One of the British army’s first Rastafarian members of the Guards has spoken out after he won a claim of race discrimination and harassment against the Ministry of Defence.
The army first victimised and then gaslit Dwight Pile-Gray when he complained about racial bias after a row in the guardroom, said his lawyer Emma Norton, from the Centre for Military Justice.
Pile-Gray had been a soldier in the army for 16 years when a white member of the Guards refused to let him back into Wellington barracks in central London, because he did not believe he was a soldier. When Pile-Gray challenged the soldier, he was accused of “playing the race card”.
Pile-Gray then went to see an officer to explain what had happened. He was asked whether he wanted to make a complaint but suggested mediation, so he could explain to those involved why their behaviour was racial discrimination.
Instead, Pile-Gray was told he would be the one facing disciplinary action. Eventually he was given a formal charge of insubordination.
Speaking to BBC News, Pile-Gray said he believed his case showed it was considered worse to accuse someone of being racist in the army than it was to be racist.
Pile-Gray signed up to the army in 2005 aged 37, as an accomplished musician with the Royal Corps of Army Music. He played the french horn in various military bands, eventually taking up a role in the band of the Grenadier Guards.
“I was under no illusion as to what I might encounter,” he said of joining the army. “But I was full of optimism.”
Pile-Gray took part in dozens of state occasions, tying up his hair to fit into his bearskin.
He said there were always questions about his appearance from other guards: “Why are you allowed to wear your hair like that? Aren’t you supposed to be a pacifist? Don’t you smoke drugs?”
Pile-Gray said he put such comments down to ignorance. But he said there was worse: soldiers used racially offensive words while in his presence, including the N-word.
Pile-Gray said such ignorance did not stop him enjoying his job, or rising in the ranks. He became a lance sergeant.
But the recent case had, he said, destroyed his faith in the army. “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I didn’t feel that I could continue in an organisation that so disregarded my feelings and my welfare, and actively sought to make me a bad person.”
Pile-Gray made a service complaint, which was rejected. It was only then that he took his case to the employment tribunal that found in favour of his claims of direct race discrimination, racial harassment and victimisation in October.
The Ministry of Defence does not comment on individual cases but in a statement to the BBC, it said it did not tolerate abuse, bullying or discrimination of any kind, and actively encouraged personnel to report unacceptable behaviours.
