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Oral history recording with Dave Jackson, born in Jamaica in the 1950s. Recorded as part of Race Council Cymru’s Windrush Cymru Heritage Project.

“I was wearing a hat, a suit, a shirt and a tie. Being a big boy – wearing long trousers! No coat or anything though.”

Dave Jackson was born in Jamaica in the 1950s. He was raised by his aunt, who was a bookkeeper, and his uncle, a carpenter.

“When my dad came over, it was after the war and Britain was rebuilding, they needed people to help, bus-drivers everything… My aunty came first with the four girls, so I lived with my grandparents in Jamaica… I came three years later. I loved it!”

Dave Jackson came to Britain on his own British passport at the age of twelve. His sister met him at Heathrow where they travelled straight to Cardiff.

“I remember one boy and four sisters, and they’re younger than me, so I was in the big boys’ school, so it was all the names, coon, wog, I never heard those names before, in Jamaica you don’t see colour, you don’t see that.”

“Back in the day, Black people would buy a house and they’d have everybody in the house, and they’d all save their money up. They didn’t like council houses, because in Jamaica there was no such thing. They really came to better themselves.”

“It’s important for the next generations to hear these stories so that they know everything is true that they have seen already. You watch the TV, all these stabbings. Imagine them thinking that’s the right way to live?”