Train guard who bravely challenged the BR colour bar

[leytongabriel]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-53449027

Asquith Xavier won the right to work at the station in 1966, but received hate mail and death threats.

Mr Xavier, who lived in Chatham, Kent, worked as a guard at Marylebone Station and in 1966 applied for a promotion at Euston, where guards were paid an extra £10 a week.

At the time the station was operating a whites-only recruitment policy, a ban enforced by the local unions and station management, until Mr Xavier demanded change.

His story made its way to parliament, and the then secretary of state for transport Barbara Castle.

As a result of his action, on 15 July 1966 British Railways announced colour bars at London stations had been scrapped....

 

[DarloRich]

Is there a memorial at Euston?

 

[yorkie]

Is there a memorial at Euston?

There is a plaque

https://twitter.com/NRArchway/status/1284792120197488640

Spoiler: Plaque at London Euston

In honour of
Asquith Xavier
who successfully fought to
become the first black worker
employed as a train guard
at London Euston station
in 1966

​

​

 

[DarloRich]

There is a plaque

https://twitter.com/NRArchway/status/1284792120197488640

Spoiler: Image of plaque at London Euston

In honour of
Asquith Xavier
who successfully fought to
become the first black worker
employed as a train guard
at London Euston station
in 1966

​

​

Thanks - I thought so but it is a while since I was there!

 

[WesternLancer]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-53449027

Interesting link - occurs to me to wonder how it was that at different stations in London (within the same BR Region by 1966?) it was possible to have different recruitment processes - the article implies it was 'policy' tho perhaps in reality it was an informal colour bar at Euston? And for that matter different pay levels - or was it that it was a more senior Guard position than the one he had at Marylebone, hence the pay differential detailed.

 

[Malcmal]

And people say the 1960's were a golden time!!! Not if you were black or gay I guess

 

[Monarch010]

We've come a long way since then, but there's still a long way to go....

 

[PG]

Interesting link - occurs to me to wonder how it was that at different stations in London (within the same BR Region by 1966?) it was possible to have different recruitment processes - the article implies it was 'policy' tho perhaps in reality it was an informal colour bar at Euston? And for that matter different pay levels - or was it that it was a more senior Guard position than the one he had at Marylebone, hence the pay differential detailed.

I'm not so sure that they were in the same region back then, admittedly the source is not the most reliable!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Midland_Region_of_British_Railways

In 1974, the Chiltern Main Line from London Marylebone to Banbury and Birmingham Moor Street was transferred to the LMR from the Western Region.

 

[Clarence Yard]

It was the GW/GC Joint Line that got transferred in 1974, not Marylebone nor the line to Aylesbury (minus the LT section) & onwards to Claydon and Bletchley, which remained as LMR until sector days.

There would have been different local management (& union reps) at both termini, despite being part of the same Region and Division and it was at local level that the PT&R arrangements were administered although seniority dates for concilliation grades should have been the criteria, even then.

 

[Journeyman]

The thing that's most shameful about this is that it was the unions that blocked his promotion.

 

[WesternLancer]

The thing that's most shameful about this is that it was the unions that blocked his promotion.

I think unions had a part in the Bristol City bus policy 'colour bar'. Responding to vested interests instead of progressive opinion?

According to Wikipedia entry:

The Bristol Evening Post and the Western Daily Press ran series on the colour bar, which was blamed by company management on the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), which represented bus workers.[4] Local union officials denied that there was any colour bar but in 1955 the Passenger Group of the TGWU had passed a resolution that "coloured" workers should not be employed as bus crews. Andrew Hake, curator of the Bristol Industrial Mission, recalled that "The TGWU in the city had said that if one black man steps on the platform as a conductor, every wheel will stop".[2]

which ref's back to a book by a Prof at the Univ of West of England

 

[Clarence Yard]

The protection of "traditional" recruitment would have been uppermost in local Union thinking. Certain jobs had a "clan" feel about them and if you weren't an existing part of that family or area, you didn't get a look in.

Does it happen now? Not on the railway to the extent it did in the 1950's and 1960's (don't forget "No Irish" also happened back then) but just 15 years ago as the Cabinet Member for (amongst other things) HR at my local Council, I found out that clan recruitment practices went on with our dustmen, even recruiting people who were physically unfit for the job. That quickly stopped as did their unfair (to equivalent grades) "appearance money" bonuses when I reviewed the pay spine for the entire Council.

I don't think the TGWU covered themselves in glory in some cities with their attitude to immigration in the 1950's and 1960's. The railway was a bit more tolerant but "on-train" (being plum jobs) could be difficult and the Xavier example was shameful and in marked contrast to what was being practiced down the road at KX at that time. In most departments Afro-Caribbean staff were being recruited a-plenty and in my field, the M&EE, that was into skilled as well as unskilled positions.

