Tributes pour in for Windrush passenger Alford Gardner

LONDON:

Britain’s future king, the Prince of Wales, Prince William, has led tributes to a Jamaican cricketer and RAF veteran, Alford Gardner who died in Leeds last week.

Gardner, who travelled from the Caribbean to the United Kingdom on the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948, died at the age of 98 from bowel cancer on October 1.

Prince William said: “I was so sorry to hear of the passing of Alford Gardner, one of the last surviving passengers of the Empire Windrush.”

He continued: “I was delighted to spend some time with him last summer and hear his story. As a leading figure in the Caribbean community in West Yorkshire, he changed the lives of so many with his courage and positivity.

“He leaves behind a legacy for us all to be proud of and will be remembered for his warmth, courage, and, of course, his unwavering love of cricket.”

In 1943, Gardner saw an advertisement in The Gleaner newspaper seeking recruits for the RAF in the United Kingdom.

Young Gardner was eager to follow in his father’s footsteps and signed up for duty. Before long, the Jamaican travelled to north Yorkshire, in northern England, to a military training base.

Commenting on his initial experience when arriving in the UK in June, Gardner said:”Nothing in my 18 years of living in Jamaica prepared me for the grey that covered the whole sky. No warnings could have prepared me for the biting cold,” he recalled.

In the years following his training, he served as an engineer and mechanic for the RAF in North Yorkshire.

PORTRAIT COMMISSIONED

Gardner is also remembered for founding Britain’s first Caribbean cricket club in the UK during 1948.

Created as a social hub for mainly Caribbean men, who settled in England and the county of Yorkshire, it was simply named The Caribbean Cricket Club.

After the Second World War, Gardner met his future wife, Norma McKenna, during an engineering course in Leeds.

The couple eventually had nine children: four sons; Howard, Edmund, Roger, who predeceased him; and a baby boy who died at birth.

Gardner also had five girls: Laraine, Maxine, Sharon, Diane, and Paula.

Howard, a retired office equipment engineer, co-authored his father’s 2023 autobiography, Finding Home: A Windrush Story.

In 2022, King Charles commissioned a portrait of Gardner. The portrait was unveiled in June 2023 during a reception at Buckingham Palace for King Charles’ commemoration of the Windrush 75th anniversary.

During 2023, the father of nine children was featured on a British television series titled Pride of Britain: A Windrush Special documentary. During the production, he was visited by Prince William, receiving the Outstanding Contribution Award.

His name has been inscribed on the wall at the Leeds civic hall near to his home for decades.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

Earlier this year, Gardner received a life-time achievement award for his contribution to the improvement of society in the United Kingdom (UK)

The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Al Garthwaite, said during the award ceremony: “Alford Gardner is a true inspiration and a pioneer who has made a lasting impact on his adopted home while blazing a trail for so many members of the city’s Caribbean community.”

She added: “We are proud to honour him for the contribution he has made to Leeds and to ensure that his remarkable story continues to be told for many generations to come.”

As well as his key role in establishing the city’s cricket club, Gardner visited schools extensively to give talks about his life.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) also paid tribute to Gardner. A spokesperson for the body said: “He did so much for the black cricketing community in this country.”

Reminiscing on his childhood memories of playing cricket in the Caribbean, Gardner said:

“When I grew up in Jamaica, everyone played for a cricket team. We’d spend all weekend down at the cricket club, and the boys and girls would be scattered around the boundary playing a mini-Test match of their own.

“It was the highlight of our week. We carried that on in Leeds and other Yorkshire towns and cities.”

Former Caribbean Cricket Club captain Claude Davis, commenting on Gardner’s achievements, said: “When Alford set out to do this (form the Club), it was almost impossible.

“The amount of red tape or racism we had to go through required being mentally strong to overcome the various obstacles.”

The Caribbean Cricket Club currently has three senior teams and four junior teams and continues to promote equality across the north of England.

Despite the challenges, Gardner never lost his optimistic spirit. “I’ve had a beautiful life,” he said. “If I had to do it again, I would do every damn thing just the same.”

Alford was the fourth of 11 children. He was born in Kingston in 1926 to Lovenia, the unofficial neighbourhood nurse, and Egbert, a policeman who volunteered for the British West Indies Regiment during the First World War and served at Ypres and the Somme.