Commemorating Windrush Day

I came to England on a cold November day in 1959. 

I remember feeling extremely cold as we sailed into Liverpool where the house we stayed in was even colder than outside.  

I can remember that the bed linen we were given was useless and feeling very hungry. I couldn’t wait for breakfast! Six of us travelled to Harrogate in Yorkshire by t

I came to England on a cold November day in 1959. 

I remember feeling extremely cold as we sailed into Liverpool where the house we stayed in was even colder than outside.  

I can remember that the bed linen we were given was useless and feeling very hungry. I couldn’t wait for breakfast! Six of us travelled to Harrogate in Yorkshire by train, where we trained to   be nurses for the National Health Service.

As we walked around, I remember feeling like a spectacle. People literally stood in the street and stared at us as we walked by and commented on everything, our skin, our hair and even our clothes.

As we started to settle in, we began to realise that we were not told the truth about life in the UK.

We were told that we would be welcomed and that we would have a better life, but that all took a long time to achieve. 

Life for many of us was a struggle, but we knew we had to be resilient and do whatever we needed to do to fit in without trying to lose our identity. 

It’s upsetting to accept that there is still a lot of prejudice and discrimination in the country that has become a home for me and my family, but I am so very proud of my services to the NHS and carry that pride with me wherever I go.

I arrived in the UK from Jamaica on 7th July 1966.  

Unlike a lot of the others when they arrived, who said it was cold, England was basking in warm, summer sunshine so it took me a while to realise just how cold it could get here in the Winter.

My Mum and Dad had travelled over before me and lived in West Norwood and sent for me to atten

I arrived in the UK from Jamaica on 7th July 1966.  

Unlike a lot of the others when they arrived, who said it was cold, England was basking in warm, summer sunshine so it took me a while to realise just how cold it could get here in the Winter.

My Mum and Dad had travelled over before me and lived in West Norwood and sent for me to attend Tulse Hill Comprehensive School.

I was lucky to work in a very inclusive workplace. I’m sure there may have been a few slurs and negative words about me, but it was always said behind my back. 

By the time I became a manager I learned whilst it was sometimes hard to establish, if I had a positive attitude towards my team, they would return my positivity and we worked well together. 

Sharing our stories has helped me realise how much of an impact the Windrush Generation has made here in the UK and how much we have helped to inspire younger members of our community. 

Some of us had a terrible time and faced lots of discrimination, others faced their own unique challenges, but the one thing that binds us is our resilience and determination to succeed.

My father had travelled to England in October 1954. 

My Mum bought me along with my eldest brother and baby sister in 1955. My 4 other brothers arrived 3 years later in 1958.

My family was separated when we arrived, whilst most of us lived in Brixton, my eldest brother went to live in Tottenham and eldest sister moved to Chippenham in Wil

My father had travelled to England in October 1954. 

My Mum bought me along with my eldest brother and baby sister in 1955. My 4 other brothers arrived 3 years later in 1958.

My family was separated when we arrived, whilst most of us lived in Brixton, my eldest brother went to live in Tottenham and eldest sister moved to Chippenham in Wiltshire. 

I was only 1 year and 10 months old so had no idea how tough things were for my mother as there was always lots of love in our home, but as I grew up, I realised just how much of strain this must have placed on her and how hard she worked to create a happy home for her children. 

When I started Primary School, I was the only black girl in my year group and remember the other children teasing me and pulling at my clothes because they said they were looking for my “tail”.

As I continued through school, I was often bullied and teased about what I ate and how I looked, but having grown up in a house full of boys, I was able to fight…

The older I got, the more I realised that it was better to fight with my words than my fists. 

Before I retired, my last job was as an adult learning teacher, teaching subjects like cookery and ESOL. 

I loved helping people settle in and become active citizens in the UK. 

It was my way of giving people the help me and my family never received when we arrived.

I remember fondly the carefree, neighbourly life back in Trinidad when I was young. There were many cultures in Trinidad; Indians, Chinese, Syrians, people from the Middle East, Italians, as well as  Black people. 

There wasn't overt race discrimination but there was class distinction and discrimination between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ and betw

I remember fondly the carefree, neighbourly life back in Trinidad when I was young. There were many cultures in Trinidad; Indians, Chinese, Syrians, people from the Middle East, Italians, as well as  Black people. 

There wasn't overt race discrimination but there was class distinction and discrimination between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ and between people with pale skin or dark skin. At the top of the tree were the people with white skin. 

The lighter people got the best jobs so the paler your skin, the better off you were. Black people were at the bottom. 