When I joined in the 1970's, a lot of Afro-Caribbean staff had come over in the 1950's and 1960's but whatever the grade, their regard for each other's seniority was affected by what date their boat arrived here! It was fascinating to learn from them how & why they each had made that journey and sometimes it was both awe inspiring and moving.

 

[WesternLancer]

The protection of "traditional" recruitment would have been uppermost in local Union thinking. Certain jobs had a "clan" feel about them and if you weren't an existing part of that family or area, you didn't get a look in.

Does it happen now? Not on the railway to the extent it did in the 1950's and 1960's (don't forget "No Irish" also happened back then) but just 15 years ago as the Cabinet Member for (amongst other things) HR at my local Council, I found out that clan recruitment practices went on with our dustmen, even recruiting people who were physically unfit for the job. That quickly stopped as did their unfair (to equivalent grades) "appearance money" bonuses when I reviewed the pay spine for the entire Council.

I don't think the TGWU covered themselves in glory in some cities with their attitude to immigration in the 1950's and 1960's. The railway was a bit more tolerant but "on-train" (being plum jobs) could be difficult and the Xavier example was shameful and in marked contrast to what was being practiced down the road at KX at that time. In most departments Afro-Caribbean staff were being recruited a-plenty and in my field, the M&EE, that was into skilled as well as unskilled positions.

When I joined in the 1970's, a lot of Afro-Caribbean staff had come over in the 1950's and 1960's but whatever the grade, their regard for each other's seniority was affected by what date their boat arrived here! It was fascinating to learn from them how & why they each had made that journey and sometimes it was quite both awe inspiring and moving.

Very interesting to read that post - thanks for sharing those insights!

 

[leytongabriel]

The protection of "traditional" recruitment would have been uppermost in local Union thinking. Certain jobs had a "clan" feel about them and if you weren't an existing part of that family or area, you didn't get a look in.

Does it happen now? Not on the railway to the extent it did in the 1950's and 1960's (don't forget "No Irish" also happened back then) but just 15 years ago as the Cabinet Member for (amongst other things) HR at my local Council, I found out that clan recruitment practices went on with our dustmen, even recruiting people who were physically unfit for the job. That quickly stopped as did their unfair (to equivalent grades) "appearance money" bonuses when I reviewed the pay spine for the entire Council.

I don't think the TGWU covered themselves in glory in some cities with their attitude to immigration in the 1950's and 1960's. The railway was a bit more tolerant but "on-train" (being plum jobs) could be difficult and the Xavier example was shameful and in marked contrast to what was being practiced down the road at KX at that time. In most departments Afro-Caribbean staff were being recruited a-plenty and in my field, the M&EE, that was into skilled as well as unskilled positions.

When I joined in the 1970's, a lot of Afro-Caribbean staff had come over in the 1950's and 1960's but whatever the grade, their regard for each other's seniority was affected by what date their boat arrived here! It was fascinating to learn from them how & why they each had made that journey and sometimes it was quite both awe inspiring and moving.

 

[leytongabriel]

Lots of interesting things there, thanks folks. As a child growing up in the sixties, I was certainly aware of clan recruitment in local authority manual workers, especially the dustmen who were better paid, but also issues in the London Fire Brigade and Fords at Dagenham. There were lots of 'No Irish' or 'No Coloureds' in the rooms to let ads and my mum had a fair number of discussions with neighbours as she let the spare rooms in our house to anybody who seemed nice and needed one. There's loads still wrong out there but attitudes did move on.

 

[Taunton]

I'm not sure if it was so much the "unions", as the members themselves. I seem to recall there were union central policies which were the opposite to what the members on the ground wished. This was certainly the case in the Bristol bus situation, which was very much the local discussion of the time.

The recruitment issue is much linked with established employees looking to job opportunities for their children and families. Is that in itself bad? Notably businesses started by immigrants also typically recruit from their own diaspora. There's nothing wrong with that. Would it not be faintly ridiculous if Chinese restaurants had to have 90% British-background waiters?

 

[GarethW]

Off topic slightly but it certainly happened in the Print in Watford back in the sixties and seventies and it was entirely union driven.

 

[Dr_Paul]

I remember a discussion on Westminster Trades Council in the late 1970s about rumours of a colour-bar operating with the dustmen at Westminster Council. We didn't know much about it, whether it was a deliberate colour-bar policy or whether it was because the recruitment of the borough's dustmen was on an informal father-to-son basis that the council had long accepted; we didn't have anyone from the borough council's unions at WTC meetings who could inform us of what was actually happening. I changed jobs and worked in another borough, so I don't know what transpired, but I noticed a few years later whilst walking through Westminster that there were non-white dustmen, so either the rumours were wrong, or something had changed for the better in the meantime.

