Mrs F's page · Transcript · · Updated
9 real life in the UK – Transcript
Video by Mrs F's page · Watch the original on YouTube
Summary
AI-generated from the transcript. Verify details against the source video.
- Albert Hilton arrived in Britain from Jamaica on the 18th of January 1958 at the age of 22 and initially lived with his father in Battersea.
- Life in Britain was challenging and restricted for Albert Hilton, who faced racial discrimination and dwellings with signs reading no blacks.
- Albert Hilton experienced a more positive turn when he joined London Transport and worked as a bus conductor until his retirement.
Use this video with Pro
Reading, copying and transcript downloads are free. Create saved AI results for this video with a signed-in Pro account ($9/month).
Transcript
Search ignores accents. All transcript text stays visible.
Migrants worked hard, performing jobs the local workforce no longer was interested in. Yet the presence of caribbeans in London prompted complaints. Many met hostility and prejudice. My grandfather Albert Hilton came to Britain on the 18th of January 1958 from Jamaica at the age of 22.
The journey took 18 days. He went to live with his father who was an ex-soldier who had fought in World War I. Father and son lived together for three years in a flat in Battersea. At first, my grandfather worked in a hairbrush factory earning 22.5 pence an hour, a huge contrast to what he had earned as a painter back in Jamaica.
Still, life in the mother country was very restricting. As a man of colour, he was not free to live wherever he wanted. Many dwellings had signs on the door which read, no dogs, no Irish, no blacks. Life was challenging back then.
Considering that the Caribbean community had been warmly invited by the British to come over to rebuild mother country, racial discrimination was very much felt. Many black men who had fought in the war for Britain now felt betrayed, disillusioned. Life for my grandad took a more positive turn when he joined London Transport where he worked as a bus conductor until retirement.