Voices of the Windrush Generation by David Matthews

2023 saw the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the ship HMT Empire Windrush, which was the first to bring people from the Caribbean Islands to Britain. Following the Second World War, Britain was in the process of rebuilding and was in desperate need of workers. Many of the men from Jamaica and other Caribbean countries had served in the British forces during the War, and with the promise of a new and better life, families came to Britain via the Windrush and other ships. The first journey had just under five hundred passengers. Between the years of 1948 and 1971, many more came to settle.

The Windrush became the symbol of mass migration during this period and the settlers became known as the Windrush Generation.  This book captures their experiences of travelling to Britain, what they expected and the communities they developed. Told in the actual voices of the people as they were interviewed by the author and journalist, David Matthews, complete with their distractions, dialects and patterns of thought. It makes a very authentic read.

There are only nine people (and two of them talk together) but they tell the very personal stories of their families and the difficulties they found settling in. One man said that his father was told that "if he came here, like most Caribbean people came, it was for like a five-year stint." The idea being that folk worked and earned enough money to go back to Jamaica and build a better life there. They soon realised that things like rent and other aspects of living left them with very little, especially if they were not very well educated. They tell of the flag-waving on the ship, chanting "God save the queen" and the expectations of talking to the monarch. There were a lot of expectations and childhood dreams, some typically charmingly childish.

Besides labourers, Britain needed nurses, too, and a woman from Trinidad and Tobago tells her personal story. She focuses on the celebrations the Caribbean families have as opposed to the parties in Britain, how culturally different they are. Another gentleman talks of how he faced the youth group known as Teddy Boys who brutalised the immigrants and the police favoured the Teddys as well, until the Caribbean community developed a protective mindset where they looked out for each other.

The geographical focus of the Windrush migration is inextricably linked to London, tracking from the initial anchoring of the HMT Empire Windrush at the nearby Tilbury Docks. The vast majority of the personal accounts, family settlements, and social struggles recorded by Matthews center on the establishing of iconic West Indian communities in areas like Brixton and Notting Hill. It explicitly covers the evolution of Black London culture and the subsequent political fallout of the Windrush deportation scandal directed out of Westminster. 

This book is a delightful read. Nostalgic, moving, evocative and capturing an essential part of British history.

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Published by Blink Publishing on 18 October 2018.

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