HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in Essex on 21 June 1948 after scheduled overseas stops in Trinidad, Jamaica, Mexico, Cuba and Bermuda. Arriving in the United Kingdom hoping to start a new life, the ship’s passengers disembarked the following day, the date of which is now marked annually through Windrush Day.
Many of the ship’s British Caribbean–born passengers sought work in the ‘mother country’ during a time when the UK faced a decimated economy and severe labour shortages. The ship has since become symbolic of its passengers and their subsequent generations who have played a pivotal role in shaping modern British culture and society since the Second World War.
To mark the 75th anniversary of Windrush’s arrival, we have struck a UK 50p coin that pays tribute to the many British Caribbean and Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1973. Telling the story of a pivotal period in modern British history, the coin’s reverse design was created by multidisciplinary artist Valda Jackson, who was born in St. Thomas, Jamaica, and moved to England in 1964.
“My work explores the migrant experience and interlocking cultures; I specifically look at identity, isolation and belonging. This extends into my work with other professionals and my long-term collaborative practice, Jackson and Harris.
“I attempt to narrate the everyday effects and feelings with emphasis on those that might emerge from positions of disempowerment and post-colonialism, focusing on the individual, on the everyday, trying not to shy away from the personal. It is what makes my images empathic and humanising in their attention to small details.
“Although I work across different platforms – such as painting, print-making, sculpture, film and writing – there is always a sense of cohesion in all of my works. Whether it’s the work that comes out of my own experience or the experiences of my community, I retain the personal and the emotional, and for me it’s really important to maintain authenticity in all of these various platforms that I work in. There’s always consistency of subject and theme, which is why this particular commission was so perfect for me.”
The artist’s design for the 50p coin commemorating 75 years since the arrival of Windrush depicts two people of the Windrush generation, smartly dressed, standing against a backdrop of the Union flag. She was pleased that this particular image was selected for the coin:
“… it’s more than a celebration of one moment … it’s more than that. It is an acknowledgment of the real, lived experience of generations of ordinary working people, and though we may have struggled, and we still struggle in so many ways, we and our descendants are, in fact, at home. And this is what the image – these figures and the added Union Jack – represents.”
