THE first black guardsman to take part in the Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace said yesterday that the Army had treated him as “a mascot” to promote a false impression of racial harmony in the ranks.

Richard Stokes, 34, left the Grenadier Guards in 1990 fed up with years of racist taunts and abuse.

He said it had been one of his proudest moments to parade in full ceremonial uniform at the Palace with his family watching. But the pressure of being the token black soldier in the elite Household Division wore him down.

The former guardsman recalled his experience on the day after the Army disclosed its latest success story in the battle to eliminate racism.

Captain Ben Sempala-Ntege, 27, who was born in Uganda, will become the first black officer to command a unit of the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, at the Trooping the Colour this month.

The captain told The Times that he had experienced no racism during his four years in the Army.

The regiments of the Household Division have had an active ethnic minority recruitment policy since the scandals which drove Mr Stokes and Mark Campbell, the first black trooper in the Household Cavalry, to leave. But Mr Stokes, who now works in Bristol for Race for Opportunity, which promotes racial awareness in business, said it would be impossible to eliminate all racism from the barrack room.

“I would never say to any black man or woman don’t go into the Army because of my experiences,” he said. “It depends on the sort of person you are and I was willing to fight the prejudice and prove them all wrong for a while.

“Other soldiers told me I would never be allowed to Troop the Colour, that I would be hidden away — and that threw down the gauntlet.

“The breaking point was when I wanted to become a physical training instructor. I ran for the Army and was on the brink of breaking into the British toboggan team but that wasn’t enough.

“I had five transfer applications blocked because the Army wanted me in front of the cameras, showing they were exercising racial awareness. There was no way I wanted to be the Army’s mascot so I decided I had to leave.”

Mr Stokes was brought up as an adopted child in an overwhelmingly white rural area and experienced racism from a young age. But the Army was much worse than anything he had imagined. He received hate mail and had bananas thrown at him during parade ground rehearsals.

“When I walked onto the drill square on my first day at Pirbright, Surrey, everyone stopped and stared. I heard comments like nigger, coon, go back where you came from. That was my welcome. The corporal and sergeant then came in to see the new pet who had been brought there. Because they are elite I was picked on and told I would never do it and I was there only because of my colour.”

After leaving the Army Mr Stokes worked as a security guard for nine months, then began a business studies degree but dropped out. He said: “I couldn’t get used to the ‘uni’ way of life after the military. I loved the Army life and I would still be in there now had I not been treated so badly.”

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