In our regular series on monuments around the Borough, Julia Omari takes a different stance and wonders why there is no monument to East Ham’s Frank Arthur Bailey

firefighter frank bailey posing for picture, smiling

Frank Arthur Bailey was born on the 26 November 1925 in British Guiana, now Guyana, in South America. Frank was a man of principle who believed in equality for all, a belief that he always acted on. While working in a hospital in New York, for example, he successfully led a walkout to protest against the segregated dining facilities.

After travelling to London in 1953, Frank joined the West Indian Standing Conference (WISC), an organisation that represented African and Caribbean communities in the United Kingdom. Through the WISC Frank learned that there were no black firefighters in England. The authorities believed black men were not capable of this work, thinking of them as physically weak and uneducated. Frank challenged these lies when he applied to join the West Ham Fire Brigade. At the time he lived at 222 Clements Road E6, with his second wife Josie and daughter Rebecca.

Frank’s application, against the odds, was successful, and he is believed to have been the first first full-time firefighter of West Indian/African origin in England in the post-war era.

There had been black firefighters during World War Two, and George Arthur Roberts was the first black man to join the London Auxiliary Fire Service, a move repeated by other African and West Indian men. Black women also volunteered for the roles of fire guards and/or fire watcher. Esther Bruce became fire watcher in Brompton Hospital. These positions were created after the devastating bombings in the blitz raids of December 1940.

Frank served as a part of the Red Watch crew in Silvertown Fire Station. In true Frank fashion he quickly became the branch’s Fire Brigade Union representative while also fulfilling his firefighter duties, which would have seen him extinguishing many fires at the three Royal Docks.

On one occasion Frank saved the life of a fellow firefighter – all 6’ 2” of the 16-stone of him – who had fainted on the fifth floor of a building while out on a call. Frank carried him to safety in a fireman’s lift.

After ten years in a successful and fulfilling career, Frank decided to leave due to ongoing discrimination in the service and after being continuously overlooked for promotion. He went on to become one of the first black mental welfare officers and psychiatric social workers, and the first black legal advocate for black youth at Marylebone Magistrates Court.

Frank passed away on the 2 December 2015 aged 90. More than 80 London firefighters, in a much-changed institution, formed a guard of honour salute at his funeral. But, sadly, there is no memorial in Newham to Frank Arthur Bailey, England’s first post-war black firefighting pioneer. It’s worth asking why not.

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