By Bill Hern
There is no doubt that many of the West Indian passengers who disembarked from the Empire Windrush on 22nd June 1948 suffered challenges and hardships in the ‘Mother Country’ but there were also a great many acts of kindness that should not be forgotten. None more so than that shown by a church in Balham on the first Sunday after the ship’s arrival in Tilbury.
The Church of Ascension in Malwood Road, Balham in London is situated only a few hundred yards from the Clapham South Deep Shelter where on 27th June 1948 over one hundred West Indian men (they were all men) were about to spend their first Sunday in England after arriving in the country five days earlier.
Reverend Bryn Thomas, the Vicar of the Church of Ascension, awoke that morning thinking about the West Indians temporarily housed in the Deep Shelter far beneath the trains running on the Northern Line. Most of the occupants of the Deep Shelter would have been regular churchgoers in the Caribbean but, over 4,000 miles from home and their local churches, they were faced with what appeared likely to be a pretty miserable day. The weather forecast was for coolish temperatures with the occasional shower. In the England of the 1940s everything closed on a Sunday and of course there was no television and certainly no Sunday football. All that lay in store for the men was a day walking and chatting on Clapham Common and perhaps taking shelter from the showers in the huge marquee that had been specially erected on the Common.
Reverend Thomas had the idea of inviting the men to a party at the Church that evening. He made the short walk to the Shelter and announced that all were welcome.
It seems that Reverend Thomas made this offer before he had secured the support of the congregation as he only announced his plan at the morning service. This created a flurry of activity.
When it was realised that there was insufficient crockery a churchwarden came to the rescue by procuring a bathchair to wheel to nearby St Luke’s Church where he was able to borrow seventy cups and saucers. With the rattling of crockery no doubt disturbing the peaceful Sunday afternoon he trundled back to the Church of Ascension without any reported breakages.
Women members of the church rallied to the cause and baked two hundred cakes in a single afternoon as well as making and cutting a similar number of sandwiches. This amazing achievement is made all the more remarkable and commendable as this was during a period of rationing and, as a Church representative Mr. W H Garland told The Clapham Observer, they had to “scrounge tea and sugar.” No doubt many Church members sacrificed their own allowance in order to entertain their West Indian guests.
It is a sign of the times that newspaper reports assumed the baking and sandwich making was the preserve of the female members of the Church.
Between eighty and one hundred of the men from the Deep Shelter accepted the invitation to the Church.
The event was a tremendous success and was even reported in the national press, the Daily Herald of 28th June gave it the headline “Threw A Party For Men From Jamaica.” Mr. W H Garland said that the West Indians were “charming people; they were churchmen and keen.”
Final word must go to one of the West Indians who, after the evening service and the ‘party’ said he and his compatriots had been given “the time of our lives.”
By mid-July all the West Indians had found work and left the Deep Shelter, the marquee was taken down and Clapham South returned to normality.
However, the links with the Empire Windrush don’t end there. On 23rd February 1952 Lloyd Barrington Jackson – passenger number 704 – married Grethel Christine Webster at the Church of Ascension and the officiating Vicar was Reverend Bryn Thomas.
The Church of Ascension (now known simply as Ascension Balham) has remained a place that welcomes everyone. It is a vibrant community Church (see the link below). If anyone is doing a Windrush-related tour they could do a lot worse than stopping off at the Church for coffee and cake and a very warm welcome while they imagine the evening of 27th June 1948 and that great act of kindness.