CORNWALLIS CLOTH

The Old Royal Naval College will present a unique and powerful film installation reframing narratives of war Saturday 4 October 2025. CORNWALLIS CLOTH is inspired by oral testimony and the untold stories of British Caribbean lives during the Second World War. Set in a moonlit tropical garden in Barbados in 1942, the film brings together 3D sound design, performance and archive montage to create a captivating and poetic Caribbean comedy melodrama vignette. 

CORNWALLIS CLOTH, created and produced by Sweet Patootee Arts, is part of the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund, a national partnership programme of over 20 artist commissions inspired by the heritage of conflict. Led by Imperial War Museums, the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund was created following the success of 14-18 NOW, the official UK arts programme for the First World War centenary.

This 20-minute film installation explores loyalty and freedom and investigates emerging post-colonial identity with dramatic intensity and satirical humour. It interweaves a soundtrack of calypso and colonial anthems to form a striking experience. 

The film centres around Mrs Bonita Skeete (aka Bonny), a Black woman whose story operates as a metaphor for British Caribbean civil rights in WW2. Through character accounts in the tropical garden from stirred up patriots, rebels, black marketeers, and in-betweens, the film sheds light upon the 1942 U-boat attacks on the SS Cornwallis’, as well as war leaders, the fight for freedom, rationing, and the fate that befalls those found with looted Cornwallis cloth. 

Hosting this extraordinarily enlightening film installation at the Old Royal Naval College reflects not only the very scenes shown in CORNWALLIS CLOTH, but also the rich historical significance of uncovering the stories of the past.

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