National Windrush document archive project launched at Birmingham City University

A new national archive set up by an African diaspora political historian at Birmingham City University (BCU) is calling for people of Caribbean descent, particularly the Windrush Generation, to share documents that tell the story of their lives in the UK between the 1940s and 1980s.

Dr Tony Talburt, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Black Studies, has founded the initiative to collect and archive personal and professional paperwork such as boarding passes, letters and postcards, payslips, letters of employment, mortgage letters, certificates of qualifications, driving licenses and other such historical materials. 

Donations, which will be used to build accurate archival histories of the many generations of Caribbean migrants who settled in post-war Britain, will be housed at a bespoke archive at BCU. 

Dr Talburt, a published author on African diaspora and political history, said: “Although people of African descent have lived and settled in Britain for about two thousand years, the 75th anniversary of the arrival of Caribbean migrants via the HMT Windrush has brought a renewed focus on the significance of these peoples and their contribution to the UK. 

“By donating to the collection, people will allow us to preserve critically important documents for future generations and research, helping us to set up one of the country’s first archives based exclusively on such personal documents.”