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Steel Drums Herald Westminster Windrush Anniversary

There’s no more fitting sound to pay respect to the Windrush generation than a Caribbean steel band, and that’s what attendees of the thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey were treated to in celebration of 70 years since the arrival of Caribbean migrants on the Empire Windrush ship.

It’s been a controversial time for the government in regards to those originally welcomed to the UK to help the country overcome an employment crisis after the Second World War, as it was recently revealed that records had been lost, and some of those people who had journeyed to the UK by request had been or had had family, deported because of a lack of official paperwork.

Baroness Floella Benjamin, patron of the Windrush Foundation, was in attendance, and danced in the naves to the likes of songs such as Amazing Grace played on the steel pans, according to the BBC. Other guests included Prime Minister Theresa May and London Mayor Sadie Khan, but the majority of attendees were the family’s of those who came to the UK as part of the Windrush generation.

Addressing the congregation, Reverend Canon Joel Edwards acknowledged the hardships that have been endured by this generation, institutional racism as just the start, but also celebrated the gift that this generation has made to Britain in terms of leaders in the worlds of politics, business, education, music and sport.

From this year on, each 22nd June will be marked officially as Windrush Day, with government grants in support of events celebrating the day and the contributions of the Windrush generation to life in Britain.