The Ugandan Asians

The help given by the people of Bourne during times of national need are well documented, mainly the establishment of a military hospital during the Great War of 1914-18 which eventually treated 950 wounded soldiers from the trenches and the welcome given to 900 children evacuated from Hull to escape the bombing during the Second World War of 1939-45.

But there was another lesser known occasion when volunteers from the town rallied to give support to the homeless and needy from overseas and that occurred in 1972, the year that General Idi Amin, president of Uganda, ordered the expulsion of his country's Indian minority, giving them 90 days to leave the country. His government claimed that the Indians were hoarding wealth and goods to the detriment of indigenous Africans and therefore "sabotaging" the Ugandan economy but the motivation for the expulsion remains unclear to this day.

Amin is said to have claimed that God had told him to order the expulsion in a dream while others suggested that Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, told him to do so while visiting Kampala earlier in the year. Whatever the case, Amin defended the expulsion order by arguing that he was giving Uganda back to the ethnic Ugandans.

The Indians lost their homes, their businesses and all but a few possessions. Many were citizens of the United Kingdom and its colonies and had British passports and so looked to this country for help and to offer them a safe haven. As a result, Britain took around 27,200 of them while thousands more went to other countries such as Canada, India, Pakistan, West Germany and the United States with smaller numbers emigrating to Australia, Austria, Sweden, Mauritius and New Zealand.

Their arrival in Britain was a massive problem of logistics for the government because they arrived at the country's airports in need of food and housing. Many local authorities, such as Peterborough, offered council accommodation although some had sufficient money to fend for themselves, but the immediate problem was temporary sustenance and shelter and so disused military camps in various parts of the country were brought back into use as resettlement centres, among them Hemswell and Faldingworth in North Lincolnshire.

This meant long journeys by road to get there and as Bourne was a convenient location on the route from London, the town became as a staging point for a break in the journey with Bourne County Secondary School in Queen's Road becoming a rest centre, even though it was the middle of the autumn term. Similar facilities were also provided at the Corn Exchange although in the event, it was the school that handled the bulk of the refugees.

The emergency services and voluntary groups swung into action to provide a welcome, notably the Women's Royal Voluntary Service or WRVS, but it fell to one man to ensure that everything ran smoothly when they arrived and that was the headmaster of the school, Howard Bostock, who was in charge of the premises and who organised an impromptu reception committee of staff and senior pupils to welcome the visitors. It could have been chaotic, because coach loads of Asians were arriving at all hours of the day and night, but everything went smoothly because of his organisation and we have his first hand account of exactly what happened because he later recorded the experience in the school log book:

"From 10th October to 8th November, the school was a staging centre for Asians who had been evicted from Uganda by General Amin. The Asians landed at Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick, and came up to camps at Hemswell and Foldingworth. Altogether, 2,400 Asians came through Bourne, the youngest being twelve days old and the oldest 87 years. The WRVS provided the food and it necessitated me being on duty continuously for almost twenty four hours each day. For several nights, I slept at the school."

These few lines describe the stark immediacy of the event but we also know of his efficiency in handling the situation because the school's archives also include several letters of appreciation sent when the crisis was over. The national chairman of the WRVS, Frances Clode, wrote from their London headquarters on November 22nd: "I have heard from so many members of the tremendous help given recently by you and your school. Your unfailing kindness and readiness to assist at all times of the day and night was a great support. On behalf of the many Asians who passed through Bourne, I thank you, members of your staff and the children, for the kindly and generous hospitality shown to them."

Another letter came from the Chief Regional Organiser of the WRVS, Doris Moll, who wrote from London on November 17th: "We were all most impressed, not only by the kindliness and care given by you all to the Asians during these few restful moments in Bourne, but by the way you personally were prepared to take so much responsibility and give such stalwart help to Mrs [Kathleen] Wherry [WRVS Centre organiser]. I am sure these early contacts made by the Asians must have given them a very good impression of the understanding and sympathy so many of the British people have for their present plight."

Ida Hobbs, Regional Emergency Services Organiser for the WRVS at Nottingham, wrote on November 21st: "We have not met but I feel we know each other, having spoken so many times on the telephone. I would like to thank you for all your help in connection with the staging points, and especially the communications without which the operation would not have been so successful. Your telephone call was, on two occasions, the only intimation that the Asians were on their way to us at the resettlement centres."

Mrs Wherry, who had been in charge of the WRVS in Bourne, added her own thanks in a letter on November 26th. "I really do not know how we could have managed without all the assistance you gave us at all hours of the day and night", she wrote. "It was such a relief to have someone to help with the phone calls as well as all the practical arrangements at the school. It must have been extremely difficult for you to have us at school when the children were around but you managed it all so cheerfully and readily."

Once the crisis was over, the Asians were found homes and jobs and the children school places. Most families settled down and became part of the wider community, some even here in Bourne, and many have made their mark in business. As a result, their resettlement is often cited as one of the more successful immigration operations in our history.

