Skip to main content

‘They Had the Sea in Their Blood’: Caymanian Naval Volunteers in the Second World War

  • Chapter
Transnational Soldiers

Abstract

The Second World War for Britain was both a global and an imperial struggle.1 It involved huge numbers of colonial soldiers, sailors and aviators who, it can often be forgotten, fought not as conscripts but as volunteers. Drawn from all corners of the Empire, these men were driven by a wide range of motives to sign up and fight for an imperial ‘mother country’ they had never seen, thousands of miles away from their homes and families. Nor did they fight in isolation; the transnational nature of the conflict meant they were not only exposed to foreign countries and cultures for the first time, but also other peoples who they fought both with and against.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Ashley Jackson, The British Empire and the Second World War (London, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  2. David Killingray, Fighting for Britain: African Soldiers in the Second World War (Woodbridge, VA, 2010).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Item 340: Memorandum ‘The Co-operation of the Colonial Empire in Imperial Defence’, 8 June 1938, in Nicholas Tracy (ed), The Collective Naval Defence of the Empire, 1900–1940, Publications of the Navy Records Society, vol. 136 (Aldershot, 1997), pp. 587–93.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gaylord Kelshall, The U-Boat War in the Caribbean (Annapolis, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Norman Rudolph McLaughlin, The Forgotten Men of the Navy (Miami, FL, 2002), prelude.

    Google Scholar 

  6. James H. S. Billmyer, ‘The Cayman Islands’, Geographical Review, 36, no. 1 (1946), pp. 29–43, p. 34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Michael Craton, Founded Upon the Seas: A History of the Cayman Islands and Their People (Kingston, 2003), p. 291.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Roger C. Smith, The Maritime Heritage of the Cayman Islands (Gainesville, FL, 2000), p. 51.

    Google Scholar 

  9. A. J. A. Douglas, ‘The Cayman Islands’, The Geographical Journal, 95, no. 2 (1940), pp. 126–31, p. 128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Thomas Metcalf, Imperial Connections: India in the Indian Ocean Arena, 1860–1920 (London, 2007), p. 72.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Sir Vassel Johnson, As I See It: How Cayman Became a Leading Financial Centre (Sussex, 2001), pp. 50–1.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gaylord Kelshall, The U-Boat War In the Caribbean (Annapolis, 1988).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Henri Tajfel and John C. Turner, ‘The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior’, in S. Worchel and W. Austin (eds), Psychology of Intergroup Relations (Chicago, 1986), pp. 7–24.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Conray Forbes, ‘An Experience of War’, Newstar, 52 (1995), p. 15.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Sybil McLoughlin, Cayman Net News, 3 March 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Neville Williams, A History of the Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman, 1970), p. 77.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2013 Daniel Owen Spence

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Spence, D.O. (2013). ‘They Had the Sea in Their Blood’: Caymanian Naval Volunteers in the Second World War. In: Arielli, N., Collins, B. (eds) Transnational Soldiers. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137296634_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137296634_7

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-34012-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-29663-4

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics