Finding Home: A Windrush Story

Alford Dalrymple Gardner is one of the few living passengers to have travelled on the
Empire Windrush. Now published for the first time, this is his stirring life story.

On 22nd June 1948, the Empire Windrush sailed from Kingston, Jamaica, to harbour at
Tilbury Docks. It carried 1,027 passengers and two stowaways, and more than two thirds
of them were West Indies nationals. Alford Dalrymple Gardner was among them.
Alford's story traverses both the uplifting highs and intolerant lows that West Indian
migrants of his generation encountered upon travelling to Britain to forge out a life. From
joining the British military during World War II to being forcibly deported back to Jamaica
once it was won-only to come back to the UK when the government decided it needed him again-Alford witnessed milestone events of the 20th century that shaped the country he still lives in today.

In the context of a supposedly 'post-Imperial' Britain where the lives of West Indian
migrants hang precariously on the whims of the Home Office, Alford's heartening
testimony is a celebration of those who endured hardships so that generations to come
could call this place home.