Windrush75

of humour and was a popular, well-loved character and much loved by the community in Cardiff.

He was young at heart and always laughing. I guess that’s what got him through life. He used to wear a badge on his jacket which said ‘21’.

He had a daily routine of walking into the city centre to visit his local pub for two pints and then walking home. One day, when he was 88 years old, he went missing.

I went to look for him with my brothers Randolph and Wingrove in the pub in the town centre and asked the barmaid if she had seen Alex.

She didn’t know anyone called Alex.

When we described him

— sunglasses, cap, walking stick — everyone in the pub said: ‘Oh, you mean 21!’ The barmaid said: ‘Yes, 21, he will be back in five minutes, he left his bag and a pint of beer on

My father often reminisced and out of the blue came a story we had never heard before.

LIFE IN PICTURES: clockwise from top left, my father and mother, Mildred Duncan, in Britain, 1956; celebrating my father’s 80th birthday in 2005; my mother in St Kitts, 1955, with Gwen, Randolph, Vernon, Sylvia, Wingrove and Deloris; my father bought his first house in Cranbrook Street in the Cathays area of Cardiff in 1960; Alexander’s name on the ancestry passenger list; father with family and grandchildren Tracey and Christopher that one of the little girls had lost a ring in the sea. He promptly dived in the sea and found it for them. family and put his children first regardless of his struggles, he never gave up and was always smiling. the table over there!’ He was in the bookies placing bets on the horses, like the good old days! Eighty-eight years old, and they called him 21 — it’s amazing when you think about it.

When he was back home, he was a fisherman and was known as a strong swimmer and diver; and fishermen would call on him when they had problems under the water and he would dive in and sort it out.

One day the Royal Family were in St Kitts and he heard

I asked him what happened then, and he said they had marched him up to where the Royal Family were staying to present the ring and was rewarded with a dollar. The little girl’s name was Princess Elizabeth!

He was looking forward to receiving a telegram from that same little girl who was now the Queen on his 100th birthday. But unfortunately, Alexander Uriah Broodie sadly passed away August 20, 2022, aged 97. Gone but never forgotten. His Windrush story lives on.

My father remembered his

I too give God thanks for my father and I remember him for paving the way by taking that journey from Antigua to St Kitts, and then onto Cardiff for his children and his grandchildren.

His sacrifices enabled us to become what we are today: teachers, computer programmers, lawyers, accountants and Welsh-speaking authors. All contributing to the upliftment of the United Kingdom. This could never have happened without his hard work and sacrifice of Alexander Uriah Broodie, a Windrush pioneer!