 

[WesternLancer]

I remember a discussion on Westminster Trades Council in the late 1970s about rumours of a colour-bar operating with the dustmen at Westminster Council. We didn't know much about it, whether it was a deliberate colour-bar policy or whether it was because the recruitment of the borough's dustmen was on an informal father-to-son basis that the council had long accepted; we didn't have anyone from the borough council's unions at WTC meetings who could inform us of what was actually happening. I changed jobs and worked in another borough, so I don't know what transpired, but I noticed a few years later whilst walking through Westminster that there were non-white dustmen, so either the rumours were wrong, or something had changed for the better in the meantime.

Interesting (although one fears given the era what might have happened at Westminster would have been Mrs T came along, Lady Porter ran Westminster - refuse service contracted out under CCT legislation, unions sidelined, staff brought in on cheap agency contracts on low pay....might be more diverse but not the way you would want the transition to happen...)

 

[WesternLancer]

from todays Gaurdian, which is interesting to read (and includes a link to a 1966 report of the issue)

RMT salutes worker who overturned racist recruitment at Euston station

Rail union praises ‘brave actions’ of Dominica-born Asquith Xavier, who overturned 1960s colour bar

www.theguardian.com

one would be hard pressed to conclude that the Union had anything other than the most benign involvement in the matter...

 

[LowLevel]

from todays Gaurdian, which is interesting to read (and includes a link to a 1966 report of the issue)

RMT salutes worker who overturned racist recruitment at Euston station

Rail union praises ‘brave actions’ of Dominica-born Asquith Xavier, who overturned 1960s colour bar

www.theguardian.com

one would be hard pressed to conclude that the Union had anything other than the most benign involvement in the matter...

From what I gather the Euston branch of the NUR was complicit to whatever degree with regards to the colour bar and the branch at Marylebone (where there was no such thing for whatever reason, the already fading Great Central presumably not having the prestige of the West Coast mainline might have had something to do with it) took on the challenge of dealing with it, with the result that the rep at Marylebone working with the gent in question managed to consign the policy to history.

 

[leytongabriel]

From what I gather the Euston branch of the NUR was complicit to whatever degree with regards to the colour bar and the branch at Marylebone (where there was no such thing for whatever reason, the already fading Great Central presumably not having the prestige of the West Coast mainline might have had something to do with it) took on the challenge of dealing with it, with the result that the rep at Marylebone working with the gent in question managed to consign the policy to history.

Interesting , thanks

 

[Clarence Yard]

From what I gather the Euston branch of the NUR was complicit to whatever degree with regards to the colour bar and the branch at Marylebone (where there was no such thing for whatever reason, the already fading Great Central presumably not having the prestige of the West Coast mainline might have had something to do with it) took on the challenge of dealing with it, with the result that the rep at Marylebone working with the gent in question managed to consign the policy to history.

Possibly because Marylebone was ex ER and there was an early policy of using immigrant labour at the southern end of the ER - some of the earliest Caribbean arrivals found work there. Italian and Polish workers were also present from the mid/late 1940's.

 

[CW2]

I worked for some time as an Assistant Controller (i.e. glorified "box boy") in Willesden and Euston PSBs in the early 1980s. I was General Purpose Relief, so got to work with every shift over time. At Willesden there were three shifts, namely "English", "Irish", and "Black". Each shift had two signallers, and a supervisor, and over time they had naturally migrated onto these shifts according to their ethnicity. There was no animosity between shifts - but there was some friendly rivalry. Cameraderie was improved when they worked together to successfully apply for the box to be upgraded, so they all got a pay rise (except me of course!). I had to attune my ear to the very different accents used in conversation. It was a happy time - and a fascinating job.

 

[alistairlees]

I worked for some time as an Assistant Controller (i.e. glorified "box boy") in Willesden and Euston PSBs in the early 1980s. I was General Purpose Relief, so got to work with every shift over time. At Willesden there were three shifts, namely "English", "Irish", and "Black". Each shift had two signallers, and a supervisor, and over time they had naturally migrated onto these shifts according to their ethnicity. There was no animosity between shifts - but there was some friendly rivalry. Cameraderie was improved when they worked together to successfully apply for the box to be upgraded, so they all got a pay rise (except me of course!). I had to attune my ear to the very different accents used in conversation. It was a happy time - and a fascinating job.

Less than 40 years ago, but sounds like another world. Mind you, I suspect there are many examples of this sort of thing in other industries (such as garment manufacture, hospitality and agriculture) that are still prevalent. It would be a better world if there weren't.

 

[WesternLancer]

I worked for some time as an Assistant Controller (i.e. glorified "box boy") in Willesden and Euston PSBs in the early 1980s. I was General Purpose Relief, so got to work with every shift over time. At Willesden there were three shifts, namely "English", "Irish", and "Black". Each shift had two signallers, and a supervisor, and over time they had naturally migrated onto these shifts according to their ethnicity. There was no animosity between shifts - but there was some friendly rivalry. Cameraderie was improved when they worked together to successfully apply for the box to be upgraded, so they all got a pay rise (except me of course!). I had to attune my ear to the very different accents used in conversation. It was a happy time - and a fascinating job.

That's a very interesting insight.