In the 1930s and 1940s the Jamaican-born Dr Harold Moody was more than just a popular family doctor. He was an ambassador for Britain’s black community and an important figurehead who – with his organisation the League of Coloured Peoples – campaigned to improve the situation for black people in Britain, especially during the Second World War. In 1972 Edward Scobie described Moody in his book Black Britannia as a man whose leadership and strength of character won the respect of English people and carried the League through many difficult periods, gaining it the respect and admiration of white and black alike. Scobie adds that Dr Moody’s counterpart could be seen in the charismatic African American leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

The League’s influence as a pressure group, with Dr Moody as their leader, intensified during the Second World War. Thousands of black workers and military personnel came to Britain from colonies in West Africa and the Caribbean to support the war effort, and this increased the workload of Dr Moody and the League, but it also gave him and the organisation greater purpose and influence.

At the height of the London Blitz, in addition to his work as a GP in Peckham, south east London, and a campaigner, Dr Moody continued to produce the League’s monthly News Letter, and in an editorial he said: ‘our work, such as the preparation of this letter, has to be carried on to the hum of hostile planes and the boom of friendly guns.’

Towards the end of 1940, Dr Moody accepted an invitation to visit Buckingham Palace. On 12 December 1940 Her Majesty the Queen received a fleet of thirty-five mobile canteens in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. The mobile canteens had been purchased and provided by the colonies on behalf of Britain. Dr Moody’s life-long friend and biographer, David A. Vaughan described this important occasion: ‘During the ceremony Moody was presented to the Queen [who] made enquiries concerning the welfare of the people of his race and displayed a real interest in them.’ The League’s News Letter said: ‘The canteens will serve hot drinks and food to people in London and other cities who have been bombed out of their homes, or who, during the winter, have to spend long and anxious nights in shelters away from their homes.’

In 1995 Dr Harold Moody was honoured with an English Heritage Blue Plaque. It can be seen at his former home: 164 Queen’s Road, Peckham, London SE15

This information is from Stephen Bourne's books Mother Country: Britain's Black Community on the Home Front 1939-45 (The History Press, 2010) , The Motherland Calls: Britain's Black Servicemen and Women 1939-45 (The History Press, 2012) and War to Windrush: Black Women in Britain 1939-48 (Jacaranda Books, 2018).

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