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Britain in the 20th century

In the 20th century, World War One and World War Two required thousands of soldiers from the British Empire to come to Britain and Western Europe to fight for the ‘mother country’ of the Empire.

In World War One thousands of Indian soldiers fought on the Western Front, and when they were injured, they were brought over to England to recover. Some of those Indian soldiers came to Brighton and the Royal Pavilion was turned into a hospital for them.

There were also African, Caribbean and Asian sailors in the navies, both Royal and Merchant, who helped defend Britain in World War One. In 1919 there were a number of riots in major port cities, including Liverpool and Cardiff, when English sailors turned on these black men because they thought they were taking their job opportunities away.

However, in Britain there was a shortage of labour after World War Two, particularly in big cities, and there was a recruitment campaign to bring people from the Caribbean and Asia to fill the jobs. The Empire Windrush was the first major boat to bring people from Jamaica in 1948. Many men on board had been in the Royal Air Force and the Army in the war.

Caribbean men and women were encouraged to come and take jobs on the transport systems. And women were also recruited as nurses to staff the new hospitals that were part of the National Health Service set up in 1948. There was economic hardship in the West Indies after the war, and the people there had a British education and were well trained for these jobs.

The 1948 Nationality Act had created the new status of "citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" (CUKC) for people born in either the United Kingdom or one of its colonies. This gave colonial people from the British Empire the right to come into Britain.