King Charles has hailed the pioneers of the Windrush generation, saying it is crucially important to recognise the “immeasurable” difference they made to Britain, as the UK marked the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush.
The king joined the descendants of “pioneers” at a service that celebrated the achievements of a generation who were urged to travel to Britain to help with labour shortages in the postwar years only for many of their number to face threats of deportation in their later years.
In a personal tribute in the foreword of a book that accompanies a display of portraits celebrating the Windrush generation, the king paid tribute to the “indomitable generation”.
“History is, thankfully and finally, beginning to accord a rightful place to those men and women of the Windrush generation,” Charles wrote. “It is, I believe, crucially important that we should truly see and hear these pioneers who stepped off the Empire Windrush at Tilbury in June 1948 – only a few months before I was born – and those who followed over the decades, to recognise and celebrate the immeasurable difference that they, their children and their grandchildren have made to this country.”
Windrush: Portraits of a Pioneering Generation honours the accomplishments of the Windrush generation and those who followed, and the images are now on public display at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Created by black artists selected by the king, they will also be displayed for two weeks on 500 billboards and 600 shopping centre screens across the UK.
On Thursday in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, the royal family’s place of worship, the king joined 300 guests including young people from schools across England, dignitaries and representatives of charities and community projects.
The Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the bishop of Dover, said: “They are pioneers who paved the way for generations who came after them, not merely to survive but to thrive.”
The congregation heard the words of John Agar’s Remember the Ship – with its stirring exhortation “to remember the ship in citizenship” – recited by pupils from the Archbishop’s School in Canterbury. A choir from St Martin-in-the-Fields high school for girls sang Something Inside (So Strong), while the gospel hymn His Eye is on the Sparrow was sung by Jermain Jackman.
Paulette Simpson, the deputy chair of the Windrush Day advisory panel, said the Windrush pioneers had been invisible for too long. “They have been part of the fabric of modern Britain and it is heartwarming to see that not only the pioneers but their descendants in various walks of life are being recognised and written in to British history,” she said.
The HMT Empire Windrush first docked in England on 22 June 1948 at Tilbury Docks in Essex, bringing people to Britain from the Caribbean who had answered the call to help fill postwar labour shortages.
The celebrations of their achievements come after the Windrush scandal, exposed by the Guardian in 2018, in which many British citizens, mostly from the Caribbean, were denied access to healthcare and benefits and threatened with deportation despite having the right to live in the UK.
Charles has said the Windrush generation rebuilt a country, after arriving with little more than what they were able to carry with them. He said their stories “help light the path of progress and remind us of a fundamental truth: that though we might all be different, every individual, no matter their background, has something unique to contribute to our society in a way that strengthens us all.”
English (US)