A Windrush Day flag raising was hosted in Dartford to mark Windrush Day and the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the SSE Windrush. Organised by the North Kent Caribbean Network working in partnership with Cohesion Plus and Dartford Borough Council, the event took place on Monday 19th June.

In attendance were members from the North Kent Caribbean Network including its founder Claudette Bramble who spoke about her parents and personal experience when they arrived in the UK back in the 1950’s. She spoke about the challenges and discrimination they faced and how the Caribbean communities endured these difficulties in order to build a life for themselves.

Also in attendance was Deputy Lord Lieutenant Kelvin Holford, Mayor of Dartford Cllr Rosanna Currans, Leader of Dartford Borough Council Cllr Jeremy Kite MBE and Chief Inspector Will Lay. The 75th anniversary Windrush flag was then raised to commemorate the day, remember the challenges the community faced and to celebrate the positive contribution made to every facet of British life.

Gurvinder Sandher MBE DL, Artistic Director of Cohesion Plus commented, “We are really pleased to be co-delivering this event with the NKCN marking Windrush Day and the many wonderful contributions made by the Caribbean community to the UK since the 1940’s. We wouldn’t be the diverse society we are now if the Commonwealth hadn’t take up the call to arms by Britain post World War 2 to help rebuild the mother country. As such, today is an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of the Windrush generation and acknowledge their struggles and the many difficulties they faced as well as celebrating their many successes.”