Skip to main content
Windrush 75: we want liberation not celebration
Don’t be nostalgic about the anniversary of the boat journey that brought my father to Britain — instead of statues and ceremonies, fight for migrant justice, writes MARC WADSWORTH
Windrush

MY late father, Jamaican WWII veteran Simeon George Rowe, returned to Britain on the iconic former troop ship the Empire Windrush that docked at Tilbury on June 22 1948 after a 5,000-mile voyage.

Passenger number 830, he went to Birmingham, in the West Midlands, with four other friends who’d also been onboard, because an earlier Jamaican arrival had a place for them to live in Thornhill Road, Handsworth.

Responding to an advertisement in the Daily Gleaner, they had originally been recruited by the RAF in Jamaica during the war, to help the “mother country,” as they called Britain, fight Hitler’s Nazis at the time of its greatest need.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
sharp
Features / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
MARC WADSWORTH reports from the meeting to commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre 65 years ago
Painting of the Sharpeville massacre, which took place 21 Ma
Features / 18 March 2023
18 March 2023
UN anti-racism day is not a date picked at random, but the anniversary of a turning point in the struggle against apartheid. Join us to discuss the national and international priorities for today’s black-led politics, writes MARC WADSWORTH
Police officers on the scene outside
Features / 17 February 2023
17 February 2023
The Tory government has deliberately whipped up anti-migrant feelings in a cynical attempt to draw attention away from the economic crisis it created, says MARC WADSWORTH
Shapurji Saklatvala, then an MP, addresses a rally against u
Features / 14 November 2022
14 November 2022
MARC WADSWORTH salutes the remarkable talents of Labour’s first Indian MP, a communist who rocked the Commons with savage takedowns of the empire and the monarchy
Similar stories
sharp
Features / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
MARC WADSWORTH reports from the meeting to commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre 65 years ago
Jamaicans aboard the liner Auriga
Features / 11 July 2024
11 July 2024
As the last of his family’s Windrush elders pass away, ROGER McKENZIE reflects on migration, courage and the ongoing struggle against racism in Britain, from the Rwanda plan to ‘stop the boats’