Press view: 12 June 2008

To mark the sixtieth anniversary of the arrival of the MV Empire Windrush in Britain in 1948, From War to Windrush, a new special exhibition at Imperial War Museum London, tells the personal stories of West Indian people during the First and Second World Wars.

Using historical material and personal memorabilia, much of which will be on public display for the first time, From War to Windrush explores the involvement of Black men and women from the West Indies and Britain on the frontline and home front during these conflicts. The exhibition also examines how their experiences contributed to the establishment of Britain’s contemporary Caribbean populations.

Among the exhibits on display are pages from the MV Empire Windrush passenger list; the telegram from the King and Queen expressing their sympathy for the death of Walter Tull, the former Tottenham Hotspur footballer who became the first Black British Army Officer in 1917; and photos and audio testimony from Connie Mark, who joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in Jamaica in 1943 and served for 10 years in the British military hospital in Kingston, achieving the rank of corporal.

Other items in the exhibition include Sam Martinez’s passport, one of 800 men from British Honduras (now Belize) who travelled to Scotland in 1941 to work as foresters; and the MBE belonging to Sam King, who returned to Britain on the MV Empire Windrush after serving in the RAF and later became the first Black mayor of Southwark. The story of Cy Grant, a navigator in Bomber Command, who was shot down over The Netherlands during the Second World War and spent the rest of the war in German Prisoner of War camps will also be told within the exhibition.

Approximately 16,000 men from the West Indies volunteered to fight for Britain in the First World War, and over 10,000 servicemen and women answered the call of the ‘Mother Country’ during the Second World War. Thousands more served as merchant seamen. From War to Windrush explores how, despite facing discrimination during their service, many former Black West Indian servicemen and women and civilian war workers returned to settle in Britain after the Second World War.

The MV Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury docks on 21 June 1948. Four hundred and ninety-two West Indian passengers had paid the £28 10s fare to travel to Britain in search of work. Most were ex-servicemen. Although smaller numbers of West Indian passengers had previously arrived on other ships throughout 1947, the arrival of the MV Empire Windrush is now seen as a landmark in the making of a culturally diverse Britain. The first waves of mass immigration from the West Indies continued into the late 1940s and early 1950s, and 10 years after the arrival of the Empire Windrush 125,000 West Indians were living in Britain. Today, one per cent of the current British population is of Caribbean background

From War to Windrush was developed in consultation with Arthur Torrington,
Co-founder and Secretary of The Equiano Society and Windrush Foundation; Colin Douglas, Historian and Co-author of West Indian Women at War: British Racism in World War II; Stephen Bourne, Southwark Historian and author of Aunt Esther’s Story and Their Long Voyage Home, for the BBC's 1998 Windrush season; Rev Dr Rosemarie Mallett, Priest in charge of a church in Brixton; and Dr Hakim Adi, Reader in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at Middlesex University and founding member and Chair of the Black and Asian Studies Association. 

Admission Free
www.iwm.org.uk/windrush

For press information contact: Laura McKechan, Imperial War Museum London, Tel: 020 7416 5311, email: lmckechan@iwm.org.uk

Note to Editors:

From War to Windrush Events
Monthly from 26 July 2008 – 21 March 2009
An accompanying series of free adult events will examine key themes featured in the exhibition as well as explore the wider experiences of Black men and women during the First and Second World War.

Topics covered include the history of Black people living and working in the UK before the First World War; the long relationship between the UK and the Caribbean; propaganda created for the Caribbean audience; American presence in the Caribbean; the experiences of Black Caribbean men and women serving in the UK; Black victims of the Nazis and post-war life in the Caribbean and UK.

For a full programme of events visit www.iwm.org.uk/windrush

New online exhibition
Through My Eyes: Stories of Conflict, Belonging and Identity
From 19 June 2008
Alongside From War to Windrush, the Imperial War Museum is also launching a new online exhibition as part of the Their Past Your Future programme entitled Through My Eyes: Stories of Conflict, Belonging and Identity. The exhibition will illustrate the ways in which various twentieth century conflicts have made people rethink or reaffirm their own sense of identity and belonging. The online exhibition features a wide variety of personal stories from a range of different countries. Some explore the influence of the Empire and Commonwealth on personal choices to fight and serve, whilst other stories are from men, women and children forced to leave their own war-torn country and settle here in the UK.

The exhibition will be launched in two phases. The first, which goes live in June, includes stories from Windrush passengers, First World War volunteers, Kindertransport children, Basque evacuees, displaced persons from the Second World War, people affected by the Indian Partition and also those affected by the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. The second phase will be launched in the autumn and will include the experiences of Vietnamese boat people, refugees from Bosnia, refugees from Kosovo and survivors of the Rwandan genocide.

www.theirpast-yourfuture.org.uk/throughmyeyes

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM LONDON
This London branch of the Imperial War Museum houses exhibits ranging from tanks and aircraft to photographs and personal letters; it also holds film and sound recordings, and some of the twentieth century's best-known paintings. Visitors can explore six floors of exhibitions and displays, including a permanent exhibition dedicated to the Holocaust and a changing programme of special temporary exhibitions.  

Imperial War Museum London
Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ
10.00am – 6.00pm
Enquiries 020 7416 5320/5321
www.iwm.org.uk
Press Contact:  Laura McKechan 020 7416 5311 lmckechan@iwm.org.uk 
Victoria Smith 020 7416 5497 vsmith@iwm.org.uk 

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM
The national museum of the experiences of people who have lived, fought and died in conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth since 1914.
 
The Imperial War Museum is the museum of everyone’s story: the history of modern war and people’s experience of war and wartime life in Britain and the Commonwealth. It is an educational and historical institution responsible for archives, collections and sites of outstanding national importance.
 
The Museum’s five branches include Imperial War Museum London, which houses the award-winning The Holocaust exhibition; the Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast; the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, housed in Churchill’s secret headquarters below Whitehall; Imperial War Museum Duxford, a world-renowned aviation and heritage complex; and Imperial War Museum North, one of the most talked-about Museums in the UK.

THEIR PAST, YOUR FUTURE
Their Past Your Future is a UK-wide education project led by a partnership of the Imperial War Museum; Museums, Libraries and Archives England; National Library of Wales; Northern Ireland Museum Council and Scottish Museums Council, supported by the Big Lottery Fund. The project aims to increase young people’s understanding and appreciation of history, national identity and civic participation/responsibility through learning programmes, engaging with veterans of conflict and with primary sources from UK museums, libraries and archives. The project was established in 2004 as part of a UK-wide commemorative programme of funding, events and education projects for the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War. This current phase of Their Past Your Future was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown at the Imperial War Museum on 22 June 2006.