Sam was born in British Honduras, now Belize, in 1910. During the Second World War he volunteered to join the British Honduras Forestry Unit. He was sent to Scotland in 1942 to cut down trees. After the war, Sam decided to stay in Scotland and has lived there ever since.
Sam was born in British Honduras, now Belize, in February 1910. He comes from a large family of eight brothers and two sisters.
During the Second World War, Sam volunteered to join the British Honduras Forestry Unit. He volunteered because he saw himself as a ‘Britisher’ and felt a strong connection to Britain.
‘…The government asked for volunteers, we weren’t what you called conscripted, we volunteered to come because this is the Mother Country…we were all ‘Britishers’…’
Sam travelled to Scotland via America and arrived in November 1942. He was sent to a camp on the banks of Little Loch Broom on the north west coast of Scotland. Sam started work as soon as he arrived in Scotland, and remembers being knee deep in snow on the first day.
‘…We didn’t look back because we came to do a job.’
He recalls the first time he and a few of the other foresters visited the village near the camp; ‘when we went into the village, the children were all running about the street when they see us coming, they said, “the coal men are coming!”’
‘…I think the men were even nervous because it was the first time they seen black people…’
Despite this initial reaction, people from the village were friendly towards him and the other foresters. After the war, Sam decided he wanted to stay in Scotland.
‘…Well treated, that was what encouraged me to really stay in Scotland because the treatment I got from some people that I meet, they treat me so nice…’
Sam found a job and met a local woman, Mary, at a dance. They married and have six children. Sam is very pleased with his life in Scotland and has no regrets.
‘…Can’t complain, life is just wonderful, I think life is great and I live it again if I have to go, if I was to have a second chance…’
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