NHS researcher discovers Windrush NHS heritage 75 years on

UCLH clinical trial practitioner Antonette Andrews was amazed to learn that her great aunt came to the UK as part of the Windrush Generation and joined the NHS, where Antonette works today. The discovery was made as part of a project with Ancestry© and the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA).

Antonia Obilana, Antonette’s great aunt, was born in Nigeria in 1933 and travelled to the UK aboard the Tamele in March 1951. Antonette had been aware of her Caribbean roots but knew little of her Nigerian heritage. But then she took part in the UCLH arts and heritage project, which gave UCLH staff the opportunity to find out more about their ancestors.

The project was the idea of UCLH assistant arts curator Laura Bradshaw, a genealogy enthusiast, who wanted to find a way to enable staff, half of whom are from ethnic minorities, to celebrate both the 75th anniversary of the NHS as well as the 75th anniversary of the HMT Empire Windrush arriving in Britain on 22 June 1948.

The arrival of the Windrush marks the first wave of post war immigration from Commonwealth countries with many of the passengers taking up roles in the new National Health Service. The NHS was born just weeks after the Windrush arrived in 1948. The Windrush generation is usually taken to refer to the migrants who arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1971, mainly from the Caribbean but also from other countries.

UCLH asked LMA and Ancestry to partner on this project and help staff conduct their research into their past. The project was also supported from the outset by the Equality and Diversity team at UCLH.

LMA provided access to their records, behind the scenes tours of their building, and practical workshops on how to research their family history using primary sources and online resources from the LMA collections.

Ancestry© provided more personalised support, giving UCLH staff access to Family History experts and AncestryDNA testing to make their discoveries.

In Antonette’s case, Ancestry’s passenger lists were used to provide a lot of detail about her great aunt. Antonette was surprised at how much detail she was able to find. She could see her great aunt’s age, marital status and address and found that she had settled in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.

Antonette’s great aunt also appears in the UK & Ireland Nursing Registers which reveal that she registered to train as a nurse in 1954 at the Royal East Sussex Hospital in Hastings.

Antonette said: “I was excited to find out more about my roots, as I did not have much knowledge beyond my maternal grandparents. I was pleasantly surprised, especially about how much detail one record can hold. Especially the passenger lists on Ancestry, as when you hear ‘passenger lists’ you’d think that there would not be much about the passengers as individuals, but to my surprise there’s a lot that was discovered about my great aunt from this one document.”

Antonette now hopes to use the records and try to find out if the home her aunt lived in still exists and what it looks like now.

The UCLH project was led by assistant arts curator Laura Bradshaw, who said: “As a passionate genealogist myself, I was really excited to provide 20 UCLH staff members with Caribbean heritage the opportunity to discover more about their family history. My experience of family history research has strengthened my own sense of identity and undoubtedly improved my wellbeing. I hope the staff involved have also benefited in this way and that this is just the beginning of their family history journey.”

UCLH chief executive David Probert said: “We are immensely proud of our workforce and immensely appreciative of the fact that immigrants from different countries are part of our history and our present.

“The 75th anniversary of Windrush and the NHS in 2023 is a moment to celebrate the significant contributions of our forebears as well as our colleagues today.”

Tatiana Wheeler, International Communications Manager at Ancestry said: As someone from the Caribbean who migrated to the UK, it has been a pleasure to be a part of this project and work with staff from UCLH.

“This has not just been a work initiative, but a passion project of mine given my own roots. I hope that many others from Caribbean and African communities read about Antonette’s discoveries and know that they too can find out more about their ancestors and the lives they lived.

Emma Markiewicz, Director of London Metropolitan Archives said: “We are delighted to support the participants in their journey of discovery, and to raise awareness of these archives and their significance to all Londoners.

“LMA recognises the importance of both the Windrush and the NHS 75th anniversaries and the value of opening up access to these records in a warm and welcoming environment.”