Ramsay Bader was a tank driver in the 147th (Essex Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery o
Ramsay Bader was a tank driver in the 147th (Essex Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery of the British Army. As part of the 147th, Ramsay Bader participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6th 1944. Any mention of Ramsay Bader is incomplete without also mentioning his wife Lilian Bader (née Bailey), a Black British woman, who served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and reached the rank of Acting Corporal. Lilian Bailey and Ramsay Bader married during the war in 1943. On the eve of D-Day, Lilian remembered: “I didn’t know if Ramsay was alive or dead… I remember kneeling in the chapel and praying like blazes that Ramsay would be saved. It was a terrible time because you knew some people were going to be killed, and Ramsay couldn’t swim! He hated water. That’s what worried me more than anything, but he came through.” (Quoted in The Independent)Ramsay Bader survived and saw the war through to the fall of Nazi Germany. So did Lilian. They would go on to live long lives, Ramsay passing away in 1992 and Lilian quite recently in 2015. Together they are a testament to the experience of the Black British community during WW2 and there are many stories just like theirs lost to history or just waiting to be recovered.(africansinyorkshireproject.com/caption by /u/Bernardito) -- source link
#history#black history#black british#world war 2#military history#ramsay bader#lilian bader#june 6 1944