The Windrush Story
Empire Windrush was returning to the UK in 1948 and called into Trinidad and Jamaica, advertising passage to the UK. Those who paid for this opportunity, where looking for work opportunities and to help to rebuild the Mother Country, before they returned home. However for may who sailed then or tavelled to the UK in the following years, UK became home.
"From fighting for equality to negotiating the legacies of slavery and colonialism, Harry Goulbourne considers the significance of Windrush and how Caribbeans who came to Britain in the post-war period have contributed to building a post-imperial society, which is still in formation today"
- this is part of an article by Professor Gouldbourne's article written for the British Library Windrush Stories site: Click HERE
"The first of these events had been the docking in June 1948 of Empire Windrush at Tilbury. As is well known, this ship had landed men returning from England after the Second World War to Jamaica. On surveying the employment prospects on the island some of these men decided to return to the ship, which was likely to sail empty back across the Atlantic. They had noted that jobs were available in an England fighting to recover from the ravages of the war. They were joined by women and children, and, as the ship sailed across the Caribbean, more passengers were taken aboard. News of their arrival in Britain was covered by the BBC, Pathé and other media outlets. Although numerous other ships had brought people from the Caribbean before, the landing of the Empire Windrush and its passengers was to mark a significant moment in the building of what we know today as multi-cultural Britain. Consequently, not only the passengers on this ship but others who arrived later from the colonies and Commonwealth have been regarded as ‘the Windrush generation’."
