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Mally
Hutchinson
Norman
‘Mally’ (Malachi) Hutchinson arrived in England on 9 November
1950 aged 21. He had paid the fare of £106 to the Chin Yee
Travel Service and flew from Palisadoes Airport in Jamaica to Miami
and then to New York where he took the Cunard liner Britannic to
Liverpool.
Mally recalls
the inadequacy of his clothing for the winter weather and remembers
his friends buying him an old army coat for 7s 6d from Woods
Army and Navy Store in Westgate Street, which became his “house
coat, dressing coat and blanket”.  |
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Untold Stories |
He
came alone, looking for work. He had seen advertisements in the
newspapers stating that 'Britain Has Work' and like many others
intended to stay only three to five years.
One
of 10 children, brought up on a farm, he intended to make enough
money to return home. He had an address of an acquaintance who was
living in Brixton, but met a man by the name of Bertram Cooper on
the ship who was travelling to Gloucester and he went along with
him.
Bertram
was from St Catherine in Jamaica and had friends already in Gloucester,
who were living at the hostel in Brockworth. Arriving on a Saturday,
a place had been reserved at the hostel for Bertram by his friends,
Jim Green, Ben Green and Eddie Blair, but not for Mally.
They
had to hide him at the hostel for two nights. He remembers sleeping
on a concrete floor, covered with coats. On Monday, he was busy
attending offices in Pitt Street, acquiring his ration card, identity
card and insurance card.
After
attending the Labour Exchange and getting himself a job as a motor
mechanic at Chambers Motors, Mally had to find somewhere to live.
He
went to the police station, then an old detached house at Bearlands.
The policeman rode his bicycle around the city to various addresses,
with Mally walking alongside, in order to find him accommodation.
Not
wanted
They
had little success, with owners saying things like "Sorry,
IÂ’m not having them here", until an Irish woman by the
name of Mrs Orett offered him a place at 168 Southgate Street.
Eric
Saxon 'was a brave person' and 'went through hell', stating
that he and his wife suffered persecution for taking in Jamaican
lodgers. They lived at 236 Barton Street, directly opposite
the Red Lion public house. Abuse was shouted to all the occupants
of the house, black and white, from the pub.
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| Our
Untold Stories |
He
recalls the inadequacy of his clothing for the winter weather and
remembers his friends buying him an old army coat for 7s 6d from
Woods Army and Navy Store in Westgate Street, which became his "house
coat, dressing coat and blanket".
His
second home was with a Mrs Moore at 36 Parkend Road. He next lived
at the home of Eric Saxon "the first (white) man to open his
house so that black people could get somewhere to live".
Brave
man
He
recalls that Eric "was a brave person" and "went
through hell", stating that he and his wife suffered persecution
for taking in Jamaican lodgers. They lived at 236 Barton Street,
directly opposite the Red Lion public house (since demolished).
Abuse was shouted to all the occupants of the house, black and white,
from the pub.
It
was at this time, in 1953, Coronation year, that Mally met his wife
Sybil. She had arrived from Barbados in March 1950, one of the first
five women to be recruited to the health service to train as a nurse.
She
began her training at North Stafford Royal Infirmary in Stoke-on-Trent.
They met whilst she was at Savernake Forest Hospital in Wiltshire.
He had visited the hospital with a Jamaican friend whose sister
had arrived to train as a nurse.
When
she completed her training, she joined Mally in Gloucester. They
married in 1954. As a couple, they experienced great difficulty
in finding accommodation, on one occasion a door was slammed in
their faces.
Few
black people in Gloucester
Mally
states that at that time there were very few black people in Gloucester,
and most were living at the hostel in Brockworth. He recalls the
first black person to purchase a house was Mr Cedric Smith, a Jamaican,
who jointly owned 52 Hopewell Street with a Mrs Jessie Rogers, who
came from Burma. Mr and Mrs Hutchinson lived at this house for a
while.
Mally
recalls it being overcrowded, with approximately 14 people living
there. He soon moved to a flat where he lived for six years and
where three of his children were born. Then he moved to council
accommodation until he bought his first house in Malmesbury Road.
In 1968 he bought the house in Lonsdale Road where he still lives.
Overcrowding
Overcrowding
was inevitable. It was difficult to find many locals willing to
open up their homes to them. The early immigrants faced hostility,
prejudice, discrimination and, in the absence of any laws to prevent
it, overt racism.
Therefore,
when one of their countrymen was able to buy their own home, he
would be inundated with requests to rent a room, or even a bed.
Many men, who worked shifts, tell stories of sharing the same bed
in those early days!
Acquiring
the finances to purchase one's own home was also difficult. Banks
were not always willing to supply the new immigrants with mortgages.
'Pioneers' led the way in helping others to achieve the means whereby
they could purchase their own home.
»
See 'Finding work'
» See
'Building a community'
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