An important lesson. Prince
William reflected on the controversy surrounding his royal tour of
the Caribbean Commonwealth countries while celebrating the contributions
from the British-Caribbean communities.
“My family have been proud to
celebrate this for decades — whether that be through support from my father on
Windrush Day, or more recently during my grandmother’s Platinum Jubilee,
as people from all communities and backgrounds came together to
acknowledge all that has changed over the past seventy years and look
to the future,” the Duke of Cambridge, 40, said on Wednesday, June 22, in a
speech at the unveiling of the National Windrush Monument in London.
June 22 is Windrush Day in the
U.K., which marks the anniversary of more than 1,200 Afro-Caribbean
migrants arriving in the U.K. in June 1948 and the impact they and their
descendants had on the British population. During his speech at the ceremony,
Prince William referenced his own recent visit to the Caribbean in March, which
was met with protests and backlash at the time.
“This is something that
resonated with Catherine and me after our visit to the Caribbean earlier this
year,” he continued. “Our trip was an opportunity to reflect, and we learnt so
much. Not just about the different issues that matter most to the people of the
region, but also how the past weighs heavily on the present.” Recalling
how the passengers of the Windrush — who were invited to migrate to Great
Britain in the wake of World War II — were mistreated, the future king added,
“Only a matter of years ago, tens of thousands of that generation were
profoundly wronged. … That rightly reverberates throughout the Caribbean
community here in the U.K. as well as many in the Caribbean nations.”
During his speech, Prince William celebrated the accomplishments of the
“Windrush generation” and noted that the diversity they brought to the
U.K. is “so important to our country. … [They] made our culture richer,
our services stronger and our fellow countrymen safer.”
The former pilot’s speech
comes three months after he and the Duchess of Cambridge, 40, faced backlash
while on their royal tour.
