This is the story of how forestry workers from Belize traveled 5,000 miles to Scotland to help the British fight World War II

During World War II, many British colonies and former colonies were asked to help the British war effort. The United Kingdom’s resources were being drained by the ongoing war. There was a shortage of labor due to so many men being recruited to fight the Nazis. Among other things, the country needed men to cut timber, which was used for a wide range of uses in the wartime economy.
Commonwealth members asked for help in the war effort
A Commonwealth-wide recruitment drive was launched. Both Canada and British Honduras (as Belize was known at the time) sent volunteers to make the precarious trip to the U.K.
Even though it was a small country located over 5,000 miles away, British Honduras answered the call. It sent 900 men from the British Honduran Forestry Unit to help cut timber in Scotland’s forests.
Contributions commemorated in Scotland
On July 25, 2022, the legacy of these men, as well as approximately 6,000 others from around the Commonwealth, was commemorated when the Commonwealth Foresters’ Memorial was opened at Pollok Park in Glasgow, Scotland.
At the time, the journey across the Atlantic was perilous. For two weeks, the men would have to deal with not just cold temperatures but also the danger of encounters with Nazi U-boats.
Once they arrived in Scotland, the men were divided among several camps throughout the countryside. Though coming from a tropical climate, and therefore not accustomed to cold weather, they endured the harsh Scottish weather and very basic living conditions while they did hard physical labor. One other thing making their lives harder – was the insular culture. The locals tended to be suspicious of strangers, and there was also the added feature of racial tensions.
The men arrived in two contingents. The first had 500 men that arrived in September 1941, with an additional 400 arriving in November of 1942. Nine of the men who came to Scotland from Belize never went back. Eight of them died. The ninth was Sam Martinez of Punta Gorda. He chose to stay in Edinburgh after the war, where he raised a family.
The story of Sam Martinez
He was a 32-year-old woodcutter who was used to hard manual labor. He had felled broad-trunked mahogany trees at home.
He was born in 1910 and was 32 when he joined the BHFU. He lived to be 106 years old, dying in 2016. He is survived by six children, nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. He started off working as a cook in British Honduras House in Edinburgh, then later worked at a variety of jobs. Amazingly, he continued to work until he was 94 years old and became the Hibernian FC’s oldest fan.
Before his death, Martinez had talked about his memories.
“The war started and we, being Britishers, were asked to come to do forestry work,” he said. “We were divided all over Scotland. Some were in different camps to do forestry work for the war effort. And that’s what brought us here.”
One of Martinez’s daughters, Carol Martinez, and his grandson, Yutsil Hoyo Diaz Martinez, attended the ceremony. Màiri McAllen, Scotland’s Minister for the Environment, and Jordan Craig, the First Secretary at the Belize High Commission in London, joined them.
The grandson, Yutsil Martinez, filmed and recorded his grandfather’s stories over the years.
He explained how his grandfather first traveled from Belize to New Orleans by boat. Then he traveled to New York and finally across to Great Britain.
“They had to zigzag across the Atlantic because there were U-boats and Nazi submarines.” They could have been bombed at any time. Their cabins were at the bottom of the boat.
They weren’t used to the cold weather and ended up wearing all three of their uniforms at the same time to keep warm.
Martinez was sent to Ullapool where it was freezing. The locals were not welcoming. They had never seen dark-skinned people before.
According to Martinez’s grandson, “a lot of people ran away from them and closed their shops. They were screaming ‘the coalmen are here.’ They had to interact with this society that was not welcoming.”
After the war
The forestry unit was disbanded before the war was over, in 1943. The loggers were given the option of being repatriated to their countries of origin or remain in the U.K.
The memorial includes a plaque that commemorates the legacy left by Martinez and the other Belizean foresters. It also features a variety of 100 trees that honor the Commonwealth’s contribution. One species, liquidambar, was planted in particular to honor Belize.
The memorial not only highlights the historical connection between Scotland and Belize but also serves as a living tribute to the selfless service of the Belizean foresters.