Windrush Foundation was the first organisation to commemorate Windrush Day in 1995, but Sam King was the person who first conceived the idea back in 1967. He was among the cohorts who arrived in June 1948, and had coined the term ‘Windrush Generation’. Sam was born in Jamaica on 20 February 1926.
Were it not for him, the Empire Windrush might have disappeared into the mist of time. He was the driving force behind its commemoration, placing an advertisement on 24 December 1967 in the Weekly Gleaner newspaper asking for former Windrush passengers to contact him. The following year, he collaborated with The Sunday Times, which published a special supplement on 30 June 1968 commemorating the 20th anniversary of Windrush Day. Sam was so convincing that newspaper reporter Dick Adler travelled to Jamaica in April 1968 to find and interview former passengers there too.
Sam continued his efforts in 1972 and again in August 1974, helping to organise interviews on BBC TV programmes, the latter being the Ship of Good Hope, narrated by James Cameron. The 1980s brought several crucial milestones. Sam King was elected Mayor of Southwark (1983/1984), during which he supported American actor Sam Wanamaker’s application for planning permission to rebuild the Globe Theatre — the Shakespearean playhouse originally built in 1599 and destroyed by fire in June 1613.
The 40th anniversary of Windrush Day was commemorated in June 1988, hosted by the Mayor of Lambeth at the Town Hall in Brixton, where a memorial plaque now stands at the entrance of the building. Sam was the organiser. That April, The Sunday Times covered the story again, publishing an article titled ‘Landfall for Empire’s Children’, and Sam also appeared on the Terry Wogan BBC TV show to promote the forthcoming commemoration.
Sam King and community advocate Arthur Torrington founded Windrush Foundation in 1995, and the organisation became a registered charity in 1996. In October 1997, Bernie Grant MP hosted the launch of Windrush ’50 at a reception at the House of Commons. National events were organised in 1998 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Windrush Day on 22 June. Sam was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) and, during that year, published his memoir titled Climbing Up the Rough Side of the Mountain. Windrush gained wider public recognition when Prince Charles (now King Charles III) held a reception for the Foundation at St James’s Palace. BBC TV also broadcast four episodes of a documentary called Windrush during June 1998.
Windrush Foundation’s first publication in 2005 was We Served, which honoured four Caribbean veterans of the Second World War who had served in Britain. In 2008, an oral history project produced a video and booklet called Windrush Pioneers. The 60th anniversary of Windrush Day was commemorated in June of that year, and Windrush Foundation collaborated with the Imperial War Museum on an exhibition called From War to Windrush, which brought together photographs of Second World War ex-service personnel and Windrush passengers. Sam himself was a former RAF Flight Engineer during the Second World War and had returned to Britain aboard the Empire Windrush.
In 2012, British audiences witnessed one of the most moving moments of the London Olympic Games opening ceremony, when dozens of Black people and a giant model of the Empire Windrush entered the stadium during the historical pageant, representing the Windrush Generation — the cohorts of June 1948.
Commemorating the 65th anniversary of Windrush Day on 22 June 2013, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg issued a press release paying tribute to “the strength and resilience of the Windrush Generation and the lives they built in Britain.”
Sam passed away on 17 June 2016. The Times obituary, published three days later, described him as ‘Mr Windrush’.
The 70th anniversary in 2018 was overshadowed by what became known as the Windrush Scandal, which exposed the mistreatment of thousands of Caribbean settlers who had been wrongly denied their rights, detained, and in many cases deported despite having every right to live and work in the UK. Also in 2018, the Government publicly acknowledged 22 June as Windrush Day, instituting its commemoration as an annual national event.
During the 75th anniversary in 2023, Windrush Foundation created seven education resources, all freely downloadable at www.windrushfoundation.com. In 2024, the organisation collaborated with Transport for London as it renamed six overground rail lines, one of which — running from North to South London — is now called the Windrush Line. Sam was honoured at the launch.
His legacy endures in every commemoration, every resource, and every recognition that bears the name he worked so hard to preserve.
Written by Arthur Torrington CBE (April 2026)