Imperial Flights and Encounters: recovering the experiences of People of Colour in Scottish wartime aviation, 1914-1945

这个博士学位将是第一次持续尝试恢复和重建两次世界大战期间苏格兰皇家空军中有色人员的存在。该项目旨在展示1914-1945年间在苏格兰飞行的人们的多样性，了解这些人的贡献和经历，并通过物质文化和档案研究来证明这一点。它将涉及对苏格兰航空收藏的重新检查，以考虑这些故事如何或可能如何在博物馆收藏和展示中呈现。1945年空军部的一份备忘录估计有422名加勒比人、西非人和南亚人在二战期间担任英国皇家空军的机组人员，另有3900人担任地勤人员。在第一次世界大战中，来自印度的男子也在皇家飞行队中发挥了积极作用。1932年，印度皇家空军成立，在整个第二次世界大战期间，来自印度的男女在英国和印度接受训练和服役。很难知道整个大英帝国在英国皇家空军服役的男性和女性的确切数字，因为种族并没有在注册时自动记录下来。在苏格兰的东财富机场，现在是国家飞行博物馆，从个人记录的证词和机场自己的操作记录簿中可以得知，人们从世界各地来接受培训，包括来自特立尼达和牙买加的飞行员和机组人员。他们与苏格兰的联系从最初到达，到作为中队的一部分驻扎在苏格兰，依附于空军基地或前往苏格兰接受训练。然而，他们对战争的贡献并没有反映在国家飞行博物馆或苏格兰任何其他航空博物馆所讲述的历史中。该项目旨在恢复和重建来自英国和国际博物馆、档案馆、服务协会和其他文化团体的有色人种服务人员的叙述和故事。它将扩大我们对苏格兰战争经历的理解，苏格兰与大西洋奴隶制的历史联系，持久的帝国关系以及相互的流散遗产。除了分析苏格兰地方的叙述和人们的历史，这个项目也是一个确定现存物质文化的机会，以加强收藏，并为苏格兰国家博物馆未来的展览做出贡献。该项目将符合将人们的经历置于研究前沿的当代军事史学。此外，它还将平行当前的博物馆学理论，涉及如何利用博物馆藏品来增强它们所服务的社区的能力，以及博物馆如何越来越多地成为自己权利的积极分子。与此相关，博士学位的研究结果将与博物馆协会非殖民化博物馆和授权收藏运动中概述的目标密切相关。

This PhD will be the first sustained attempt to recover and reconstruct the presence of Personnel of Colour within the RAF in Scotland during the two world wars. This project aims to demonstrate the diversity of people connected to flying in Scotland between 1914-1945, understand the contributions made and experiences of those individuals, and evidence this through material culture and archival research. It will involve a re-examination of Scottish aviation collections in order to consider how such stories are, or could be, represented in museum collections and displays. In 1945 an Air Ministry memorandum estimated that 422 Caribbean, West African and South Asian people had served as aircrew with the RAF during the Second World War, with a further 3,900 serving as ground crew. In the First World War men from India also played active roles in the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Indian Airforce was formed in 1932 with men and women from India being trained and serving in the UK and India throughout the Second World War. It is difficult to know the exact figures of men and women from across the British Empire that served with the RAF, as ethnicity was not automatically recorded on enrolment. At East Fortune airfield in Scotland, now the National Museum of Flight, it is known from personal recorded testimonies and from the airfield's own Operations Record Book that people came to be trained from all around the world, including pilots and aircrew from Trinidad and Jamaica. Their connections to Scotland range from initial arrival, to being based in Scotland as part of a squadron, attachment to air bases or travelling to Scotland for training. However, their contributions to the war effort are not reflected in the histories told at the National Museum of Flight nor at any of the other aviation museums in Scotland. This project aims to recover and reconstruct narratives and stories of service personnel of colour from across UK and international museums, archives, service associations and other cultural societies. It will broaden our understanding of the experience of war in Scotland, Scotland's historic connections with Atlantic slavery, enduring imperial relationships and reciprocal diasporic legacies. As well as analysing narratives and peopling the histories of places in Scotland, this project is also an opportunity to identify surviving material culture to enhance the collections and contribute to future displays at National Museums Scotland.The project will fit in line with contemporary military historiography which puts the experiences of people at the forefront of the research. In addition, it will also parallel current museology theory relating to how museum collections can be used to empower the communities they serve and how museums are increasingly becoming activists in their own right. Relating to this, the findings of this PhD will link closely to the goals outlined in the Museum Association's Decolonising Museums and Empowering Collections campaigns.