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I am starting this post to-day, having done some research on the topic, but there are things I still have to check on, so I may have to work on this for some more time! It was Robin's Facebook post that prompted my interest -  - so now I am putting up a page here of my own recollections, and of whatever else I have found out.
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Yesterday I opened an email that had been sent from England on December 10th by a volunteer at the Seaford Museum in Sussex which cares for the graves of Commonwealth service men of the First World War who are buried in the cemetery there. The request was for any information about Harold Constantine Grubb, an 18-year-old Jamaican member of the British West India Regiment who had died in Seaford - on December 13, 1915 - exactly 100 years ago tomorrow.
I worked at finding information on Private Grubb until the early hours of the morning, and did find some information which I will put on the page I have started, linked to this post, and will put more as I find it. As we, in our own times, get the reports of more people dying as the result of various conflicts and struggles for power, we remember all the generations, of young men especially, who have died throughout human history in what are still essentially 'tribal' struggles of one sort or another - 'when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?' Harold Constantine Grubb I've been checking out several topics, while not coping too well with the hot weather. The name 'Pelong Pen' struck me as interesting - I had never seen or heard it before, and I can't work out just where around Half-Way-Tree it was; if anyone can fill me in on its location I shall be grateful.
The name 'Pilon' was also unfamiliar, but has apparently been in Jamaica since the 1790s at least - again, it would be very interesting to get more information about the family - I have found out little, so far. Found all this intriguing - hope it may be of some interest.  a fascinating plan of Port Royal from 1667 - I had never seen it before, and it is very suitable to be posted for June 7th! http://jamaica-history.weebly.com/june-7.html
Nothing to do with Jamaica - just an 18th century woman who lived much of her life as a man - quite fascinating!
Theodora Grahn/Dr de Verdion I have now put most of the information I have found about Thomas Day on a separate page - http://jamaicansabroad.weebly.com/-thomas-day.html - I hope to add some more material on the convict ships that took the convicts from the UK to the other side of the earth, and also about the penal settlements at Sarah Island and Port Arthur where Thomas Day spent nearly a quarter of a century. It is not easy to access the lives of ordinary people centuries ago, so it is always great to get even a glimpse of someone's life and the circumstances they had to cope with.
While I was looking for something quite different, I came across a reference to a man called Thomas Day, who was a Black Jamaican, born a slave in Spanish Town, managed to escape to England, but ended up being convicted and sent to a convict settlement in Tasmania, in 1821.   This is comes from a book about the life of an English Quaker called George Washington Walker who did some missionary journeys and ended up in Hobart, Tasmania, where he encountered Day. I have more information, so I hope to put up a page about Thomas Day, and possibly other Jamaicans who also went nearly to the ends of the earth. I already have a page about 'Billy Blue' who ended up in Sydney, so Thomas Day and the others may also arrive on the Jamaicans Abroad site.
Once more I'm trying something new - I wonder if it will do any better than previous such efforts! It will be another space for me to talk about Jamaican history, especially the periods and aspects that have interested me most, and to provide links to pages I am currently working on - as for instance 'Maroons in Jamaica'
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