@jobellerina I think you asked our campaign if we had a list of names for legal tender.
We sent a 2nd letter to Chancellor suggesting a Service to the Nation set of coins around military service and the home front (so you could include Covid heroes)
We sent a 2nd letter to Chancellor suggesting a Service to the Nation set of coins around military service and the home front (so you could include Covid heroes)
We gave six examples of names for our Service to the Nation heroes but also asked for public nominations also. We have waited so long for ethnic minority legal tender and let’s give communities a chance to nominate their own heroes.
Who were our six on a list to @RishiSunak ?
Mary Seacole, the Jamaican British nurse who had self funded her way to the Crimea from England in 1850s to help the fighting forces and opened up a field hospital. She has been voted the greatest Black Briton and is of huge importance to nursing.
For more information on Mary Seacole see @seacolestatue @ppvernon for more info. @RacingGreenUK will soon have a film out starring @gugumbatharaw and @samworthingtown , directed by Charlie Stratton.
Noor Inayat Khan GC. She volunteered for the SOE unit set up by Churchill. A Muslim WWII spy, she was the first female radio operator to be airlifted to enemy occupied France. She stayed on in Paris despite told to return because the Gestapo had decimated the French spy network
By doing so, she saved countless lives. Noor was captured but never revealed any intelligence. Her last words before being killed were Liberté. She is one of only 4 women in history to be awarded the George Cross.
You might have seen the recent Dr Who episode that brought her to a younger audience. More information can be found via the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust and her biographer @shrabanibasu_ / @SmitaTharoor / @birdlanguage
Krystyna Scarbek OBE GM aka Christine Glanville was a Polish-British spy of the SOE during WWII. She was the first female British agent to serve in the field & the longest serving female wartime agents. She has been described as the “bravest of the brave”.
In 1944, she was part of the Jockey Network in France headed by Francis Cammaerts that organised French resistance fighters. In the Alps she convinced Polish garrison soldiers to join French resistance. She then managed to secure the release of now captured Cammaerts & Sorensen.
More information can be found on her by reading the biography by @claremulley The Spy Who Loved
Walter Tull was one of the first Black professional footballers & first Black officer despite rules at the time forbidding someone of colour being commissioned as an officer. When WWI broke out he abandoned his footballing career to join the 17th Battallion of Middlesex Regiment.
On the Italian Front, he twice led his Company across River Piaeve on a raid & brought all his troops back. He was commended for gallantry & despite being recommended for the Military Cross, never got it. He was killed in the Somme Valley but like many, his body was not recovered
Rifleman Kulbir Thapir, a WWI soldier,was the first Nepalese Gurkha recipient of Victoria Cross for this act: In 1915 in Fauquissart, France, he was wounded but found another wounded Brit soldier behind 1st line German trench. He stayed with him all night & dragged him to safety
He returned and brought back two other wounded Gurkha soldiers. He then went back and brought back the British soldier, carrying him on his back in enemy fire. A film on his life: Gurkha, Beneath the Bravery written & directed by @pradeepshahi will soon be released.
Sepoy of the 129th Baluchis, and machine gunner Khudadad Khan VC, a WWII soldier, was the first soldier of the British Indian Army to receive the Victoria Cross.
In 1914, he arrived on the French frontline as part of 20K Indian troops sent to relieve exhausted British troops to stop the Germans capturing the ports of Boulogne & Nieuwpoort.
The 129th Baluchis faced the Germans in Hollebeke and outnumbered by the Germans 5 to 1. Many Indians were killed but his machine gun crew kept fighting until they were overrun by the Germans and everyone was bayoneted or shot. He was the only survivor by playing dead
This bravery by the Baluchi unit gave the Allies enough time for reinforcements to arrive and stop the Germans from reaching the vital ports.
Service to the Nation is a uniting theme. These heroes served Queen & Country & for their time, overcame hurdles in life. @TomTugendhat @labourlewis are far more versed in military history than I but they can attest to the inspirational stories that unite & should be better known
The history of banknotes & coins has excluded ethnic minority Brits so far. Legal tender is supposed to honour those who contributed to British society, history, culture or economy. We have never had an explicit military theme. We wanted to raise awareness of these heroes.
It has taken three years but absolutely thrilled that @RishiSunak @JohnGlenUK @ClaireCoutinho agree with us and the Chancellor has asked the @RoyalMintUK to draw up plans based on our proposal. Thank you @hmtreasury team / @HMTAllegra
We have also suggested one further and final banknote after the £50 (which was meant to be the last physical note). This could be a category like Changemakers that could include politicians and activists like suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh.
