Prince pays tribute to ‘profound’ legacy of Windrush generation
THE PRINCE of Wales has paid tribute to the “profound and permanent contribution” of the Windrush generation to Britain, as he says the diversity of modern society is its “greatest strength”.
The Prince, in a message to mark Windrush Day, said the first generation of Windrush immigrants had made an “immeasurable difference” to “so many aspects” of their new home.
Expressing a “debt of gratitude”, he said that the “rich diversity of cultures” that now made up Britain lay “at the heart of what we can be as a nation”, adding that they “strengthen and enrich the fabric of our national life”.
“Today, as we honour the legacy of the Windrush generation, and the invaluable contribution of black people in Britain, I dearly hope that we can continue to listen to each other’s sto- ries and to learn from one another,” he said. “The diversity of our society is its greatest strength and gives us so much to celebrate.”
Speaking in a video message posted on social media, the Prince did not explicitly refer to the Black Lives Matter movement but praised James Berry, a poet who sailed from Jamaica to the UK in 1949, who “never avoided the difficult issues of injustice in history, or in the present, but always sought for mutual understanding”.
He stressed the need “truly to hear one another, and truly to see, and through so doing, to understand”.
Paying special tribute to the black community he described as “hit particularly hard” by the coronavirus pandemic, the Prince hailed all those of African and Caribbean descent who have been “an indispensable part” of the NHS “since its very beginning”.
Addressing the Windrush generation and their families, he said: “They could hardly have imagined how they, and those that followed them, would make such a profound and permanent contribution to British life.
“Today offers an opportunity to express the debt of gratitude we owe to that first Windrush generation for accepting the invitation to come to Britain and, above all, to recognise the immeasurable difference that they, their children and their grandchildren, have made to so many aspects of our public life, to our culture and to every sector of our economy.”
♦ The Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Cambridge undertook their first engagement as a duo, for a video call hailing the work of children’s hospices. The Duchess of Cambridge promised to plant a sunflower in honour of nineyear-old Fraser Delf, after his brother, Stuie, raised £18,500 for the hospice which cared for him.
The Duchess of Cornwall said: “We’d like to thank everybody that works for hospices across the UK for the incredible job you do and allowing families to treasure their moments together.”