{"id":984,"date":"2015-11-08T17:30:41","date_gmt":"2015-11-08T17:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westindiacommittee.org\/historyheritageculture\/?page_id=984"},"modified":"2020-10-23T10:21:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T09:21:08","slug":"trinidad-and-tobago","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/westindiacommittee.org\/historyheritageculture\/topics\/caribbeansgreatwar\/trinidad-and-tobago\/","title":{"rendered":"Trinidad and Tobago"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The old coat of arms of Trinidad and Tobago<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/blockquote>\n

Trinidad was annexed\u00a0by Britain under the Treaty of Amiens with France in 1802. In\u00a01889, Trinidad and the neighbouring island of Tobago were united,\u00a0and has since been known as Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad was Britain’s second largest colony in the West Indies with 350,000 inhabitants and a capital with 60,000 people, Port of Spain, home to the largest wireless station in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

Trinidad had achieved great wealth from oil and became a major provider of the resource for the Admiralty. The island provided millions of gallons of oil for\u00a0the Royal Navy who had a significant presence on the island. The perceived threat to Trinidad was high due to the value of the colony and its lack of defence.\u00a0Trinidad and Tobago also\u00a0provided Britain with an array of other\u00a0goods\u00a0for the war effort. In October 1914, the Legislative Council voted to\u00a0send\u00a0\u00a340,820 worth of cocoa to the services overseas.\u00a0\u00a0An Emergency War Tax was implemented during the war and\u00a0\u2018Patriotic fund\u2019 supported a range of other\u00a0relief funds, raising over \u00a310,000. A ladies committee single handedly raised a staggering\u00a0\u00a330,000 for war charities. Trinidad and Tobago gave a total of\u00a0\u00a3480,000 during the war, a colony with an annual revenue of\u00a0\u00a3970,000 in 1914.<\/p>\n

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Cocoa sent from Trinidad was used to make chocolates in Britain, like these seen in the West India Committee Circular 1915.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local forces consisted of 100 men of the Light Horse, 160 men of the Volunteer Force \u00a0742 men of the Constabulary Force alongside numerous, smaller groups tasked with defending the islands. 458 soldiers from the islands enlisted in regiments in Britain, Canada and even France.<\/p>\n

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Trinidadian troops in London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Between September 1915 and December 1917, 40 officers and 1,438 men from Trinidad and Tobago volunteered to serve\u00a0in the British West Indies Regiment, although some sources state as many as 5,000 enlisted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Trinidad was annexed\u00a0by Britain under the Treaty of Amiens with France in 1802. In\u00a01889, Trinidad and the neighbouring island of Tobago were united,\u00a0and has since been known as Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad was Britain’s second largest colony in the West Indies with 350,000 inhabitants and a capital with 60,000 people, Port of Spain, home to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-templates\/page-topics.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-984","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrinidad and Tobago - West Indian History, Heritage and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about the contributions of Trinidadian and Tobagonian volunteers, citizens and government to the British war effort in the First World War.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westindiacommittee.org\/historyheritageculture\/topics\/caribbeansgreatwar\/trinidad-and-tobago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trinidad and Tobago - 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