The subject of my twelfth blog post is Lilian Bader. Throughout her life, Lilian overcame discrimination and racism to become one of the first Black Women to join the Royal Air Force. Lilian was proud that, by the end of the 20th century, three generations of her family had served in the British armed forces.
Lilian was born in Liverpool on 18 February 1918 to Marcus Bailey, a merchant seaman from Barbados who had fought for Britain in the First World War, and Lilian, whose parents were Irish. In 1927, aged just nine, Lilian was orphaned and sent to a convent. She remained there until the age of 20 because no one would employ her until she got a job in domestic service. Lilian said, “nobody would employ me, and that was when I realised, I had a problem with colour.”
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Lilian left her job in domestic service to join the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) in Yorkshire. But only two months later, Lilian was forced to leave when it was discovered her father was of West Indian heritage. Lilian still wanted to join the armed forces and in 1940 she began working on a farm near RAF Topcliffe, feeding soldiers. In 1941, she heard some West Indians being interviewed on the radio. They’d been turned down by the Army and accepted by the RAF. Shortly afterwards, Lilian was enlisted with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. She found herself "the only coloured person in this sea of white faces", but "somebody told me I looked smart in my uniform, which cheered me no end."
During her training, Lilian’s brother – who had been serving in the Merchant Navy – was killed at sea. Despite this tragedy, Lilian managed to pass her course ‘First Class’ and became one of the first women in the air force to qualify as an Instrument Repairer. By the end of 1941, she was a Leading Aircraftwoman (LACW) at RAF Shawbury where she worked long hours checking for faults in the instruments of the aircrafts. She soon gained the rank of Acting Corporal.
In 1943, Bader married Ramsay Bader, a fellow serviceman who was also of mixed-race heritage. When she fell pregnant in 1944, she was discharged from the WAAF. While Lilian had a positive experience in the RAF, she spoke about some of the discrimination she faced in British society during and after the Second World War. After leaving the WAAF she struggled to find work. Lilian took night classes while bringing up her children, went on to earn a degree at London University and became a teacher, a profession she followed well into her 80s. Her younger son flew helicopters in the Royal Navy and later became an airline pilot. She said, when reflecting on her military service:
“Father served in the First World War, his three children served in the Second World War. I married a coloured man who was in the Second World War, as was his brother who was decorated for bravery in Burma. Their father also served in the First World War. Our son was a helicopter pilot, he served in Northern Ireland. So, all in all, I think we’ve given back more to this country than we’ve received.
In 1989 Lilian’s memoir, Together – Lilian Bader: Wartime Memoirs of a WAAF 1939-1944, was published by the Imperial War Museum. The following year, Lilian appeared on an episode of the BBC television show ‘Hear-Say’ with a group of ex-service men and women from the former African and Caribbean colonies. They debated the pros and cons of supporting Britain in the two world wars with members of a younger, critical generation. When some of the younger members of the audience failed to understand why black people from across the British Empire joined the war effort, Lilian explained why she had joined the WAAF: if Hitler had invaded, “We would have ended up in the ovens”.
Lilian died in March 2015, aged 97.
Bibliography
Bourne, Stephen. “Obituary: War Hero Lilian Bader (1918-2015).” The Voice. 2015. https://archive.voice-online.co.uk/article/obituary-war-hero-lilian-bader-1918-2015 [Accessed 27 November 2021].
Fawcett Society Website, “Lilian Bader: The First Black Woman to serve in the RAF.” The Fawcett Society. 2018. https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/blog/lilian-bader-the-first-black-woman-to-join-the-raf [Accessed 24 November 2021]
Royal Air Force Website, “Lilian Bader - Second World War.” RAF. 2021. https://www.raf100schools.org.uk/resource/42/lilian-bader [Accessed 24 November 2021].
Wallbank, Lucia. “Lilian Bader: one of the first Black British women in the Royal Air Force.” Women’s History Network. 2020. https://womenshistorynetwork.org/lilian-bader-one-of-the-first-black-british-women-in-the-royal-air-force-by-lucia-wallbank [Accessed 27 November 2021]
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