Windrush anniversary marked in South West

People gathered at County hall in Exeter to mark the 75th anniversary of the first crossing from the Caribbean

The 75th anniversary of the Windrush generation has been marked in Devon and Cornwall.

In Devon, a flag-raising ceremony was held at County Hall in Exeter before another celebration at Royal Albert Memorial Museum at 18:30 BST.

In Cornwall, the Pea and Rice Community will be holding a movie night later.

Dave Samuels, from the Devon Windrush Group, said the anniversary was a chance to celebrate the contributions of Caribbeans in the UK.

The 75th anniversary of Windrush is marked in Exeter with a flag-raising ceremony

Almost 500 people stepped off the HMT Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks in Essex on 22 June, 1948 - the first of thousands who answered Britain's post-war call to fill labour shortages in the armed forces, industry and NHS.

The vessel came to symbolise the wider mass-migration movement that continued into the 1970s.

In 2018, it emerged that many British citizens who arrived as migrants from the Caribbean between the late 1940s and 1970s had been wrongly threatened with deportation and detention - despite having the right to live in the UK.

Mr Samuels - whose parents arrived in the UK from Jamaica in the 1950s - said newcomers had experienced racism on their arrival.

"Even though they were asked to come and help, they found it difficult to work in certain jobs," he said.

"There were lots of times where people didn't want difference - they didn't understand and they didn't want to know."

He said events marking the 75th anniversary of Windrush in Devon were "a celebration of food, music, culture and stories".

Lee Beresford, the director of the Pea and Rice Community in Cornwall, said the Windrush generation had made a large contribution to Britain.

"For me, black culture is British culture and British culture is black culture," he said.

"When I think of black culture, I don't just think of black people - I think of everybody."

The community will be holding a film night at the City Life Church in Truro at 18:00. Another celebration will be held at Kresen Kernow in Redruth from 16:00.