AT 103 years old John McHugh has a lot of stories to tell. Among the most interesting was his time working on an onion farm in Elba, New York, during World War II.

On June 9, 2024 McHugh, who is from St Ann’s Bay, launched his book,
The Forgotten Reapers of World War II: Gallant Jamaicans Help Defeat The Axis Powers, at West Regional Library in Plantation, Florida. The book recalls his 15 months working with the War Manpower Commission, an organisation established in 1942 by the United States Government.

Created by US President Franklin D Roosevelt, the commission provided employment for people — many from Commonwealth countries — in the agriculture and industrial sectors, areas critical to the American war effort.

“It feels good to tell people about that time. A lot of people don’t know that something like this took place,” McHugh, who lives in Fort Pierce, Florida, told the Jamaica Observer.

With the assistance of his son Michael he revisited notes from personal diaries and local newspapers that detailed his time in Elba, a village in upstate New York. He was part of the second batch of Caribbean workers who shored up a workforce hit by the US’s involvement in World War II.

“He had a fascinating experience, so much so that he documented every step of the way — from when he got on the ship to go to the US, and then taking the train from Virginia where they landed, all the way up to New York,” said his daughter, Emily, who attended the launch with her sister Helena. “He was there with three friends from St Ann’s Bay, and because he was in New York he saw family he had never met.”

McHugh, a printer by trade, set sail for the US from Kingston Harbour. He actually released his book in August last year, to mark his 103rd birthday.

John McHugh is flanked by his daughters Helena (left) and Emily at the launch of his book, The Forgotten Reapers of World War II: Gallant Jamaicans Help Defeat The Axis Powers, on Sunday, June 9, 2024 at West Regional Library in Plantation, Florida.

The Forgotten Reapers of World War II not only covers his stint in Elba, it documents Jamaica’s role as a training outpost for Canadian soldiers during the war, as well as a place of refuge for people from Spain and Gibraltar at Mona in St Andrew and Vernamfield in Clarendon.

McHugh was employed at a gypsum factory in Elba after leaving the onion farm. He left there in September 1945 and returned to Jamaica where he resumed work as a printer.

In 1956 he and his family moved to the United Kingdom where he lived and worked as a printer for 13 years before migrating to East Orange in New Jersey. Lurline, his wife of over 60 years, died in 2018.