We are very proud of our family's RAF service

To mark Black History Month this year, we are celebrating the diversity of our RAF Family. Clive Myrie is an award-winning BBC journalist and news presenter and is the new host of Mastermind. His family settled in Bolton, after his uncle was recruited to serve in the RAF during the Second World War….

"My uncle Cecil worked as a driver for the RAF, transporting munitions for aircraft across the country during the war. He'd been recruited out in Jamaica with the British Government desperate for help from the colonies in the war effort.

"He shipped out to the UK at the start of the war. My dad cannot recall sadly where Cecil was stationed, but it was after the war that he decided to settle down in Bolton and that's why my mum and dad eventually settled there too.

"My dad says Cecil recounted to him how during the Blitz (I'm assuming this was the time as my dad says it was when the German bombing was 'red hot' and there were hundreds of air raids,) he was having to jump out of the van at the sound of the sirens, abandoning the vehicle in case it was hit by a bomb detonating the cargo of weapons.

"I'm also assuming Cecil would have helped transport munitions during the Battle of Britain in 1942. Cecil passed away in the late 1990s. The family were all very proud of his RAF service."

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the British Government called on its colonies in the Caribbean for volunteers to join the war effort. Some 6,000 men answered the call, travelling to the UK to become ground crew and pilots.