Mr Bostock, who had been appointed headmaster in 1968, retired in 1980 and died in June 1998, aged 73. His son, Richard, who still lives in Bourne, was a pupil at the school during that time and remembers buses arriving at all hours packed with Ugandan Asians. "I was only ten at the time and it is all a vague memory", he said, "but I do remember being roped in to serve food and drink."

Memories of the event were recalled forty years later after my article on the role of Bourne in the resettlement of the refugees appeared in The Local newspaper in October 2012 and two people wrote in about their first-hand experience of the operation.

The WRVS had established the reception centres at Bourne County Secondary School and the Corn Exchange but helpers were needed to staff them and they included members and wives from Round Table, the Rotary Club and the Ladies Circle who volunteered immediately.

Bourne Round Table held its charter night dinner the following week when town and district councillor John Smith, who was then chairman, gave a graphic account of the events to guests: “Last Thursday, we received a request from the WRVS to help staff the reception centres. They asked for manpower and within half an hour, I had all the helpers we required. Two thousand Asians eventually passed through Bourne, 200 of them on the first night. They arrived absolutely weary and they were very grateful to us for the welcome they received.”

Remembering the occasion 40 years later, Councillor Smith said that it was the sheer number of volunteers that had made the operation such a success in receiving the Asians, providing them with refreshments, clothing and medical supplies throughout their brief stay which was so remarkable.

Meanwhile, the Corn Exchange had been similarly busy and among the helpers there was Dorothy Alexander whose late husband Ron Alexander (1920-1998) became Mayor of Bourne in 1977. They had just moved to the town from York where she had been active with the WRVS and was recruited to carry on her work once she arrived. “There must have been a dozen of us who assembled at the Corn Exchange”, she recalled. “The Asians were due at about 5 pm and we were to serve light refreshments but because of some difficulties, the coaches did not arrive until 8 pm. As the days went by, our group became more organised and we were on shifts day and night. I can remember getting up at 2 am some mornings to arrive on time for duty. It was quite sad to see these people arriving quite bewildered, not all speaking English and wondering what to expect next. Some had tales to tell of their rush to the airport in Uganda, just abandoning possessions and leaving their expensive cars and other possessions behind.”

There was another gesture from the town which received widespread praise when Bourne Urban District Council offered a flat to one of the refugee families. A local newspaper later commented: “Bourne has every reason to be proud of its voluntary organisations which gave their services to ensure that the Ugandan Asians passing through the town were given sustenance and friendly greetings. In rallying to the call of the WRVS which directed operations, they brought credit to their organisations and honour to Bourne. When the Asians arrived, they were personally greeted and knew that they were welcome to Bourne hospitality. When acknowledging the magnificent part they all played, one must remember the council’s gesture in offering a home to one of the families. By doing so, the council probably brought Bourne to the notice of the resettlement authorities and everyone is to be congratulated on making their contributions to overcoming racial barriers.”

THE FIRST UGANDAN ASIAN RESIDENT
Bourne Urban District Council offered a flat in Eastgate to one of the families and it was allocated to Mr Bhaskaran Nair, a qualified teacher, who became the town's first resident Ugandan Asian refugee. He had travelled to England alone having sent his wife, Sarath, and daughters Geetha, Sangeetha and Salil, to his native India for safety but they now planned to join him as soon as possible.
"I shall be forever grateful for the very warm welcome given to me", he said at the flat in Brook House where he was given a civic welcome by Councillor Derek Ward, the council chairman, with his wife Delia and their two children, Sharon and Linda (pictured above), together with Councillors Ray Cliffe and Michael Taylor, council clerk Frank Mason and surveyor Michael Silverwood. Mr Nair, aged 43, had qualified with a Master of Arts degree at the former Travancore University in India where he studied history and politics but had lived and worked in Uganda for 17 years, eventually owning five private schools and employing a staff of 100. The family were living at Mbale when the order came for them to leave the country and during the 160 mile railway journey to the airport at Kampala there had to pass through eight check points. "We were harassed at one of them but otherwise we had a comfortable journey", he said. "But in leaving we lost everything and are now penniless and will have to start again. I would like to find work in teaching although I am prepared to do any job that might suit. I am sure your employment exchange will help." The case of Mr Nair's resettlement in Bourne was reported by the national press and subsequently became a cause célèbre which attracted the attention of Enoch Powell, then a Conservative M P campaigning against immigration. On 14th November 1972, he tabled a question in the Commons asking why Mr Nair, of Brook House, Eastgate, Bourne, having been born in India which he left for Uganda about 1955, was admitted to this country. David Lane, Secretary of State for the Home Department, replied that Mr Nair was a U K passport holder. "Many of those admitted in the present emergency were born in India and subsequently became citizens of the U K and colonies by registration in East Africa", he said. In the meantime, Mr Nair was looking for work but found a job teaching at Bourne County Secondary School by the headmaster, Howard Bostock, who offered him a short term contract until he could get permanent employment. During his time at the school, he became extremely popular with both pupils and staff who invited him into their homes but eventually left to seek pastures new.

REVISED OCTOBER 2012

See also Bourne Academy