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Oral history recording with Yvonne Jardine, born in Antigua in May 1946. Recorded as part of Race Council Cymru’s Windrush Cymru Heritage Project.

“Don’t see every shadow as a mountain… Use education as much as possible.”

Yvonne Jardine was born in Antigua in May 1946.

“I had seven siblings… I am the youngest. What I remember about Antigua growing up is hot, rain, running about, going to school, my brothers and sisters…”

“We lived together, our uncle generally made sure everything was OK… my dad died when I was three and my mum died when I was nine. So when my older brothers and sisters decided to come to England it wasn’t a question of… they sent for us.”

“I came over on [her sister’s] British passport as Antigua was still a colony. I came over in 1958…I was 11–12…”

“We first lived in Tottenham. Now I look around and there are so many Black faces, but then there were hardly any. There weren’t any in the school.”

“I used to think I wanted to be a nurse and travel…”

“I got married and we lived in Singapore for a while. We came back to the UK in 1973, 1974 I got a job with DVLA. I also worked for a wholesale pharmacy, [and] I worked for the post office. One of things I’m sorry I didn’t take up was that I had several offers to become a magistrate…”

“In the first year I was a governor of the school across the way… if I phone up and say, ‘this is Councillor Jardine,’ the whole attitude is different and quite often that bugs me…”

“People say being a woman and Black is also an issue…So there was always that ‘is it because?’”

“Racism is alive and well, but it’s like poverty, I don’t think you can get rid of it… I think it’s just swept under the carpet.