Interview with Rev Canon Christian Weaver CBE

Photograph of Christian Weaver (copyright: Dr Juanita Cox)

"When I decided I was going to leave the police force and come to the United Kingdom, I came by air. I wanted to be a portrait and landscape painter and I wanted to train at colleges. And interestingly enough that kind of journey took me through the English countryside, which I was always charmed by. Seeing England for the first time, I was driving through those rural areas going to Leicester, where I lived. Antiguans, Black people actually, lived in the Highfields area of Leicester, so if you were to see a Black person outside that Highfields area they would be not in the right place. So I could notice that. I noticed that. This racial attitude, racist attitude, rather, was very noticeable in those sorts of environments."

Title
Interview with Rev Canon Christian Weaver CBE
Description
Rev Canon Christian Weaver CBE moved to the UK in 1960 having previously served as a police officer in Antigua where he was born. Many West Indians travelled to Britain for work, while others came to further their education. Christian enrolled as a student at the Leicester College of Art and developed his skills as an artist with an eye for landscape.
Associated dates
1960
interviewee
Rev Canon Christian Weaver CBE
Location
Antigua
Collection
Travelling to Britain
Source
Find out more on the Windrush Scandal project website
Provenance
This oral history excerpt has been drawn from the three-year AHRC-funded project ‘The Windrush Scandal in a Transnational and Commonwealth Context’.
Rights
This material, including photograph, cannot be reproduced without permission.