Searching for the names of Bajan RAF Ground Crew in WWII
This is a call for help. For over 40 years, Audrey Dewjee in the UK has dedicated herself to uncovering and preserving the history of West Indian men who joined the Royal Air Force as ground crew. Believing that their contributions had been largely overlooked, she took it upon herself to ensure they would not…
Lord Nelson’s statue – Bridgetown, Barbados
Lord Nelson’s statue – Bridgetown The statue of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson in Barbados was unveiled in Bridgetown on 22nd March 1813. It was sculpted from bronze by Sir Richard Westmacott. It is considered an excellent likeness of the British Admiral. Very soon after his victory and subsequent death at Cape Trafalgar in 1805, plans…
Remembering V-E Day 1945
The 8th May 2025 is the 80th Anniversary of V‑E Day (Victory in Europe). V‑E Day is a pivotal moment in history marking the end of World War II in Europe in 1945 when the Allies accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. The Russians celebrate Victory Day (День Победы) on 9th May. V‑E Day signified an end to…
The British West Indies in 1936
Sorting through my parents papers, post probate, my sister and I came across a school textbook that my father had kept: The British Empire by George W Southgate BA published in 1936. On the inside cover of this book it says: James H Burton form IV Harrison College 1939, and it has his address as…
A BajanThings 101 follow-up on AI Chatbots in 2025: ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok & Claude. Why you MUST fact check the output…
Back in 2023 we published: A BajanThings 101 on AI Chatbots: ChatGPT and Bard. Why you MUST fact check the output… Two years on in March 2025 and in June 2025 we have updated our AI chatbot experiment. The reference research source we used to compare the AI output was the work we had done…
Flying TUI to Barbados
Flying TUI from the UK to Barbados is a great alternative to the likes of BA and Virgin. In 1997 my wife and I went out to Asia. We thought we were going for a two or three year stint. We stayed for nearly 20 years. In 2014 my wife was posted back to the…
In praise of the WordPress block theme: Ollie Pro
This post about transitioning to the WordPress Ollie block theme is part of a series where we share our learnings on managing a hobby website. It’s intended for WordPress hobby website administrators. We’ve invested a lot of time in BajanThings. We are often praised for how professional the BajanThings website looks. And, we are often…
Barbados Film Unit – Cinemagazine 63
Cinemagazine 63 was a film by The Ministry of Education Barbados which was produced by the Barbados Film Unit highlighting five key events of 1963 in a cine magazine format. It can be found in The AP Archive (Associated Press Archive) which contains historical and contemporary film and video dating back to 1893. The AP Archive sister channel,…
F/O Robert Allen “Shorty” Stewart RAAF 1919 to 2004
This is the fourth in the series of BajanThings posts that profile Errol Walton Barrow’s crew in RAF 88 Squadron, “B” Flight, Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) during World War II. That crew consisted of: English pilot Andrew Leslie Cole and two Australian rear Wireless operator and Air Gunners (WAGs): Leo Leslie Schultz and Robert…
Barbados “land of the flying fish” luggage stickers of the 1960s
In the 1960s and 1970s Barbados flying fish luggage stickers used to be given away at tourist entry and exit ports together with other welcome pack items such as tourism styled maps. During the 1950s and 1960s tourist literature often referred to Barbados as: “the land of the flying fish” which is why luggage stickers…
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BajanThings
Bajan history. Interesting Bajan people. Hiking in Barbados and Overseas. International Travel…