The King has commissioned artists to create portraits of members of this Windrush Generation to mark the 75th anniversary

To mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush to British shores in 1948, and with it over 1,000 passengers – 802 of them workers and families from the West Indies who had agreed to settle in the UK to help with the British post-war recovery – His Majesty The King has commissioned 10 leading artists to create portraits of pioneering members of this Windrush Generation.

This new one-off documentary film follows their efforts, as they create works to be permanently displayed at the Royal Collection to serve as a lasting memorial to all the men, women and children who came to Britain from the Caribbean to rebuild a nation devastated by war.

Due to losses during the Second World War, the United Kingdom was struggling with labour shortages. The British Nationality Act 1948 afforded citizenship of, the right to entry to and the right to settle in the UK to all people living in the United Kingdom and its colonies. This meant that people from colonies in the West Indies were invited to settle in the UK, where they could live and work and contribute to the nation’s recovery as well as enriching its culture.

Introducing the documentary, His Majesty The King, says: “It is, I believe, crucially important that we should truly see and hear these pioneers who stepped off the Empire Windrush at Tilbury in June 1948 – only a few months before I was born – and those who followed over the decades, to recognise and celebrate the immeasurable difference that they, their children and their grandchildren have made to this country.”

We hear first-person testimony from the Windrush sitters, many of whom are now in their 90s, as they speak openly and honestly about their experiences of arriving in Britain, making lives for themselves and the contributions that they have made to their communities – and indeed to the nation as a whole.

The film also follows the making of the portraits, as both artist and sitter come together – with the artists reflecting on their own experience of undertaking this special commission, as well as offering insights into their own unique creative approach and the methods or techniques they employ.

One for the artists and art lovers amongst us, then, as well as the social historians and those who are rightly stirred by such tales of self-sacrifice and adventure.

The sitters and their artists are: Delisser Bernard, who is painted by Honor Titus; Linda Haye, painted by Shannon Bono; Alford Gardner, painted by Chloe Cox; Carmen Munroe, painted by Sonia Boyce; Edna Henry, painted by Amy Sherald; Jessie Stephens, painted by Sahara Longe; ‘Big’ John Richards, painted by Deanio X; Laceta Reid, painted by Serge Attukwei Clottey; Sir Geoff Palmer, painted by Derek Fordjour; Gilda Oliver, painted by Clifton Powell; and Carmen Munroe, who is painted by Sonia Boyce.