SAM kING

After seeing an advertisement in The Daily Gleaner offering passage to Britain in order to work for £28.10, King, and 491 fellow Caribbeans, decided to make their way to the 'Mother Country'. When they arrived, the immigrants were met by the press, and a plane was sent by The Evening Standard to greet the mas they sailed up the channel. The paper's headline that day read: "Welcome Home! Evening Standard plane greets the 400 sons of Empire". King echoes this sentiment: "Some were welcoming, "he says, "but others weren't, they had an imperialist attitude. They thought people from the colonies should be planting bananas and chocolate. Here joined the RAF and later worked as a manager for the Royal Mail and also became the first black mayor of the London Borough of Southwark. We think of this as a story of new arrivals - yet many of those coming to Britain on the Windrush were often coming back to Britain. That was true of Sam King who, like about a third of those onboard, had fought for the RAF and had his medal spinned proudly to his chest when we met this week. Indeed, the Windrush had been sent to Jamaica to bring back some West Indian RAF men on temporary leave. The decision to place an advertisement in the Jamaican Gleaner newspaper was an entrepreneurial opportunity to fill the empty berths. One 3 page typescript report by Sam King, a passenger of the Windrush ship.
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