WINDRUSH FOUNDATION 28 YEARS ON

In 1995, Samuel Beaver King and Arthur Torrington (co-founders) began work on establishing a CHARITY which delivered heritage and community services, helping to strengthen the identity of people of West Indian heritage living in Britain. ‘Windrush’, ‘Empire Windrush’ and ‘Windrush Generation’ and such terms have always been key in our operations. Sam was the one to have led the first Windrush commemorative event (he 20th anniversary) in 1968. He was a passenger on the ship Empire Windrush, and a former RAF WWII serviceman; the first Black Mayor of Southwark, London. Sam was first to have used the term, ‘Windrush Generation’, and had been referring to the passengers who arrived at Tilbury Docks, Essex, on June 22, 1948, on the Empire Windrush. Sam was the founder of Windrush Day.

Arthur has been the Director responsible for publicity from 1995. Sam brought together in 1968, 1988, 1998 and 2003 dozens of his fellow Windrush passengers to commemorate the ship’s arrival. As the years went by, most of them have passed away. With their support, Windrush Foundation built the platform on which all other organisations or projects that include the name Windrush operate. We were first to have promoted ‘Empire Windrush’ as an iconic symbol of the West Indian presence in the UK. In 2018, ‘Windrush Generation’ became an almost everyday term among the British media, British Government, Local Government, and community officials. The terminology is often wrongly conflated with ‘Caribbean’.

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