The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge marked Windrush Day with a visit to a youth project in Brixton — before helping to unveil the national monument to the Windrush generation at Waterloo station.
The royal couple visited the Elevate youth programme meeting young people training for careers in the creative industries before going on to Waterloo where the statue was being unveiled.
It shows a man, woman and child in their Sunday best standing on top of suitcases symbolising the thousands of immigrants who travelled to the UK from the Caribbean to start a new life after the Second World War.
Wednesday’s Windrush Day ceremony marks the moment 74 years ago in 1948 the Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury, Essex, bringing hundreds of Caribbean immigrants to the UK in search of a new life.
Jamaican artist and sculptor Basil Watson, who created the monument, said it was a tribute to the “dreams and aspirations, courage and dignity, skills and talents” of the Windrush generation who arrived with “a hope of contributing to a society that they expected would welcome them in return”.
He said: “My parents, along with a great many others, took the long arduous voyage from the Caribbean with very little or nothing other than their aspirations, their courage and a promise of opportunity for advancement.
“This monument tells that story of hope, determination, a strong belief in selves and a vison for the future.”
Communities Secretary Michael Gove said: “Seeing Basil Watson’s magnificent monument, it’s easy to imagine the excitement, hope and apprehension that the Windrush pioneers must have felt as they arrived in the UK.
“Overcoming great sacrifice and hardship, the Windrush Generation and their descendants have gone on to make an immense contribution to public life. Britain would be much diminished without them.”
It comes as famous faces including actor Sir Lenny Henry, poet Benjamin Zephaniah, broadcaster Sir Trevor Phillips, historian David Olusoga and cross-party politicians called for next year’s Windrush Day to be a “major national moment” marking the 75th anniversary of the ship’s arrival.
A separate monument — made up of two sculptures — was also unveiled today outside Hackney Town Hall.
The work of artist Thomas J Price, they show members of Hackney’s Windrush generation and their descendants and were based on 3D scans of some of the borough’s real residents.