Today, they call this Colourism”, but believe me, discrimination based on  not only the colour, but the shade of your skin is nothing new.

My uncle stayed in England to work after serving in the forces in World War II. He wrote such interesting letters that, when he invited me to join him and my aunt in England, I jumped at the chance. 

I sailed on the SS Antilles, a French ship on 16 November 1954, my passage cost £67.00. We had to have a document proving that we had had the necessary vaccinations in order to be allowed to enter the UK and provide evidence that we had enough money to support ourselves. 

I wanted to be a nurse and went to the Commonwealth Nursing Association in Great Smith Street to register. The salary for a nurse at that time was £6/15s a month (£5.00 outside London). As a trainee nurse, you had to live in the hospital and I was so unhappy. 

There were high windows so that you couldn’t escape and you were only allowed one late night per month. At first it was terrible working in the hospital wards. White patients thought the Black would rub off from our hands onto them. 

I first started working at St. Francis Hospital, Dulwich, London. I also worked in Cheshire for 6 months. 

This was where I did my student midwife training. There was lots of job satisfaction in nursing, but there was ignorance and prejudice towards the Caribbean nurses. 

As a midwife, most of my patients were too busy screaming to object to me being Black!

  My great-great-grandfather was from Cameroon but I was born in Jamaica. I was the middle child of twelve children and the first one in my family to be born in Jamaica. 

Previously our family had lived in Panama and Cuba. I was a Queen’s Scout. I went on a sporting tour to Cuba at the age of 14 and, at 16 started work in the sugar factori

  My great-great-grandfather was from Cameroon but I was born in Jamaica. I was the middle child of twelve children and the first one in my family to be born in Jamaica. 

Previously our family had lived in Panama and Cuba. I was a Queen’s Scout. I went on a sporting tour to Cuba at the age of 14 and, at 16 started work in the sugar factories in Jamaica. I came to the UK on 10 October 1959 on the SS Begonia, an Italian ship. There were over 600 women on the ship and only 160 men and I felt a little lost. 

When I first came here I missed home very much, not only because of the sunshine but because the people were much warmer and friendlier. 

Food was never scarce at home; we grew our own and if you needed to build a house, the neighbours would all rally round to help. However, there was no money for other things which is why we had to go abroad for better paid work. 

Initially I came to England for a holiday, intending to go with my family to America, but then I stayed. 

Back in the Caribbean, Black people always used to call white bosses and their children ‘master’ e.g. ‘Master Tom’ - we escaped that when we came here. 

I lived in Balham and being a trained engineer, I got a job with British Rail as a fitter on steam trains at Norwood Junction. The pay was £7 and 10 shillings a week, less than in Jamaica!  

I got on quite well with my colleagues, white and black, but there was racism towards us from the local people in town. If we got on a bus, we would sit close to the window so that the white people wouldn’t want to get on the bus and we had it to ourselves - it was the only thing we could do to stop us being abused or assaulted during our journey.  

In the early days, we had to go to places like Brixton market to get the sort of food we liked for example saltfish, ackee and callaloo. 

One day I got on a train in New Cross and ended up in Gravesend and I liked it so much, I moved here in 1965.  I got a job as a mechanical fitter in the Imperial Paper Mill which is where I met Lucille’s husband Peter. 

I married a nurse called Gloria who worked at the same hospital as Lucille. I used to go and meet her, but she was white, so to avoid the racist porters at the hospital I used to meet her at the windows.

Gloria quickly realised that if we went to view a house to rent together, we would be turned away so she used to go and view the house alone and then, moved in, with me and the children. 

Once we moved in, all of the Caribbean families had tremendous parties where we danced to calypso and SOCA music and enjoyed the food we missed so much from back home 

  I was born in Antigua but, as a young woman, I went to the nearby island of Montserrat where I got a job in a hospital and sent money home to my family. 

All the islands had one thing in common, not enough work to go around. Most of them had only one of each institution, one jail, one hospital for physical illness, one hospital for menta

  I was born in Antigua but, as a young woman, I went to the nearby island of Montserrat where I got a job in a hospital and sent money home to my family. 

All the islands had one thing in common, not enough work to go around. Most of them had only one of each institution, one jail, one hospital for physical illness, one hospital for mental and emotional illness and one sugar factory. 

While I was in Montserrat I met a young man called Peter who was also working at the hospital and we became friends and we were happy together. 

Whilst we were courting, his step-mother said she was sending him to England because she heard he would have a better life there with lots of opportunities to work. Within three weeks he was gone and I missed him terribly, but he soon wrote insisting we would be together again soon. 

