Voices of Windrush Limited

Voices of Windrush is the organisation which will be hosting the VOW Festival 2023 to mark the arrival of the Windrush generation from countries in the Caribbean, specifically noting the docking of HMT Empire Windrush, a boat which anchored at Tilbury Docks on the 22 June 1948. Of the ship’s passengers, 802 are said to have been nationals of Caribbean countries who held immigration documentation declaring them to be Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies and British Subjects. Many arrived following an invitation to them to help rebuild Britain after the country’s destruction caused by WW11, and entered a range of professions, including in the NHS, transport, industry and manufacturing. Of course we know that people from the Caribbean were in the UK long before that, but it is a significant marker as some 500,000 people arrived and they and their descendants account for most of the UK Caribbean Diaspora.