Blue Plaque for Asquith Xavier, Train Guard From Dominica Who Broke the Color Bar at British Rail on This Day in 1966

Blue plaque for Asquith Xavier, train guard from Dominica who broke the color bar at British Rail on this day in 1966

A blue plaque has been installed at the former Notting Hill home of Asquith Xavier, the railway worker who challenged racial discrimination in Great Britain and helped end an unofficial policy banning “non-white” people from higher-paid jobs at some railway stations. Xavier became the first black guard at Euston Station in 1966. Decades after his...

Asquith Xavier: Euston's first Black rail guard gets blue plaque

Asquith Xavier was initially refused a guard's job because of the discriminatory "colour bar" but challenged the decision.

Asquith Xavier: The Man Who Ended Euston Station's Racist Colour Bar

Asquith Xavier is now honoured with a Blue Plaque outside his former Notting Hill home. Image: English Heritage On the first day he arrived in London from the Caribbean island of Dominica in 1958, Asquith Xavier started working. The 38-year-old Windrusher started out as a porter for British Railways at Marylebone Station, but his work ethic, and popularity among customers, ensured he was soon promoted to train guard — the first Black person to s…

Blue plaque for Asquith Xavier

English Heritage has installed a blue plaque at the former Notting Hill home of Asquith Xavier (1920–1980), the railway worker whose determination to challenge racial discrimination helped bring an end to an unofficial ‘colour bar’ at London’s Euston Station.