Introduction
Losing a loved one in tragic circumstances creates raw grief that is unimaginable, especially when this is a heinous crime where an innocent person is murdered just for the colour of their skin. Racism in any form is abhorrent and despicable when someone makes the calculated decision to murder someone based solely on their deep-rooted hatred of a multicultural society. It is a stain on the human race that is made even worse when the relatives of the victim never receive any form of justice for their loss.
London, in the 1950s, was still recovering from the devastating results of World War II. As the country tried to recover, it reached out to many countries, including Caribbean ones, for workers to fill the employment gap. This caused friction amongst a small section of society, who saw this as an influx of immigration. An idea that has never left British history. Unlike so much today, black people walked down the street in fear. The whispers and piercing looks were frightening, and it was sadly only a matter of time before this racial hatred boiled out of control. Oswald Mosley’s black shirt movement was an early example of this. A movement that wanted a white society and the country to get rid of brilliant and talented people from across the globe.
A Deplorable Day
When Kelso Cochrane came to England in 1954, his heart must have been pumping in anticipation of a better life. A marriage breakup in his native Antigua had led him to move to the USA. However, he was later deported back to Antigua for breaching his visa and exceeding its time length. A carpenter by trade, Cochrane planned to save as much money as possible to attend law school. So, to fulfil this ambition, he decided to travel to England.
Arriving in Plymouth, he boarded a train to Paddington. He then travelled to Notting Hill Gate, where he set up a home. However, he could never have imagined what would happen on 17 May 1959. After fracturing his thumb at work, Kelso went to Paddington General Hospital in Harrow Road. A now-closed hospital with care transferred to St Mary’s in Praed Street. Leaving the hospital after seeking treatment, while walking home, he was set upon by a group of five or six white youths. They encircled him and started punching and kicking him. One of them jumped on his back. Two Jamaican men who nearby ran over to help. They helped him to his feet and got him into a taxi, taking him to St Charles’ Hospital in North Kensington. At the time, Kelso wasn’t bleeding heavily, but he had been stabbed in the heart with a thin blade. When he arrived, Cochrane went into deep shock and died just before 1 am.
Tensions
The news of the death made the newspapers later the same day with the headline “Murder in Notting Hill”—a torch paper to ignite unrest. There had only been riots in the area in the summer of 1958. Trouble that didn’t end until September of that year. The Union Movement of Sir Oswald Mosley had set up an office in Notting Hill Gate with the slogan “campaigning for white interests”. So after this death, which is considered to have been the first racially motivated murder, the police had immense pressure on them to be seen to be tackling the situation. A police inquiry was set up under the leadership of Detective Superintendent Ian Forbes-Leith, with twenty officers in his team. The investigation found that a party was taking place close to where Kelso was murdered on Southam Street. Several people were brought in for questioning, including 20-year-old Patrick Digby, a merchant seaman and 24-year-old John Breagan. Both were later released without charge. Forbes-Leith later concluded that this wasn’t a racial attack but, instead, a robbery.
As the police investigation wound down, Kelso’s coffin was driven down the streets of Notting Hill on 6 June 1959 to his resting place at Kensal Green Cemetary, with the streets lined with mourners black and white. A funeral was paid for by donations from the Inter-Racial Friendship Co-ordinating Council, which activist Claudia Jones had set up. She continued her silent protesting at Westminster for years after. This father, who had two daughters in America, was gone, but the fight for justice wasn’t over.
In 2006, Kelso’s older brother, Stanley, came to the UK to try and find out who killed his brother. Neither Patrick Digby nor John Breagan was prepared to meet Stanley, and when he went to see the police, he was only shown an abridged version of the file. However, Pat Digby’s stepdaughter, Susie Read, posed the question to her stepfather. An argument ensued, and he said that no one could prove it but replied yes when asked if he killed Kelso. Digby died in 2007.
When Stanley eventually managed to speak to John Breagan, he was told that he had left the party to look for girls while Digby had gone to fight. When they told the police their alibis, they were told to straighten out their stories. Breagan died in 2019.
Kelso’s daughter Josephine has now taken up the search to find out the truth about her father’s death. Although she never knew him growing up, she still wants to find out everything about her father’s death before she dies. However, the added problem is this is now treated as a cold case, and all the files relating to the murder have been transferred to the National Archives at Kew. These files remain restricted until 2054, and a Freedom of Information request has already been declined as the police claim the case is still live.
