Windrush Day 2023: Campaign to retrieve HMT Empire Windrush anchor launched

The anchor of the HMT Empire Windrush will be searched, retrieved, and put on permanent display in the UK. A campaign to raise GBP 1 million for this purpose has been launched on the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the ship at Tilbury Docks in Essex.

It was June 22, 1948, when 500 people from the Caribbean islands of Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago arrived on board HMT Empire Windrush to rebuild the post-World War II UK. These people are called the Windrush generation and June 22 is celebrated as Windrush Day every year.

But the HMT Empire Windrush caught fire and sunk off Algeria after its final voyage in 1954. A plan has been unveiled to locate the wreckage and pull off the 1.5-tonne anchor and keep it on permanent display. The anchor will be kept on a permanent display to honor the people who came to rebuild Britain after World War II destruction. It will also be done to mark the beginning of a multi-ethnic and multicultural UK. The anchor will be on display so that the memories of the Windrush generation are never lost.


The wreckage of the ship is lying most likely in the Mediterranean Sea in an area of about 120 kilometers. It will not be an easy task to search and find the wreckage and pull out the anchor from the depth of the sea. Sam King MBE has established Windrush Foundation and his father Michael King has been made one of its trustees.

The permanent display of the anchor is also important keeping in mind the fact that many people from the Windrush generation faced racial discrimination, as many as 411 were sent back in 2018 after they were declared illegal immigrants in 2012. Some of them were sent to immigrant detention camps. Later, the government apologized to them in 2022.

On the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the ship, special programs are being held across the UK. King Charles III launched the program in Buckingham Palace on Windrush Day, June 22, 2023.

FAQs:

Q1:How and when did the HMT Empire Windrush sink?
The HMT Empire Windrush caught fire and sunk off Algeria in 1954.

Q2:When did the HMT Empire Windrush arrive UK?
It was June 22, 1948, when the HMT Empire Windrush arrived in the UK with 500 people onboard.