Empire Windrush 1948: Real Love Story Behind the Historic Voyage
- Fran Clark
- May 30
- 4 min read
If you are following me on social media, you will know that I have been talking a lot about my upcoming novel, Wherever You Will Go, the story of newly-wed Essie, whose husband sails to England on the Empire Windrush in 1948 to start a new life for them, only to disappear without a trace, leaving Essie to uncover the mystery of her missing husband.
Well, I have pleasure in introducing Bill Hern, author and historian, who has researched the real life passengers of the Empire Windrush and who has kindly provided the following post for my blog today:
As someone who has researched the lives of over 1,000 passengers on board His Majesty’s Troopship (HMT) Empire Windrush, I am often asked who my favourite is. It is impossible to choose just one. The Windrush was a very special ship with a whole range of people from different backgrounds all with their own reasons for coming to the Mother Country. I sometimes wonder if the Windrush was a magical ship or was it simply that it attracted magical passengers?
Having said that, I am, for the purpose of this blog, going to choose just one passenger. I recently read Fran Clark’s wonderful book Lovers. This must have put me into a romantic frame of mind as I am going to tell the love story of Joseph (Joe) Ignatius Armstrong who was passenger number 509 on the Windrush.
Joe was a very talented musician and played the double bass in a Jamaican band called The Commandos. The band leader, Delroy Stephens, had big ambitions for his band and when he heard that the Empire Windrush would be leaving Jamaica for England in May 1948 he began trying to persuade each band member to join him on the journey to the Mother Country where, he hoped, fame and fortune awaited.
But Joe had other ideas. He had previously performed in Chicago and this had given him a taste for life in the States. His dream was to play in the night clubs of New Orleans.
Delroy must have been very persuasive or perhaps economical with the truth but eventually Joe relented and agreed to come to England on the Windrush. Delroy’s clinching argument was that whereas moving to England would mean that New Orleans was no longer a realistic prospect, the night clubs of Paris would only be a short distance away and the band could appear there.
What Delroy probably did not disclose was that after docking at Tilbury the band was headed for Liverpool where Delroy had family. The bright lights and romance of Paris must have seemed a million miles away as Joe (who was known as Wayne in England) unpacked his precious double bass in his new home at Edge Lane, Liverpool, a house he shared with 15 other men, many of them musicians.
Then fate played a part and Joe met Mildred (Millie) Josephine Milne at the Rialto Ballroom in Liverpool. Millie was born in Liverpool to an Indonesian father, Dalie Milni, and a Liverpool-born mother, Mary Milne, nee Fletcher. Dali had changed the spelling of the family surname to the more English-sounding Milne.
It would seem to have been a case of love at first sight and Joe soon forgot all about New Orleans or Paris. The couple married in 1953 and went on to have seven children – all daughters who doted on their father.
That is not the full story though. Millie was a heroine. During the Second World War she served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1945 she was one of the very few British women who had the harrowing experience of entering the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp after it had been liberated by Allied troops.
Joe never returned to Jamaica after leaving on board the Windrush. He and Millie had been happily married for just short of 50 years when Joe died in Liverpool in 1993. His treasured double bass was donated to the Paul McCartney-founded Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.
Millie died three years after her beloved Joe.
I love this story because Joe and Millie were such good people and clearly devoted to one another. Yet fate could easily have kept them apart if Joe had not been swayed by Delroy Stephen’s rather spurious arguments in favour of leaving Jamaica.
In case you are wondering, Delroy returned to Jamaica in the mid-1960s. He continued performing and was inducted into the Jamaican Jazz Hall of Fame in 1987. He died in Kingston in 1995.
You can read more about Joe and Millie plus other passengers on the Windrush by using the link below:
Along with David Gleave, Bill Hern is co-author of:
Want to know more? Click below:
Thank you so much, Bill, for this romantic and informative post!
Help keep Windrush stories alive—share this post and let others experience this beautiful piece of history.
Comments