The children of Windrush: ‘They told us: you’re people of the world, that’s what matters, not skin colour’

(Left to right): Joseph Armstrong with daughter Evelyn, Ralph Peart, and Mel Gaynor with his mother, Robin Composite: Guardian

On the day Empire Windrush arrived in Britain in June 1948, 11 Labour MPs sent a letter to the prime minister, Clement Attlee, proposing that there should be controls on black immigration.

The British people were “blest by the absence of a colour racial problem”, they wrote, adding: “An influx of coloured people domiciled here is likely to impair the harmony, strength and cohesion of our people and social life and cause discord and unhappiness among all concerned.”