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194821–22 June 1948 · Tilbury, Essex

Arrival of the Empire Windrush

The troopship HMT Empire Windrush at sea, the ship that brought Caribbean migrants in 1948
Archival image: Royal Navy official photographer. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The former troopship Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury carrying about a thousand passengers, among them hundreds from Jamaica and other Caribbean colonies answering Britain's post-war need for workers. The ship became a symbol of Commonwealth migration that reshaped British society. In 2018 it emerged that many of this generation had been wrongly denied their rights, a scandal still being resolved.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Tilbury landing stageRiverside terminal where the passengers came ashore.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Windrush Square, BrixtonSquare named for the ship, beside the Black Cultural Archives.Map ↗

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