What was the Empire Windrush?
Created in partnership with the
- The HMT Empire Windrush was a ship which travelled from the Caribbean to Britain in 1948.
- In June of that year the ship arrived at Tilbury near London.
- There were 802 people on board from different countries in the Caribbean.
- Many people on board were tailors, mechanics and carpenters.
Why did people travel to Britain?
- Britain needed more workers to rebuild the country after World War Two.
- The British Government passed a new law allowing people from the Caribbean to live and work in Britain.
- Britain used adverts to ask them to move to Britain.
Watch: What is the Windrush Generation?
Narrator: In 1948 Britain was just starting to recover from the Second World War. Towns and cities had been bombed. Thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed and they all needed to be rebuilt.
In the Caribbean, thousands of men and women had served in the British armed forces. After the war, some of them answered an advert to come to Britain where there were lots of different jobs available.
Other people just wanted to see England, which they’d heard so much about. They all got on a ship, Empire Windrush, which left the Caribbean to travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean.
This was the first time so many Caribbean people had come to live in Britain. Many more arrived in the following years.
It was on the 22nd June 1948 that the Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks in Essex. But when its passengers got off, they found that Britain was not as friendly to them as they had hoped. It was cold and grey and the Caribbean people soon experienced racism and discrimination.
They found it hard to get proper homes to live in and to make friends with British people. Later many of their children were bullied at school because of the colour of their skin.
There were racial attacks an years later, race riots broke out in cities across Britain. Settling in to a new country was difficult and black people had to stick together and support one another.
- Between 1948 and 1971, over half a million people from the Caribbean settled in the UK.
- Caribbean people who moved to the UK were known as the Windrush Generation.
Image source, © National Museums Liverpool
Image source, © National Museums LiverpoolWhere is the Caribbean?
- The Caribbean is a group of islands in the Caribbean sea, between North and South America.
- It takes about 9 hours by plane to travel from England to the Caribbean.
What was life like for the Windrush Generation in Britain?
- Some people from the Windrush Generation found it difficult to feel at home in Britain.
- The weather was colder and wetter in Britain.
- Some people also missed their family and friends.
- Some Caribbean people were made to feel unwelcome in Britain.
- Treating someone differently, unfairly and unkindly because of their skin colour or race is called racism.
What did the Windrush Generation bring to Britain?
The Windrush Generation worked in important jobs in transport and healthcare. They brought music, food and much more to British culture.
Image source, © National Museums Liverpool- In 1966 Claudia Jones started the Notting Hill Carnival. This is a celebration in London of Caribbean music, dance and costumes.
- Hundreds of thousands of people go to the carnival every August.
Image source, © National Museums LiverpoolActivity: Windrush quiz
Play Bitesize Primary games. game
Fun and educational primary games in science, maths, English, history, geography, art and design, computing and modern languages.
More on Events within living memory
Find out more by working through a topic
- count2 of 5
- count3 of 5
- count4 of 5
- count5 of 5
