Sam Estwick; Radar expert fought racism, then the war as one of the first black men in the RCAF
Hyfler/Rosner
Radar expert fought racism, then the war
Cape Bretoner refused menial jobs and became one of the
first black men in the RCAF
BUZZ BOURDON
Special to the Globe and Mail
May 2, 2008
OTTAWA -- When German submarines began attacking Allied
ships off the coast of Nova Scotia at the start of the
Second World War, Sam Estwick decided to do something about
it.
His family lived in Cape Breton, and the enemy seemed to be
getting a bit too close for comfort. So Mr. Estwick got on
the train to Halifax in the summer of 1940 and presented
himself at a Royal Canadian Air Force recruiting office. He
wanted to be a fighter pilot, and with his high-school
marks, he thought he had a good chance.
The RCAF recruiting officer didn't see it that way. In fact,
he refused to even speak to Mr. Estwick, who was born in
Barbados but arrived in Canada at the age of 4.
"I was told that I could not be accepted because of my
colour. I tried to point out that I wanted to help fight our
common enemy. This made no difference. He told the clerk
that he could not trust 'a man of colour,' " Mr. Estwick
wrote decades later.
Many people might have given up, but Mr. Estwick, a stubborn
and patriotic man who knew he had a right to fight like
everyone else, became even more determined to enlist. He was
as good a Canadian as anyone else, a loyal subject of King
George VI. Wasn't the war about fighting the Nazi views of
racial superiority?
Mr. Estwick contacted his federal MP, Clarence Gillis, and
the matter was raised in the House of Commons. RCAF brass
and politicians passed the buck.
There were fewer than 20,000 blacks living in Canada then,
and the RCAF was looking for recruits of "pure European
descent," a recruiting booklet stated. In the minds of
senior officers, black men may have been suitable for manual
labour - No. 2 Construction Battalion, which was entirely
black besides the officers, had served overseas in the First
World War - but RCAF fliers were to remain lily white.
The brass had obviously never heard of William Hall, a black
Nova Scotian who served with Britain's Royal Navy and won
the Victoria Cross at Lucknow, India, during the mutiny
there in 1857.
"Orders were put into place to deny blacks enrolment as air
crew and to ensure they could be accepted as ground crew
only after rigorous screening at the national headquarters
level. This internal policy was officially sanctioned at the
highest levels of the RCAF. Leaders, likely reasonable men
in other respects, held the incredible belief that blacks
were unsuitable for air crew training. Blacks were thought
suitable for ground crew, but only if they were adaptable to
life in an all-white environment. The racist practices of
the RCAF continued well into the 1950s, although a
government policy prohibited it," wrote Dennis and Leslie
McLaughlin in For My Country, a 2004 National Defence
Department booklet.
The RCAF wrote Mr. Estwick on Feb. 27, 1941, telling him
that "there does not appear to be any trade or category for
which you would be suited."
Three months later, however, while Mr. Estwick was cooling
his heels back home in Cape Breton, Charles Gavan Power,
minister of national defence for air, wrote Mr. Gillis to
say there were "no regulations existing at the present time
which will debar any coloured person from service in the
RCAF."
Mr. Gillis seemed fed up with the runaround, too. On June 2,
1941, he wrote in a letter to Mr. Estwick that low-ranking
officers "will practise discrimination unless the Negro boy
is prepared to do what you are doing - assert his rights as
a Canadian citizen and to work through those who are
prepared to see that democracy functions and is put into
practice, rather than talk about it as an abstract
principle, as many do today."
Finally, the RCAF offered Mr. Estwick two choices: He could
be a waiter, presumably in an officers' mess, or a general
dutyman, performing menial jobs. Sticking to his guns, he
refused both options. He wanted to be a pilot or radio
technician, "for which I had the prerequisite basic
qualifications."
In December, 1941, the RCAF finally cracked. Mr. Estwick was
offered a place in a school for radio direction finding,
later known as radar. The tide had turned in his war against
racism - he was one of the first three black men to join the
RCAF, his family believes. Now it was time to start training
for the shooting war.
Curiously, weeks later, Mr. Estwick was told that if he
applied again for air crew, he might make it as a pilot.
"Well, this RDF thing was too exciting to give up," he
wrote. "Not only was it in a field that I wanted, radio, but
also it appeared to be so secret - no one else even talked
about it."
Samuel Malcolm Estwick grew up down the road from No. 6 mine
in Glace Bay, N.S. His father, a miner, died when Sam was 9,
making him the man of the family. Excelling in school and
the boxing ring, he also loved the drill and discipline of
the school's cadet corps. One day, during an important
inspection, the reviewing officer told Mr. Estwick that he
would make a fine officer. Those words proved prophetic.
During the Depression, Mr. Estwick did anything he could to
help his mother and three sisters. He sold newspapers,
worked in the coal mine and drove a truck. He didn't neglect
his education, studying radio and electrical engineering at
night.
After finishing at the top of his class in the RCAF radar
course, Mr. Estwick shipped out for the war, one of 5,000
Canadian radar technicians lent to the British. On his way
to India by ship, he found that racism was pervasive. In
Durban, South Africa, a bartender refused to serve him, so
Mr. Estwick, who still had a boxer's fast hands and
attitude, figured things were about to get interesting.
Suddenly, a British commando stepped in. " 'Hold on, Canada.
That guy's more my size.' And he proceeded to put [him]
down. He didn't have to. I could have done it," Mr. Estwick
told the Ottawa Citizen decades later.
Mr. Estwick spent the next three years in India, Libya,
Egypt and Britain with Royal Air Force and RCAF squadrons,
making a significant contribution to the Allied victory as a
pioneer in both radar and civil rights.
After the war, he decided to remain in the air force's
telecommunications branch. That was good for the service,
because Corporal Estwick was the "only radar mechanic still
available in the RCAF who is thoroughly familiar with the
maintenance of radar equipments. [He] is exceptionally well
qualified," Group Captain Walmsley wrote on Jan. 28, 1946.
Over the next decade, he instructed at Clinton, Ont., and
worked at various radar sites, besides climbing the
promotion ladder to Warrant Officer Class 1 - making him
possibly the first black man to achieve the RCAF's highest
non-commissioned rank. In 1955, he was finally commissioned
as an officer. He retired in 1963 as a flight lieutenant,
the RCAF equivalent of captain.
After working in the electronics industry, Mr. Estwick
founded his own company in 1980. He volunteered with many
community groups, including the Senior Citizens Council of
Ottawa-Carleton.
Despite his struggles against racism, Mr. Estwick was not a
bitter man, according to his daughter Leslie.
"My dad had a really clear idea of what was right," she
said. "He defended his country and family. It was the right
thing to do. He was a family man, a really strong Canadian.
If he was to describe himself, black would be well down the
list after Canadian, family man, military man."
SAM ESTWICK
Samuel Malcolm Estwick was born Oct. 8, 1915, in Padmore
Village, Barbados. He died in Ottawa of natural causes on
Feb. 13. He was 92. He is survived by Elizabeth, his wife of
50 years, plus daughter Leslie and son Eric. He was
predeceased by his first wife, Evelyn, and son Brett.