Posted by Pan Times on November 6, 2013 at 12:09pm
Windrush settlers arrive in Britain, 1948
Men and women travelled from Jamaica to Britain aboard the former troopship, MV Empire Windrush.
At the end of the Second World War, Britain was busy rebuilding. The government was thinking about recruiting workers from the Caribbean to cope with the shortage of labour in some British industries. In 1948, an advertisement appeared in a Jamaican newspaper. It stated that there were 300 places on board Windrush for anyone wishing to travel to Britain.
When the ship departed on 24th May, all 300 places were taken. An extra 192 men made the voyage on the deck. Many had served with the Allied Forces in the war. Some wished to rejoin the armed services. Others hoped for better career prospects in Britain, since there was high unemployment at home.
The ship landed at Tilbury docks on 21st June. The Civil Service sent a black officer, Ivor Cummings, to meet the new arrivals. It was a big problem finding them somewhere to live. As a short-term measure, the Colonial Office was forced to house 230 Windrush settlers in a deep air raid shelter in Clapham Common. The nearest labour exchange to the shelter was Brixton. As a result, many of the settlers set up home there, making it one of Britain's first Caribbean communities.
There was plenty of work available in Britain, mostly labouring jobs in the big cities. Black Caribbeans were generally shut out of higher-paid jobs, especially those that were heavily unionised. However, the public sector offered them reasonably well-paid work, for example in hospitals, the General Post Office, London Transport and the railways.
The arrival of the Windrush was the start of a period of migration from the Caribbean to Britain that did not slow down until 1962. By 1955, 18,000 Jamaicans had moved to Britain. This outward flow of people to settle in Britain was an important event in the history of the West Indies. It also changed the social landscape of Britain.
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