By Iyamide Thomas – Heritage Practitioner / Curator – 22 June 2023 Windrush Day celebrates 75 years since the Empire Windrush ship arrived at Tilbury in the UK on June 1948 carrying just over 1000 passengers, approximately 800 of whom came from the Caribbean. After World War 2 (WW2), the United Kingdom recruited people from its colonies (mainly the Caribbean) to help rebuild and take up jobs in sectors such as health and transport, and ‘Windrush Day’ celebrates their legacy to British society. They are known as the ‘Windrush Generation’ but did you know this term also applies to other people from the Commonwealth (including Africa) who travelled to the UK from 1948 -1971 and not only on the Empire Windrush? More importantly, two Sierra Leonean men played crucial roles in the Windrush story and this should be more recognised!
John Henry Smythe was a Royal Air Force pilot navigator who after WW2 worked for the Colonial Office. His role involved responsibility for repatriating demobilised troops from the colonies. John Smythe travelled on the Empire Windrush dropping off Caribbean troops and came back to England with many from Jamaica who had decided to return to the ‘Mother Country’ to seek jobs.
The other Sierra Leonean Ivor Cummings was the Assistant Welfare Officer at the Colonial Office who went to meet and welcome the new arrivals. On 6 June 1948, John Smythe sent a telegram to Ivor Cummings telling him of the employment skills of 350 passengers on the Windrush ship who had no accommodation arrangements. Ivor Cummings was who suggested an air raid bomb shelter near Clapham South Tube Station be used to temporarily house these new Windrush arrivals. He helped them settle and find employment and as the nearest labour exchange to the shelter was in Brixton, many of the settlers set up home there making it one of Britain’s first Caribbean communities! In addition to information at the British National Archives, this telegram from John Smythe to Ivor Cummings offers much proof of how these two men helped shape the future of Windrush arrivals in 1948. ‘Windrush 75’ events currently taking place should definitely be recognising them!
(Photo Courtesy: E. Smythe)
Kindly follow us on twitter:@AfricanVoice2
