Join us our Windrush Elders at the Senedd as we mark this historic day – The 75th Anniversary of the Windrush.

The back story: in June of 1948 Britain had just begun to recover from the devastating effects of the Second World War. To fulfil Britain’s post war recruitment shortages, the British Government extended an invitation to its British colonies overseas, offering work and an opportunity for a better life.

The 21st of June 1948 is landmarked as a day that changed Britain’s social landscape forever. At around 4am in the morning after 30 days at sea, the former cruise liner ship, the SS Empire Windrush, arrived at Tilbury Dock in Essex.

The SS Empire Windrush ship carried around 1,000 passengers from Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean, who were responding to Britain’s invitation ‘…to help rebuild the Motherland’. The next day on the 22nd of June 1948, they disembarked and began their new lives. Being citizens from countries originally colonised by the British Empire, they saw themselves as British.

The diverse people from different parts of the Commonwealth are collectively known as the ‘Windrush Generation.’