Alford Gardner: Windrush trailblazer laid to rest in Leeds home city

One of the last surviving passengers of the Empire Windrush ship has been laid to rest in his home city of Leeds.

Alford Gardner died in September, aged 98, prompting an outpouring of tributes from figures around the nation.

Hundreds of mourners, including Lord Simon Woolley and Arthur Torrington, founder of Windrush Foundation, gathered to pay their respects at Leeds Parish church in Kirkdale on Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Gardner’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren paid tribute to a man remembered among them for “not leaving the dance floor until the very end”.

“He’s always been a big character,” Mr Gardner’s daughter said: “but, to us, he was just our dad”.

“He never made a big dream about coming on the Windrush (ship). He just came here with his brother to start a new life”.

Mr Gardner’s coffin was draped in the flag of Jamaica, where he was born, while reggae and dancehall music featured throughout the service, namely ‘I Am Blessed’ by Mr Vegas and ‘Redemption Song’ by Bob Marley.

Working to break down racial barriers throughout his lifetime, Mr Gardner launched Britain’s first Caribbean cricket club and representatives from the club paid homage to him by raising their bats in salute as his coffin was carried in and out of the church.

He set up the club in Leeds in 1948 – three months after arriving in the UK from Jamaica on the HMT Empire Windrush.

Having also served in the RAF as an engineer and motor mechanic during the Second World War, Mr Gardner got married and had eight children.

Actress and campaigner Baroness Floella Benjamin said Mr Gardner “encapsulated joy, dignity and courage”.

Leeds City Council said it presented him with the Leeds Award in February “for his vast achievements and contribution to the city”.

Mr Gardner was 22 years old when he boarded the ship in Kingston, Jamaica, with his brother Gladstone before they and hundreds of Caribbean migrants called on to rebuild post-war Britain disembarked the ship at Tilbury Docks in Essex.

Last year, the King hailed new portraits of the Windrush generation, including Mr Gardner, as pictorial records of a “very special” group of people.

During heartfelt speeches at his funeral, the Gardner family recalled that their patriarch humbly regarded himself as “a barefoot kid from Jamaica who was honoured by the King of England”, adding that his receipt of an Outstanding Contribution award at the Daily Mirror Pride Of Britain Award in 2023 was a proud moment in his life.

Last year, the Prince of Wales visited Mr Gardner at his home in Leeds for ITV’s Pride Of Britain: A Windrush Special documentary, before taking him to Headingley cricket ground for a surprise celebration with cricketing stars.

A photograph of the pair was featured in his funeral order of service booklet.

Acknowledging Mr Gardner’s achievements during a speech to the congregation, Arthur Torrington told the church: “He not only served Leeds but the whole country and world”.