Windrush pioneer Alford Gardner dies aged 98

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One of the nation’s last surviving passengers of the Empire Windrush has died aged 98, The Independent has learned.

Alford Gardner passed away on Tuesday, according to his son Howard.

It is understood that the Leeds resident had been unwell for some time and his death sparked an outpouring of online tributes.

“One of the last Empire Windrush passengers has gone to the ancestors,” said campaigner Patrick Vernon. “Alford was always full of hope and aspiration.”

“He was a national treasure who has left a powerful marker and a legacy for all of us to be proud of.

“Upon Alford’s passing, what’s quite clear is the need to acknowledge members of the Windrush generation while they’re still alive and make sure that Windrush is properly reflected in the national curriculum and narrative of Britain”.

HMT Empire Windrush arrived in England nearly eight decades ago, bringing hundreds of people from the Caribbean who answered Britain’s call to help fill post-war labour shortages.

The Windrush scandal, also known as the Home Office scandal, erupted in 2018 when British and predominantly Black citizens of Caribbean heritage were wrongly detained, deported or threatened with deportation by the UK government despite having the right to live in the UK. Many lost homes and jobs and were denied access to healthcare and benefits.

Speaking to The Independent, broadcaster Baroness Floella Benjamin described him as a legend and “iconic figure”.

“Alford Gardner was a living legend, an iconic figure who personified the spirit, resilience and courage of the Windrush Generation,” said the baroness, who chairs the government’s Windrush Commemoration Committee and the Windrush Portrait Committee.

“His smile said he was never going to let the many adversities he faced make him bitter and destroy his inner soul.

“At the unveiling of the National Windrush Monument in 2022 at Waterloo Station, he represented the Windrush Pioneers past and present, who had helped to get Britain back on its feet after the war, to make the country he had fought for in the RAF, a better place.

“As chair of the Windrush Portrait Committee, it was a joy, an honour and a privilege selecting him to have his portrait painted for King Charles 111 as part of the Royal Collection. So his legacy will not be forgotten, it will live on forever in history. May he rest in peace with the angels”.

Born in Jamaica in 1926, Mr Gardner volunteered for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a teenager.

He served as an engineer and mechanic during WW2 after travelling to the UK and was one of thousands of Caribbean RAF ground crew who were based at RAF Hunmanby Moor, near Filey in Yorkshire.

Following the end of the war, he met his future wife, Norma McKenna, at the Leeds Mecca dance hall before he sailed back to Jamaica in 1947.

However, he returned with his brother Gladstone aboard the Empire Windrush, landing at Tilbury Docks in June 1948 before making his way back to Leeds where he settled.

“Coming over on the ship was beautiful! I was quite accustomed to travelling by sea as I’d done it before,” he told The Independent ahead of the 75th anniversary of Windrush’s arrival in 2023. “We stopped at different locations, picked up people, and had a happy time.

“For me, going to England was like coming home for the second time; I had some very good friends here.”

During the same year that he settled in Britain, Mr Gardner co-founded the UK’s first Caribbean cricket club in Leeds which became a hub for the local West Indian community during the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr Gardner was confronted by racism following his arrival back in Britain – from initial difficulty getting a job because he was Black and intimidation attempts when he did find work, to struggles securing accommodation and people disapproving of his relationship with a white woman.

He was one of ten trailblazers of the early Windrush generation whose portrait was commissioned by King Charles as part of the Royal Collection in 2023 and appeared in the BBC’s Windrush: Portraits of a Generation special, which was broadcast the same year for Windrush 75.

Finding Home: A Windrush Story, Mr Gardner’s memoirs which he co-authored with his son Howard, was also published in 2023.

In February, Mr Gardner received the Leeds Award in a ceremony at the Civic Hall in recognition of his contribution to the city.