Britain's Prince William to­day un­veiled a new na­tion­al mon­u­ment to the "Win­drush" gen­er­a­tion of Caribbean mi­grants, most­ly from Trinidad and To­ba­go and Ja­maica, who moved to Britain fol­low­ing World War II, prais­ing their "im­mense con­tri­bu­tion" to na­tion­al life.

The 12-foot (3.65-me­tre) bronze stat­ue, which de­picts a man, woman and child stand­ing on top of suit­cas­es, will greet mil­lions of rail com­muters at Lon­don's Wa­ter­loo sta­tion.

"Over the past sev­en decades, the Win­drush Gen­er­a­tion's role in the fab­ric of our na­tion­al life has been im­mense," said William.

"Every part of British life is bet­ter for the half a mil­lion men and women of the Win­drush Gen­er­a­tion.

"I want to say a pro­found thank you to every mem­ber of that gen­er­a­tion, and the gen­er­a­tions that have fol­lowed," he added.

The de­ci­sion to erect a mon­u­ment fol­lowed a scan­dal that first emerged in 2017 and caused much soul-search­ing about racism past and present in Britain.

Cam­paign­ers re­vealed that thou­sands of Britons of Caribbean ori­gin, who ar­rived legal­ly be­tween 1948 and the ear­ly 1970s, had been wrong­ly de­tained or de­port­ed un­der the gov­ern­ment's hard­line im­mi­gra­tion poli­cies.

Britain's Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, left, speaks with Windrush passenger John Richards, during the unveiling of the National Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station in London, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. The unveiling of the statue - of a man, woman and child in their Sunday best standing on top of suitcases on Wednesday will mark Windrush Day. (John Sibley/Pool Photo via AP)

John Sibley

The gov­ern­ment then an­nounced that "Win­drush Day" would be cel­e­brat­ed each year on June 22, and that it was con­tribut­ing £1 mil­lion (US$1.22 mil­lion) in fund­ing for a na­tion­al stat­ue.

Ja­maican artist Basil Wat­son was cho­sen by a Win­drush Com­mem­o­ra­tion Com­mit­tee from an ini­tial long list of 16 artists to cre­ate the work.

Wat­son said the mon­u­ment recog­nised the "dreams and as­pi­ra­tions, courage and dig­ni­ty, skills and tal­ents" of the Win­drush gen­er­a­tion.

"My par­ents, along with a great many oth­ers, took the long ar­du­ous voy­age from the Caribbean with very lit­tle or noth­ing oth­er than their as­pi­ra­tions, their courage and a promise of op­por­tu­ni­ty for ad­vance­ment.

"This mon­u­ment tells that sto­ry of hope, de­ter­mi­na­tion, a strong be­lief in selves and a vi­son for the fu­ture," he added.

Wat­son's own par­ents were mem­bers of the Win­drush gen­er­a­tion and he spent part of his child­hood in Britain.

The com­mu­ni­ty is named af­ter the MV Em­pire Win­drush ship, one of the ves­sels that brought work­ers from Ja­maica, Trinidad and To­ba­go, and oth­er is­lands to help fill post-war UK labour short­ages dur­ing that pe­ri­od.