GRANT – Cyril Ewart Lionel (Cy)
1397467 – P/O – Cyril Ewart Lionel (Cy) Grant – attested 10.10.41 – commissioned 6.2.43 – F/O 188338 Pilot
Missing – POW 26.6.43
[Source: NA AIR 2/6876 – Nominal Roll of Coloured Candidates, October 1944]
Flight Lieutenant – Navigator – 103 Squadron – Lancaster – POW 1943-1945
Picture on the left shows Cy Grant as he was portrayed in the Nazi-propaganda paper Der Völkische Beobachter. Caption reads: ‘Ein Mitglied der Royal Air Force von unbestimmbarer Rasse’ (A member of the Royal Air Force of indeterminable race). The clipping was given to Grant by the commander of POW-camp Stalag Luft III in Silesia.
Barrister
Actor – stage, film, TV;
Singer – concert, cabaret, record;
Co-founder Drum Arts Centre;
Director Concord Multicultural Festivals;
Author: A Member of the RAF of Indeterminate Race (a war memoir) Woodfield, 2006,
Ring of Steel: pan sound & symbol, Macmillan 1999,
Blackness & the Dreaming Soul: Race, Identity & the Materialistic Paradigm, Shoving Leopard, 2007;
Rivers of Time (collected poems) Naked Light 2008.
website (new!)
[Source: CG]
[Trinidad Guardian 18 January 1944 – Courtesy Jerome Lee, CMHA]
With fellow-Guyanese Ron Hall (to the left of Cy). And the names on the back of the picture.
Read an interesting account about Mr. Hall enlisting in Guyana and his voyage to the UK here on historycalroots.com.
[click to enlarge]
[Photo’s: Courtesy of Pip Jager and David Gleave/historycalroots.com]
DEAR MR GRANT,
I WAS FASCINATED BY YOUR STORY ON THE INTERNET RE YOUR RAF SERVICE WITH BOMBER COMMAND DURING WW11.
YOU PROBABLY KNOW THIS BUT THEN AGAIN YOU MAY NOT, YOU WERE SHOT DOWN BY OFW KARL- HEINZ SCHERLING OF 10/NJGI FLYING A ME BF 110 NIGHTFIGHTER, YOU WERE HIS 17TH VICTIM THAT NIGHT HE HAD PREVIOUSLY SHOT DOWN 2 MORE LANCASTERS THAT NIGHT, ALL FALLING OVER HOLLAND THIS MAN WAS ONE OF THE ‘ EXPERTEN ‘ OR ACE’S.
THE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COMBAT WITH YOUR AIRCRAFT CAME FROM ‘ LUFTWAFFE ‘ NIGHTFIGHTER COMBAT CLAIMS 1939-1945 BY JOHN FOREMAN JOHANNES MATTHEWS AND SIMON PARRY, IT CONTAINS VERY ACCURATE INFORMATION AND IS MOST RELIABLE
MY UNCLE WAS KILLED AS A 19 YEAR OLD AIRGUNNER IN DEC 1943, AND I THINK PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF DID AN ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL JOB, WHERE YOU GOT YOUR GUTS FROM GOD ONLY KNOWS!.
KINDEST REGARDS,
DAVID CHEETHAM.
http://www.luftwaffe.cz/scherfling.html
http://books.google.nl/books?id=_AP4QkYQZY8C&dq=LUFTWAFFE+%27+NIGHTFIGHTER+COMBAT+CLAIMS+1939-1945&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=6093Uc6tZU&sig=WCe4R2rqWUkAX1CdIJle4PlDmo8&hl=nl&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA1,M1
January 8th, 2009 at 9:22 pmAs someone who thankfully will never have to endure the horrors you undoubtely witnessed I for one will not forget your formidable life story.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:19 pm