History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

This is a shocking story about racism which led to a landmark legal case and is a tribute to a remarkable man who lived in Kilburn at the end of his life. The famous cricketer, Learie Constantine was born in Trinidad in 1901 into a family of cricketers, including his father and a brother. He played for Trinidad and Tobago from 1921, and the West Indies from 1923 to 1939, including several test matches against England. The cricket commentator, John Arlot later said that during his first tour of England in 1923, ‘Constantine learnt much that he never forgot, by no means all of it about cricket: and he recognised the game as his only possible ladder to the kind of life he wanted’. Eventually he became a professional cricketer after struggling hard to make a living in Trinidad, with no permanent job to support his wife Norma and daughter Gloria. His bowling and batting performances in England in 1928 got him noticed. The way Constantine played set him apart from the restrained form of cric...