Windrush Day

Harriet Samuel; Melanie Gower

Background

On 21 June 1948, British ship HMT Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks in Essex, with passengers disembarking the following day. According to the passenger list held by the National Archives, 1,027 passengers were onboard. Over 800 of them stated a last country of residence in the Caribbean, including Jamacia, Trinidad, St Lucia, Grenada, and Barbados. Many of those who arrived had served in the British armed forces during the war. They had ‘Citizen of the UK and Colonies’ status under the British Nationality Act 1948 and rights to live and work here.

In response to labour shortages following the second world war, the UK Government had advertised for workers from the Caribbean and Commonwealth countries. Many of those who arrived on the Empire Windrush went on to become “manual workers, drivers, cleaners, and nurses in the newly established NHS”.

Many other ships brought migrants from the Caribbean to the UK in the post-war period. The ‘Windrush generation’ became the symbolic shorthand for people who came to work or join family in the UK between 1948 and 1973, particularly from Caribbean countries.

Windrush commemorations

In 2018, the government announced a national Windrush Day would take place on 22 June each year to pay tribute to the Windrush generation and their descendants. In addition to this, the government announced the creation of the Windrush Day grant scheme and measures to support victims of the ‘Windrush scandal’, including an independent review led by Wendy Williams (see below for more about the Windrush Day grants and the Windrush scandal).

The government also established the Windrush Commemoration Committee, chaired by Baroness Floella Benjamin OBE DL. In 2021, the committee commissioned the Jamaican sculptor Basil Watson to create the National Windrush Monument, which was unveiled at Waterloo Station in London on 22 June 2022. The location for the sculpture was chosen due to its significance to the Windrush story, as the point where many of the passengers arrived in the UK from Southampton, and its continued use today as a station receiving millions of visitors and passengers each year. To read more about the National Windrush Monument, its creation, and symbolism, see the gov.uk page about the monument.

Windrush Day grant scheme

The annual Windrush Day grant scheme distributes £500,000 in government funding across communities and projects in England, to “commemorate, celebrate and educate about the Windrush generation and their contribution”.

30 projects across England are receiving funding from the 2025 grant scheme. The amount of funding awarded ranges between £5,000 and £38,476. Projects included in this year’s awards range from funding for theatre productions, Windrush Day celebrations, museum and heritage projects, storytelling, music and arts events, and educational projects for children.

The Windrush scandal and government response

The Windrush generation had rights to live in the UK permanently, but many of them did not have documentation to prove this.

Tighter immigration laws were introduced over time and some members of the Windrush generation and other long-standing UK residents were wrongly treated as illegal immigrants. They were consequently denied access to employment, healthcare and other services, and in some cases detained or removed from the country.

The obstacles these people encountered in trying to prove their status, and the difficulties and distress they experienced as a result, have come to be known as the ‘Windrush scandal’.

For detailed information about the Windrush scandal and subsequent government responses to it, please see the Library’s briefing: ‘The government’s response to the Windrush scandal’ (September 2024)