Enos Phillips

Enos was born in Chapmans Village, St Vincent. He came to High Wycombe in 1967 aged seven, leaving behind his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Enos joined parents and siblings in England who he did not really know.

I did not know how far away those I had left behind were at first. I did not see them again for 10 years.

I didn’t really settle into the family until I was about 14 or 15. From a child’s point of view I was not treated badly but there wasn’t any kind of warmth or affection.

Enos’s childhood passport.

Enos’ parents on their wedding day.

School in the Caribbean had included a lot of rote learning, reading and writing, with lessons outside. In England he found children did not want to learn. Enos enjoyed secondary school more, meeting teachers who cared about their subjects and gave extra lessons to help him through O-levels.

At primary school one teacher did try to humiliate me. He used to refer to me as witch doctor. I was not fully aware of what he was trying to do. I then went to Hatter’s Lane, a “sink” school…

Nothing much was expected of any children coming out of that school… black or white parents… didn’t get involved. They were not concerned as long as you stayed out of trouble.

Enos went to Wycombe College and then studied Computer and Communication Engineering at University, working in the summer holidays as a labourer at Broom and Wade. His first job out of University was in Aylesbury as a printed circuit board assembler, and then junior design engineer. He then moved to work as junior design engineer for a test equipment company called Columbia Automation based in Windsor.

Both these jobs I went up the ladder of promotion quite quickly because there wasn’t a lot of people with the required skills and work was quite relaxed. However, the boss’s attitude was patronising and comments were made about the number of black people in the company.

Enos enjoyed working in Windsor and has had a good working life. He had to live apart from his children at times and only now realises how it may have affected them at the time.