Windrush’s 75th anniversary celebrated with new 50p coin from Royal Mint
The Royal Mint has marked the 75th anniversary of Windrush – Caribbeans invited to Britain to help rebuild after World War II – with a new coin.
On 22 June 1948, the passenger liner Empire Windrush carried some of the thousands of people from former British colonies invited to the UK.
They became known as the Windrush Generation and, under a new law, had an automatic right to settle as the government tried to plug a post-war labour gap.
Many more followed from other former colonies across South Asia and Africa over the next quarter-century.
Among them were the parents of Valda Jackson, from St Thomas, Jamaica, who moved to England in 1964.
The Bristol-based artist’s coin features two smartly-dressed people from the Windrush generation standing in front of a Union Jack.
‘It’s more than a celebration of one moment,’ Valda said.
‘It is an acknowledgement of the real, lived experience of generations of ordinary working people, and, though we may have struggled, and we still struggle in so many ways, we and our descendants are, in fact, at home.
‘And this is what the image – these figures and the added Union Jack – represents.’
Rebecca Morgan, director of collector services at the Royal Mint, added: ‘Windrush has become symbolic of its passengers and today encompasses the subsequent generations who have played a pivotal role in shaping modern British culture and society since the Second World War.’
The commemorative coin is available from the Royal Mint website from 9am, with prices starting at £11.
Two are limited editions in gold and silver, with the other a standard metal coin.
It comes ahead of National Windrush Day on Thursday, a commemorative day introduced in 2018 intended to recognise Britain’s rich black history and the importance of immigration.
But the year before it emerged that the Home Office had not kept a record of those granted permission to stay or issued any paperwork confirming it.
In 2010, government officials even destroyed the landing cards recording peoples’ arrivals from the Caribbean.
This plunged the lives of hundreds of Commonwealth citizens into uncertainty, with the government’s ‘hostile environment’ 2012 policies tasking everyone from the NHS and landlords to employers with enforcing immigration controls.
Those affected who could not prove that they had arrived before 1973 lost jobs, were denied healthcare and housing, and were evicted or detained or deported.
A government inquiry found that the ‘foreseeable and avoidable’ scandal was down to a ‘culture of disbelief and carelessness’ in the Home Office.
As much as the report stressed that there is a ‘grave risk’ there could be a repeat of the scandal, the government has since dropped a number of the report’s recommendations, mainly those that would have increased scrutiny of immigration policies.
For Valda, the passengers who disembarked the Empire Windrush 75 years ago and those who followed transformed Britain – and that should never be forgotten.
‘I am very happy to have my design selected for this coin,’ she said, ‘which honours our parents and their legacy, and which celebrates our presence, achievements, and contributions that continue to enrich our society.’
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