Knighthood for Windrush Day campaigner

Social commentator, campaigner and cultural historian Patrick Vernon has been awarded a knighthood in the King's Birthday Honours for services to racial equality.

Vernon, who was born in Wolverhampton, led the campaign to establish Windrush Day, which celebrates the contribution of Caribbean migrants and their families to the UK.

His family still live in Wolverhampton and he is also a former associate fellow of the history of medicine department at Warwick University.

He said he was "deeply honoured" to be receiving the recognition and it reflected more than 30 years of work across the voluntary, public and community sectors.

"As the son of Jamaican migrants, I could never have imagined that decades later I would be recognised with a Knighthood for services to racial equality and social justice," he said.

He recalled one of his earliest memories of growing up in Wolverhampton was being part of a welcoming party at the opening of Grove Junior School in 1968 alongside the mayor of Wolverhampton and the MP Enoch Powell.

"This was only a few months after Powell's infamous Rivers of Blood speech, which created fear and uncertainty for many Black and migrant communities across Britain," Vernon said.

He added it had helped shape a lifelong commitment to challenging inequality, promoting social justice and ensuring future generations had greater opportunities than those of his parents' generation.

Speaking about his knighthood, he said: "This honour belongs to all the communities, colleagues, friends and fellow campaigners I have worked alongside over many years.

"While much progress has been made, there remains much work to do to create a fairer, more inclusive and more compassionate society for future generations."

Among his many roles, Vernon is a patron of black mental health charity, the African Caribbean Community Initiative based in Wolverhampton as well as being a patron of social enterprise Sante, based in Camden, London.

In addition, he is also vice chair of the Bernie Grant Trust and a board member of 38 Degrees, a not-for-profit political activism organisation.

He led the campaign for Windrush Day since 2010, and in 2018 he launched a campaign calling for an amnesty for the Windrush generation which led to a government u-turn in immigration policy and the resignation of then-home secretary Amber Rudd.

Vernon was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his work in tackling health inequalities for ethnic minority communities in Britain and was given honorary doctorate by Wolverhampton University in 2018 for his work on migration history and equalities.

He has helped advise both the Labour government and coalition government on mental health, and was a Labour councillor for Hackney between 2006-2014.

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