Transport for London staff reflect on the Windrush generation

On 22 June 1948, over 800 passengers from the Caribbean disembarked from the ship Empire Windrush at Tilbury docks near London, many intending to live and work in the UK. They were the first of what has become known as the Windrush generation, who helped ease Britain’s workforce shortages after the Second World War and transformed British society.

Many of the Windrush generation took work in transport, including in London. In 1956, London Transport also began a direct recruitment campaign in the Caribbean that ran until 1970. As London as a city became more culturally diverse, so too did London Transport. In the workforce of today’s Transport for London (TfL), over 30% identify as being Black or from an ethnic minority. 
 

After a long campaign, 22 June 2018 was designated the first Windrush Day, an annual occasion to celebrate the contribution of the Windrush generation and their descendants. 

TfL has several Staff Network Groups that aim to support and represent the diversity of TfL’s workforce. One of these is for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues and their allies, which relaunched in 2020 as Raising Awareness of Culture and Ethnicity (RACE). The group organised an exhibition on the TfL intranet to mark Windrush Day 2020. The exhibition’s content was crowdsourced from TfL colleagues, reflecting on what the Windrush generation’s experiences mean to today’s TfL workforce.
 

The online exhibition was entirely created and curated by the Staff Network Group, many reflecting on their personal experiences and those of their community in poetry. Subsequently, and with permission, the Museum has included some of the exhibition here.

Valerie Johnson, a Business Change Manager with TfL, reflects on the personal experiences of her mother, herself and subsequent generations of her family in a poem.

Windrush Memories

Replete with hope and anticipation,

Carrying on my shoulders the hopes of my elders

To improve my lot and the next generation

Bright-eyed, young, full of expectation.

I’m proud.

I’m grateful.

My family forsook; their savings, small reserves to fund my passage

And I will build my future and return the message:

“I’ve done it papa! I’ve achieved my dreams!”

Instead all I could say was “it’s not all that it seems…”

“The warm words in the news that beckoned me here

were cruel words of deception – I feel nothing but fear.

Pictures in the news with arms outstretched, that promised us jobs were so kitsch and far-fetched!”

My skills and certificates so diligently earned were tossed to the side, dreams like kindling were burned.

“An artisan are you? Well don’t make a fuss cos the labour exchange says go drive a bus!”

I am spat at and shunned, my presence resisted

Every door is a hurdle but yet I persisted;

Every curse thrown at me like a poison-tipped lance

Pierced my spirit, my soul but I learnt how to dance:

I shimmied away from the barbs and the curses and I glided from insults as an artist rehearses.

At night as I lay there I countered each day gone

My oath to my kin I couldn’t renege on.

So I took what they threw me - the pennies, the scraps

And the cauldron of memories I choose to elapse.

So my mama back home you’re long gone I know

And my grandchildren now reap the seed that I sow.

And the journey I took? I look over my shoulder, the same one I shrug and wish I was bolder.

Had the courage to say “That job I don’t need”, but what else was to do with children to feed?

With my spine now bent double from the burden I carried; but I bore all those insults for then I was married.

With my rent to pay for a roof on our head I chose to survive and be spat on instead.

So I dance the last dance with my final entreat

The sacrifices we made may our children complete.

In this poem Gabrielle McDonald, a Customer Service Manager at Charing Cross Underground station, reflects on the hopes of the Windrush generation and the realities of the London they were faced with. The poem refers to the racism and racist language members of her community encountered.

Windrush(ed)

The Windrush(ed) across the water

to a better life.

And

The Windrush(ed) all around me,

as I disembarked under the Grey sky.

And

The Windrush(ed) in my face,

when countless ladies in their dull head scarfs

with three vertical pink curlers sticking out of the top;

pointed again and again to the sign….

No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish.

And

The Windrush(ed) around my heart and began to protect it with stone.

And

The Windrush(ed) upwards hitting my face,

as I looked down and realised

The streets were not paved with Gold.

And

The Windrush(ed) around the nasty room

I rented, making the cold feel colder.

And

The Windrush(ed) around the words,

N*****, D***** and C***.

And

The Windrush(ed) around my fist,

Because I knew it would have to rise soon.

And

The Windrush(ed) around the parties,

that saved our sanity and drew the community.

And

The Windrush(ed) around the moment

I knew I had to and then owned my own home.

And

The Windrush(ed) into my whole body

when I realised I would never go home!

And

The Windrush(ed) one last time when it sank in March 1954.

It lost its original grandeur to the 492 of ‘us’/’them’/Afro Caribbeans

on board.

And

The Windrush(ed) and the Windrush(ed),

never stronger than I.

And

The Windrush(ed) and the Windrush(ed)

Making June 22nd 1948

almost a fleeting memory passing by.

And

The Windrush(ed) and the Windrush(ed)

and so quickly the years have gone by.

That I built my own Empire

right before your very eyes!

Kelemn Wyllie, a Commercial Manager of Engineering with TfL, reflects on his arrival and subsequent life in London. His poem references the Windrush scandal, which from 2018 revealed the stories of members of the Windrush generation who had been wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation or wrongly deported from Britain.

Leaving the West Indies

Growing up in the West Indies, I was told that England was the land of Kings and Queens

Living in London would be such a dream

Steeping off the ship in 1968 to land filled with milk and honey

At the same time to a land which was not always sunny

Got my first job in London as a Conductor

As I don’t know how to be a doctor

Who wants to be a doctor when I can drive the bus

I am the boss in my bus no one creating no fuss

Now there is a lot of mistrust

I am old but still in England longing for the West Indies to wear me sandal

Nowadays everyone talks about the Windrush scandal

As one Bob said, we should just love each other that is the example

Josh Burrell is a Senior Press Officer at TfL who joined the organisation via the Stuart Ross Communications Internship scheme, which aims to recruit students and people at the start of their careers of African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian heritage. He wrote this poem, which is optimistic about the future.

Colourful

The innocence of youth

Constantly searching for the truth

Asking why am I black, white, brown or other?

Why do we look different to one another?

Is it just a twist of fate?

Or a quirk that God creates?

Colourful or colourless does not equal joyful or joyless, masterful or masterless.

Tick your box. Pin your colours to the mast

Race doesn’t define your social class

I will not get in your box / Do not get in the box

You are more than just a shade. Throw that shade into the darkness.

Be the innocent child and ignore the race. We can all be winners now.

Adam Pearson, a Senior Architect in Built Environment Design with TfL, produced this poem reflecting on the inspiration of the Windrush generation.

A Wind in Our Sail

Our Windrush people came.

Invited. Excited.

Their hopes were soon ground down.

Rejected. Unprotected.

Their strength and hope remained undimmed.

Invincible. Undeniable.

Windrush made our country greater.

Thank heaven up above.

All things come to those who wait.

Let’s demonstrate then celebrate!

One love.

Included here is an excerpt from writing by Courtney Grant, a Senior Engineer - Human Factors (Systems Performance & Integration) in Central Engineering with TfL. The summer of 2020 also saw a resurgence of Black Lives Matter, a decentralised global movement that protests incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against Black people. The growth of the movement was informed by the killing of George Floyd in the USA in May 2020.

The death of George Floyd has shocked the world and is a painful reminder that inequality still exists. The unity shown between people of all races in standing against racism is a real sign of hope and encouragement and this aspect shows the progress that has been made since the time that the Windrush generation first faced the obstacles that they encountered.