On this page, you can hear the oral histories of activists who share their memories of the Windrush scandal, including the ambiguities in the law governing nationality that exacerbated confusion around competing and complex notions of Caribbean and British identity and belonging.
These oral history interviews illustrate the tireless campaigning across and beyond the Caribbean community to make people aware of changes to their rights and obligations brought about by successive acts of parliament from 1962. They highlight the laudable efforts of activists to fight injustice, achieve recognitions and to hold the government to account.
June Elizabeth White Smith Gulley
June-Elizabeth White-Smith-Gulley was born in the UK to parents of Jamaican Heritage. She has been a strong advocate of Caribbean descended communities since the 1980s when she first realised that her status as a British citizen could easily have been removed from...
Professor Patrick Vernon
Professor Patrick Vernon, OBE is a social commentator, campaigner and cultural historian. He led the campaign for a national Windrush Day and as details of the Windrush Scandal became to emerge, he kick-started the campaign for an amnesty for the Windrush...
Gertrude Ngozi Chinegwundoh
Gertrude Ngozi Chinegwundoh is secretary of the Ebe Union UK, an Ibo community organization. She is a member of Windrush Lives and works to raise awareness about the impact of the scandal on people from the Caribbean diaspora, Nigeria and the wider (new)...
Neil Mukherjee
Neil Mukherjee was born in Huddersfield in the early 1970s to parents of Indian heritage. He became involved in community activist in 2018 and runs the Windrush Commonwealth Service Oxford CIC.Transcript [coming...
Roland Houslin
Roland Houslin was born in the UK in the late 1960s to parents of Jamaican heritage. He served in the British army for eleven years. His family were directly impacted by the ruling, which prevents the return to the UK of people with ‘Indefinite Leave to Remain’...
Cecil Gutzmore
Cecil Gutzmore was born in Jamaica in the 1940s and moved to the UK to join his family in 1961. He is a veteran community activist, retired academic (historian) and independent researcher.Transcript [coming...
