We owe debt of gratitude to Windrush generation,’ says Prince Charles
The Prince of Wales has paid tribute to the Windrush generation as Britain celebrates 72 years since their first arrival at Tilbury, saying “the diversity of our society is its greatest strength”.
He expressed particular thanks to the “indispensable” part they played in staffing the National Health Service.
“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,” he said.
“Many of them had served with distinction in the British Armed Forces during the Second World War, just as their fathers and grandfathers had in the First World War.
“Now they came to lend their hard work and skill to a country rebuilding in peacetime, and to forge a better future for themselves and their families.
“They could hardly have imagined how they, and those that followed them, would make such a profound and permanent contribution to British life.”