Cricket ‘trailblazer’ who starred in Pride of Britain documentary with Prince William dies aged 98 – as tributes pour in
A CRICKET trailblazer who starred in a Pride of Britain documentary with Prince William has died at the age of 98.
Alford Gardner was one of the last surviving passengers of the Empire Windrush and set up Britain’s first Caribbean cricket club.
He set up the club in Leeds in 1948 – three months after arriving in the UK from Jamaica on the HMT Empire Windrush.
Mr Gardner had also served in the RAF as an engineer and motor mechanic during the Second World War.
Paying tribute, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said Mr Gardner “did so much for the black cricketing community in this country”.
Actress and campaigner Baroness Floella Benjamin said Mr Gardner “encapsulated joy, dignity and courage”.
Leeds City Council said it presented him with the Leeds Award in February “for his vast achievements and contribution to the city”.
Mr Gardner was 22 when he boarded the ship in Kingston, Jamaica, with his brother Gladstone before disembarking at Tilbury Docks in Essex.
They and hundreds of Caribbean migrants were called on to rebuild post-war Britain.
Last year, the King hailed new portraits of the Windrush generation, including Mr Gardner, as pictorial records of a “very special” group of people.
Charles told Jamaican-born Mr Gardner at a Buckingham Palace reception that his portrait by artist Chloe Cox was “marvellous”.
In 2018, 70 years after stepping off the Empire Windrush to start a new life in the UK, Mr Gardner said: “If I had to do it again, I would do every damn thing just the same.”
He also said that he was first warned about the possibility that Windrush migrants could be thrown out of the UK almost three decades earlier.
Mr Gardner said he was told by a friend in 1987 that “people like me could be thrown out of the country”.
He responded by applying for British citizenship at a cost of £80 and said the Windrush scandal was a “disgrace”.
It erupted in 2018 after it emerged that the UK Home Office had kept no records of those granted permission to stay – and had not issued the paperwork they needed to confirm their status.
Who are the Windrush generation and what happened to them?
Thousands of people from the Caribbean who arrived in the UK as children were threatened with deportation in what became known as the Windrush Scandal.
The “Windrush generation” is a phrase linked to the ship Empire Windrush, which on June 22, 1948, brought hundreds of Caribbean immigrants to Tilbury Docks, Essex.
Britain was seeking nurses, railway workers and others to help it rebuild after the devastation of the Second World War.
According to the National Archives, between 1948 and 1970 nearly half a million people left their homes in the West Indies to live in Britain.
The West Indies consists of more than 20 islands in the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad.
Nearly half a million people left their homes in the West Indies – including Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad – to live in Britain between 1948 and 1970.
Many of the child migrants travelled on their parents’ passports so it is difficult to say exactly how many people belong to the Windrush generation.
They have fallen victim to rule changes in 2012 aimed at stopping people from overstaying.
Their legal status changed overnight despite living, working and paying tax in Britain for decades.
They were told they needed evidence including passports to continue working or getting NHS treatment.
But most arrived on parents’ passports and never applied for travel documents.
Their landing cards had also been destroyed in 2010 while Theresa May was the Home Secretary.
It was dubbed the Windrush scandal as members of the Windrush generation and their children were wrongly detained and even deported.
Others were denied access to official documents, healthcare, work, housing benefits and pensions – despite living legally in the UK.
The scandal fully emerged between late 2017 and mid-2018 after a series of reports about people forced into crisis because the government didn’t accept their legal right to remain.
“It shouldn’t be happening,” Mr Gardner said in 2018, adding: “It’s disgraceful what’s going on.
“People don’t realise how hard we worked to get this country back on its feet.”
Last year, the Prince of Wales visited Mr Gardner at his home in Leeds for ITV‘s Pride Of Britain: A Windrush Special documentary.
He then took him to Headingley cricket ground for a surprise celebration with cricketing stars.
Paying tribute to Mr Gardner in a social media post, the ECB wrote: “A pioneer and a trail-blazer.
“A founder of Leeds Caribbean CC, and someone who did so much for the black cricketing community in this country.
“Rest in peace, Alford Gardner.”
In a social media post, Baroness Benjamin said: “I have total respect and admiration for Windrush pioneer Alford Gardner who died aged 98.
“He encapsulated joy, dignity and courage.”
Leeds North East MP Fabian Hamilton said he was “deeply saddened by the passing of Alford”.
Mr Hamilton added in a post on social media: “Alford was a pioneering part of the generation that helped to rebuild Leeds and Britain after WW2.
“His legacy is one of equality and social justice. He will be missed by everyone he met in his many years since arriving on HMS Windrush.”