Published by It was 1950 I had been living in England for just over three years, I was lonely and had no one apart from my girlfriends family, and a few acquaintances around London. Some of these acquaintances were noted people – both black and white – from the English middle classes. I now lived near Victoria Street, not far from Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Horse Guards Parade and 10 Downing Street, I was in the middle of the aristocracy, but continued to work in North London.
The people I associated with at the time were not only leaders from Jamaica, but people who came from outstanding backgrounds who were trying their best to keep themselves above the level of intelligence practised by the so-called host community.
One of my friends at that time was Michael Manley, he was someone I had grown up with in Jamaica and although I did not know him well I knew his father and almost all his fathers associates. He became the Right Honourable Norman Washington Manley, the then leader of the opposition. Michael was at the London School of Economics together with Rolley Simms, who returned to Jamaica but was quickly arrested by the authorities and incarcerated for speaking about British Imperialism.
What I remember most from that time is the racism, which was not called racism but the colour bar, as if the colour bar was that simple. In Jamaica we were all Christians and regular Churchgoers, some of us were Catholics but I and most of my family and friends were members of the High Church of England
It was quite obvious as Christians in Britain we would try to follow the kind of life we led in the Caribbean.
We decided to go to Church, we were living close to a large Church in Warwick Avenue, Maida Vale, Padding ton, a Church that no longer exists today. It was the High Church of England which we were used to so we started to attend services there each Sunday. The first week we went it was four of us everybody looked at us as if we were coming from Mars, when Communion time came they left us out, they did not give us Communion. We saw some empty seats in the Church we kept going and gradually we saw that the Church was becoming more and more empty. One Sunday after we had been attending the Church for about three months, my friends Albert McCoy, Oscar Jones, Tina Borova and myself went to the Church as usual. We had noticed sometimes no one would sit next to us, but by this time we were used to being ostracised by our fellow Christians.
What happened this day left us puzzled, bewildered and completely disillusioned. At the end of the Church service on our way out the Vicar met us at the door I hope you will not mind me saying this,’ he said, I know you are Christians where you come from, and I know you would like to serve God, please do not take offence at what I am about to say, but if you wish to come here please do not come too often, or find another Church to attend. When we asked why he replied, Can’t you see? You are chasing away our parishioners,’ He pointed out the congregation was dwindling week by week since we had started attending the Church.
You can imagine how we must have felt, dejectedly we walked away, in our hearts we knew we had no intention of attending any other Church for worship in this country again. We knew the God we went to worship in that Church did not go there, so why should we?
I have since learned of other people like myself who suffered the same experience. 
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I am so sorry to hear about what you suffered, yes suffered, while trying to worship. This is not Christianity, dear Sir. This is hypocrisy in it’s ugliest stance. It goes far beyond racism-the way you all were treated when you attended this church. Ask me if I care if the damn place blew up!
Thank you for a poignantly beautiful article. I wish the eyes of the world would open up!