LiveTheirStory

Joseph McKenzie Alfred’s death 80 years ago in an air crash at Chatteris in February 1945 is commemorated on many WWII sites, including the excellent Caribbean Aircrew blog here and the 75(NZ) Squadron blog here. I wanted to explore his life a bit more.

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1921, he was the son of Bertha Alfred, who lived on Dundonald Street. At the age of 21 he signed up for the RAF Reserve, and travelled along with 3 other young men from Trinidad, all described as RAF Cadets, on the ship ‘Maaskerk’. This left Trinidad in August 1942 and arrived in Liverpool in October of the same year via stops in New York and Canada.

Joseph was assigned to the 75 (NZ) Squadron and served on multiple missions. Returning to RAF Mepal from a bombing raid over Dortmund in February 1945, his plane came down just north of Chatteris, killing Joseph and three of his crew mates.

There was a policy in place of not repatriating the remains of foreign airmen, so Joseph was laid to rest in Cambridge cemetery next to a crew mate from the crash, Sgt George William McManus. Both eventually were marked with Commonwealth War Grave headstones.

There is more to this story, however. Joseph’s mother, Bertha Alfred, born in 1902, also left the islands during the War. In 1939 she is recorded arriving in New York on the SS Argentina. Giving her occupation as Clerk, she is recorded as a single, British subject ‘of Chinese race’ (there had been several waves of Chinese immigration to the Caribbean islands). We do not know if she returned to Trinidad or whether she left her then 18-year-old son in the care of others. Certainly this may shed light on his decision to volunteer for the forces in 1942.

Bertha appears again arriving in England on 29th May 1959 on the SS Antilles from the Caribbean islands. Still single, she gives her occupation as ‘Supervisor’, and was planning to stay for 4 months at 32 Uverdale Road, Chelsea, at the time a working-class district by the Thames with a significant Caribbean community. The ship did indeed leave 4 months later, on 4th September 1959, with her heading back to Trinidad.

Did she make the trip to England in 1959 to visit her son’s grave? The inscription reads ‘In loving memory of my own darling. Gone but not forgotten, Mother.’

Their story is probably not unusual, but her tribute speaks volumes of a mother’s loss.