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Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
Oral history recording with Edna Henry, born in St. Catherine, Jamaica in 1931.. Recorded as part of Race Council Cymru’s Windrush Cymru Heritage Project.
“Sometimes I think about Jamaica, but other times I think I will stay here.”
Edna Henry was born in the Parish of St Catherine, Jamaica, in May 1931. She came straight to Grangetown, Cardiff in 1961.
“I have three brothers, no sisters, and I am second to last.”
“My decision to come to Britain came about because my brother was in the RAF… after the war he came out and then, you know, he decide to come back and he sent for me.”
“I was 29 when I came here…on the plane, BOAC, 1961.”
“I came straight to a job… when I came to Cardiff. When my brother take me over he knew somebody so I had a job to come to. I was in St David’s Hospital, but I was working in the laundry part.”
“My husband was a person that work all over the place. He was an engineer…”
“I was working in the hospital, Ely hospital – which is in the 70s… I got this new house. I had four children over here. They were born from 1962 to1971, so I was a working mother trying to make ends meet…”
“My neighbour… they didn’t like Blacks… I wake up one morning and when I looked out at the back of my kitchen, and she…throw the mess at the back. Excrement…”
“I go to church every week. I started going a long time ago, since I was in Ely. When I moved down, it was a bit distant to go and then after I go to the Pentecost and that plays a big part in my life…”