I didn’t want to come to England. I’d just been given a pay rise which doubled my monthly wage, but my mother insisted that I leave to join Peter fearing that he might not wait for me to make up my mind! 

I wanted to be with him so on 9th November 1961 I left Antigua and my two children and boarded an Italian ship, the SS Sorento.  

I was very happy to know we would be together again, but I was sad to leave my two children behind. The journey seemed endless - two long weeks. The Sorrento was very nice, but it was so huge I dared not go too far from my cabin in case I got lost. 

On the first day on the ship, to my surprise they were serving horse meat for dinner. I never knew people ate horses and I knew that I couldn’t touch it so I ate fruit and vegetables for the whole journey!

Although I was freezing when I got there I was very glad to reach Southampton. We travelled to Gravesend the next day. 

In those days finding a place to live was very hard so we were in a bedsit. The one room we had was not so bad. Within a fortnight, the lady of the house, whose name was Margaret got me job in St James' Hospital working for £5.00 a week. 

Peter decided it was time for us to get married and we started saving. In those days if you got married before 1st April your husband would get his tax back. So on 16th March 1962 we tied the knot, but I was sad because none of my family were there. 

Peter had family here, but most of them were working in London so the only person I had to help me was my friend from work, Joyce. 

Everything went well but after promising me faithfully that he wouldn’t drink, my husband of just a few hours was so drunk at our wedding reception that I had to make my way home on my own.

 Thankfully we lived nearby, but to my surprise, when I got home, there were three drunk women in my bed, fast asleep! I was tired so I just squeezed myself into the space between them and we all slept across the bed. 

It was almost daylight when I opened my eyes to find a man looking at all of us lying in the bed and then I heard a familiar voice say, “Well look at this! I wonder which one is my wife?!”

He spent the next day apologising and despite a tricky beginning our marriage lasted till death did us part in May 2004. 

  As a young man, it was tough when we started to progress at work.

White colleagues refused to take any instructions or guidance from us and made it openly clear that they did not accept any Black supervisors or managers in the workplace.

There were often rules and even laws to protect us from discrimination, but we learned to just keep ou

  As a young man, it was tough when we started to progress at work.

White colleagues refused to take any instructions or guidance from us and made it openly clear that they did not accept any Black supervisors or managers in the workplace.

There were often rules and even laws to protect us from discrimination, but we learned to just keep our heads down and comply...otherwise we might lose our jobs and our families would suffer. Those times were hard. 

We were working hard to provide for ourselves, but the loss of dignity and respect often crushed our morale. 

It was impossible at times to keep a “stiff upper lip” or “turn the other cheek” when all we were trying to do was get by. 

We often suffered from depression unless we had someone close to us that we could trust to talk to about our feelings, but that was often easier said than done.

We felt the added pressure of having to make sure our families were safe and provided for. 

It’s hard to describe how it feels to work hard, gain a skill and progress just to be dismissed simply because of the colour of your skin……

It’s important to remember that the Windrush Generation were invited here to help the UK and I’m pleased that our contribution is remembered every year. 

  I came to the England from Trinidad in 1970 to study Nursing and Radiography.  

I originally lived in Bath and then Birkenhead and London before settling in Kent.

I remember feeling a little lost in the bigger cities and overwhelmed by the large crowds, but I was fascinated by the housing and everyone’s gardens.  

When I started work, I qu

  I came to the England from Trinidad in 1970 to study Nursing and Radiography.  

I originally lived in Bath and then Birkenhead and London before settling in Kent.

I remember feeling a little lost in the bigger cities and overwhelmed by the large crowds, but I was fascinated by the housing and everyone’s gardens.  

When I started work, I quickly noticed that all the Black staff were given all of the menial jobs to do on the wards. 

We were the only ones to empty and clean the bedpans and give bed baths and we were not allowed to do any extra courses in health and safety or extra modules like Ultra Sound or CT scans. 

We had to constantly fight for opportunities to help our career progress and I was often told that I was “too lippy” for speaking out.  

Sometimes the bosses caved in, but were very happy to watch us struggle and fail so I quickly learned that to have any chance of developing my skills, I needed to fight to do as much training as possible and work extra hard to prove that I was worthy of higher paid role even if it meant burning the candle at both ends to make it. 

 After working in Gravesend Hospital for 12 years, I started working at West Hill Hospital in Dartford and trained as a mammographer. 

I then successfully applied for and achieved a senior position at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in London and I was so pleased that I was al last able to make decisions and support my team more than I had ever been. 

I learned some tough lessons at work, but in the end, they helped me to become a better manager.