Team GB has celebrated today’s 75th anniversary of the arrival into London of the Windrush generation ©Getty Images

Team GB has celebrated today’s 75th anniversary of the arrival of the first post-World War Two Caribbean migrants to the United Kingdom, known as the “Windrush generation”, with a special poem.

On June 22 in 1948, the Empire Windrush ship arrived at Tilbury Dock, east of London, bringing the first of hundreds of thousands of people who came to Britain between 1948 and 1971 to help rebuild the country after World War Two.

They helped to change the face of society in the UK and many children of the Windrush generation went on to a make an enormous contribution to sport in the country, with several representing Britain at the Olympics.

Prominent athletes from the Windrush generation include Tessa Sanderson and Linford Christie, who both left Jamaica as children before representing Team GB and winning Olympic gold medals in the javelin and 100 metres at Los Angeles 1984 and Barcelona 1992, respectively.

To mark today’s occasion, the British Olympic Association has partnered with spoken word artist Raymond Antrobus to create and voice a special Team GB inspired poem.

The poem, Give Thanks, showcases and celebrates Team GB’s historical links to the Windrush generation.

Alongside Olympic archive footage, the video is brought to life by Tokyo 2020 BMX Olympic silver medallist Kye Whyte, whose family heritage is from the Caribbean and ventured to England as part of the Windrush migration.

The video also features Paris 2024 taekwondo hopeful Aaliyah Powell, whose family heritage is from Jamaica.

Raymond Antrobus, right, was commissioned by Team GB to write the new poem
Raymond Antrobus, right, was commissioned by Team GB to write the new poem "Give Thanks" marking the 75th anniversary of Windrush which appears in a video starring Kye Whyte, left, the Olympic BMX silver medallist ©Team GB

Antrobus, born in London to an English mother and Jamaican father, is an industry respected figure whose words are both a celebration of diversity and a love letter to the Windrush and West Indies generations.

It is the latest acknowledgement by the Olympic Movement of the debt Britain owes to the Windrush generation.

During the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London a giant model of the Empire Windrush entered the stadium to symbolise the hundreds of thousands of black Britons who migrated from the Caribbean islands and played such a prominent role re-establishing Britain after it had been bought to its knees by the cost of the Second World War.

To read "British sport owes a massive debt to the Windrush generation" click here.