Cyril Ewart Lionel Grant

Cyril Ewart Lionel ‘Cy’ Grant was born on 8 November 1919 at Beterverwagting in British Guiana (now Guyana). In 1941 he travelled to Britain and volunteered for the Royal Air Force, one of the first wave of aircrew recruited from the Caribbean, and was commissioned and trained as a navigator. He joined No. 103 Squadron, flying Avro Lancasters from RAF Elsham Wolds in Lincolnshire as part of the bomber offensive.

On only his third operation, during the Battle of the Ruhr in 1943, his Lancaster was shot down over the Netherlands. Grant baled out, was captured, and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner, held in Stalag Luft III. After the war he qualified as a barrister in 1950, and — finding the legal profession closed to him — went on to a notable career as an actor, singer and writer, becoming the first Black person to host his own series on British television. He died in London on 13 February 2010.