Amelia Elizabeth King (1917 - 1995)

Born 25 Jun 1917 in Stepney, London, England

Died 1995 at about age 77 in Whitechapel, London, England

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Biography

Amelia King is Notable.

"I said to them, if I'm not good enough to work on the land, then I am not good enough to make munitions. No one has ever suggested that my father and brother were not good enough to fight for the freedom of England."^[1]

Life Events

Amelia Elizabeth King was born on the 25th June 1917, in Stepney, London, England, the second known daughter of Henry King and Amelia Simpson née Burt.^[2]

On the 29th September 1939, Amelia (22), a fancy-box maker, was living with her family at 111 John Scurr House, Stepney. Those home at the time were her father: Henry (52), a Greaser on the SS Lombardy; her mother: Amelia (52), "Unpaid Domestic Duties"; and her siblings: Ada Alice (23), a Bag Machinist (Heavy Work); Frances Annie Alice (19), not employed outside the home; Fitzherbert John (17), Engineering Trade, and Doris Mary (16).^[3]

Land Army Girls on the Roberts Farm – Amelia centre-front, Betty Roberts behind (circled).

Facing & Beating the Colour Ban
  In the early 1940s Amelia made the news in a rather big way, when her attempts to join England's Women's Land Army (WLA) were rejected by the Essex branch committee on the grounds of her ethnicity. They considered that her being black would cause farmers to refuse to employ her. She was rejected a total of four times.
  Being of stern stuff – her father was a firefighter in the Merchant Navy, and her younger brother, Fitzherbert was a serving member of the Royal Navy – Amelia did not take this rejection lying down, and took the matter to her Member of Parliament.

Anti Discrimination Protest Leaflet.

After another rather high-profile incident where a highly respected man of colour* was turned away from a particular establishment^[4] causing the media to point the spotlight on the issue of what was termed "the colour bar", the matter of Amelia's rejection by the WLA was finally addressed and the rejection reversed. As a result, she was at last able to formally join the Women's Land Army in October 1943.^[5]

Amelia was a member of the Women's Land Army.

Alfred Roberts, a neighbour of the Manor Farm (highlighted by the historical documentary TV series Wartime Farm),^[6] was the first to employ Amelia. It was Roberts's request to employ Amelia that "put the lie" to the WLA's claim that her colour would be an impediment to farmers being willing to employ her. Betty Roberts, a daughter of Alfred, was interviewed on the Wartime Farm episode wherein Amelia was mentioned, saying how well-liked the girl had been.
She worked at Frith Farm in Fareham, Hampshire until 1944.

After the war, Amelia seems to have chosen to fade into obscurity, as there is not much more to be found about her until her death.

Amelia Elizabeth King passed away in 1995, at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, Greater London, England, aged 78 years, having never married, and with no known children.^[7]

 * West Indian cricketer Learie Constantine (later knighted (1962), and made a life peer (1969)).

Research Notes

There was another Amelia Elizabeth King, whose birth was also registered in the 3rd Quarter 1917, but at Hackney. This other Amelia King's mother's maiden surname was Ashley. This other Amelia King married James Sherringham in 1941.

• Extra Reading

1. The Museum of English Rural Life at the University of Reading: Amelia King — Breaking the Colour Bar
2. University of Warwick Library: Modern Records Centre Identities — Amelia King
3. The Eighth in the East: Amelia King and the Women’s Land Army — page 20 (opens a pdf).

Sources

1. ↑ Race, Sexuality and Identity in Britain and Jamaica: The Biography of Patrick Nelson, 1916-1963. Romain, Gemma (7 September 2017). Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-47258-864-7.
2. ↑ Birth — England & Wales births, deaths and marriages registrations, General Register Office United Kingdom, Southport, England, HM Passport Office online search Births: Name: KING, AMELIA ELIZABETH; Mother's Maiden Surname: SIMPSON; GRO Reference: 1917 S Quarter in STEPNEY Volume 01C Page 385
3. ↑ 1939 England and Wales Register. Enumeration District: AVOE. The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/551C
4. ↑ Associated Lawsuit — Wikipedia : Constantine vs Imperial Hotels Ltd
5. ↑ Rejection Reversed — Hansard's transcripts of Parliamentary debates: women's land army 1943
6. ↑ Employment Offered — Wartime Farm - Peter Ginn (archaeologist); Ruth Goodman (historian); Alex Langlands (landscape investigator-archaeologist/historian); ebook Publisher: Mitchell Beazley, 2012 London. ISBN 978-1-84533-740-7. OCLC 893653084
7. ↑ Death — England & Wales births, deaths and marriages registrations, General Register Office United Kingdom, Southport, England, HM Passport Office online search Deaths: Name: KING, AMELIA ELIZABETH; Year of Birth: 1917; GRO Reference: DOR Q4/1995 in TOWER HAMLETS (2461D) Reg D31 Entry Number 207

• BDM registrations, census data.

See also:

• Wikipedia : Amelia King
• Wikidata: Item Q16190661, en:Wikipedia