Featured on the same page of the edition of The Sphere dated 3 July 1948 were two striking but juxtaposing images: the first showed the arrival of hundreds of West Indian migrants to Britain aboard HMT Empire Windrush; the other was of the P&O liner Ranchi as it set sail with English emigrants bound for a new life in Australia. In the aftermath of World War II, Britain haemorrhaged more than 2 million people as they escaped the bleakness of austerity and the hardships of rationing.
The unprecedented scale of the exodus caused Winston Churchill to plea: “I say to those that wish to leave our country… Do not desert the old land. We cannot spare you.” Yet people still left in droves, and soon, labour shortages were being filled by those arriving on - whether they had come with the specific intention of finding new work opportunities, or simply wanted a chance to travel to the “mother country”.
