holnicote House.