Peterborough honours Windrush generation

Supported by Gillian Beasley, chief executive of Peterborough City Council and Rob Hill, Assistant Director of, Peterborough City Council, the flag was raised by Julia Davidson, representing the Windrush generation. The flag will be flying outside the town hall for the next seven days.

Acknowledging the hard work given by the Windrush generation, Community Leader, Julia said: “For many decades Peterborough has a long history of welcoming people from other nations. The people of the Windrush generation are an integral part of Peterborough’s past and future development.

“We are paying our respects to them. It’s about having an awareness and raising awareness. We have helped to create that today and I am elated.”

Affecting Julia’s family directly, her half brother was ‘five minutes away from being detained’ as they have battled to gain recognition of his citizenship. She said: I have mixed emotions knowing what the Windrush generation had to endure. My 97-year-old father is a descendent from the Windrush generation and my half-brother has second generation impact. He was five minutes away from being detained at an immigration centre. If my father wasn’t alive, I’m not sure what we would have done. He is British. They would have probably sent him to Jamaica, where he wouldn’t have known anywhere or anyone. ”

Hoping to continue to raise awareness of the contribution and struggles of the Windrush generation and future generations, Julia says ‘more can be done’, having had several families across the city reach out to her to help with their immigration status. Future projects to help ‘instill belonging’ are being planned and Julia hopes the flag will continue to be raised to mark other holidays such as Black History Month.

The flag was raised in unison across the country, with other cities including Manchester, Newcastle, London and Leeds. A moment’s silence was also included to honour those of the generation and all future generations.