In 1948 the HMT Windrush arrived in Britain carrying people from the Caribbean.

They had been invited by the government to fill the skills and labour shortage in the aftermath of WW2, leaving behind livelihoods, families and friends to travel across the Atlantic.

Of those original passengers, it is estimated that around 68 men came to live and settle in Liverpool.

Many married local women and started families in Liverpool, bringing unique influences to the city, influences that could be said to have changed the world.

Lord Woodbine, seated, with Allan Williams, his wife Beryl and The Beatles in Hamburg, Aiugust 1960
Lord Woodbine, seated, with Allan Williams, his wife Beryl and The Beatles in Hamburg, August 1960

One of those men was Harold Phillips, also known as Lord Woodbine, an RAF veteran from Trinidad.

He joined the war effort aged 14 after lying about his age and using his brother's passport.

In 1948, he arrived in the UK on board the Windrush, where he went on to create a lasting legacy which shaped the music and culture of not just Liverpool but also the rest of the world - helping to take The Beatles to Hamburg and even smuggling an under-age George Harrison into the German city.

The Empire Windrush ship
The Empire Windrush ship

Variously described as the 'Sixth Beatle' and 'the man who put the beat in Merseybeat', Lord Woodbine was a prominent musician, promoter and manager in Liverpool.

Lord Woodbine's daughter Carol Phillips told the ECHO: "Most of the people on the ship had been returning war heroes, who were invited back to help rebuild war torn Britain.

"Through colonisation they were in fact British and came willingly to help rebuild the 'mother' country.

"From the start they were faced with racism and as nobody was prepared to offer them a place to stay, those who were without accommodation had to stay in the Deep Shelter."

The Deep Shelter was a former air raid shelter in Clapham, 30ft below street level, which was used to house people who arrived in the UK on the Windrush.

Jamaican immigrants welcomed by RAF officials from the Colonial Office after the ex-troopship HMT 'Empire Windrush' landed them at Tilbury
Jamaican immigrants welcomed by RAF officials from the Colonial Office after the ex-troopship HMT 'Empire Windrush' landed them at Tilbury

Carol said that after a month, everyone who had stayed there had found employment and a place to stay at various places all around Great Britain.

Her father found a job as a machinist in Shropshire. He trained with the RAF as a flight engineer in West Yorkshire and was later stationed at Burtonwood American Air Base.

He ended up settling in Liverpool to be with Carol's mother and they were married in November 1949.

Carol said: "The Caribbean and American black service men would travel to Liverpool ‘s black community to socialise.

"My father met my mother at (Liverpool) club ‘Jokers’ - both were teenagers about 16 or 17 and entered talent competitions at the club.

"He joined the RAF in 1943 until 1947 and was writing to my mother when he returned back to Trinidad. I suppose that Shropshire was the nearest that he could get to Liverpool, so he took the job then made his way to Liverpool."

Harold was very musical and a Calypsonian - a style of music hugely popular in Trinidad and Tobago and across the Caribbean.

Prominent Calypsonians would adopt names like Lord Woodbine, Lord Kitchener, and Lord Beginner, and to have such a title reflected how well thought of a musician they were.

Harold became 'Lord Woodbine' and, when he came to the UK he brought his remarkable musical talents with him.

Carol said: "He was part of a steel band, The Royal Caribbean Steelband or The Caribbean Royal Steelband, which he started around 1955.

"He had though been involved with bands of one sort or another since his time in the RAF in the mid 1940s.

Carol Phillips filming at the Magical Beatles Museum for Daughters of the Windrush documentary

"The Steelband was incredibly popular in the 1950s - there was nothing around that was anything like them - they brought an authentic sound from Trinidad.

"People who were around at the time have spoken about how exciting this band was in its heyday.

"Two boys who were known to be following them around were a young John Lennon and Paul McCartney."

Harold was also a music promoter. With his business partner Allan Williams - they would later become The Beatles' first booking managers - they were responsible for the first Liverpool group to go out to Hamburg - Derry and The Seniors.

Carol said: "Allan and my father were sending groups like Gerry and The Pacemakers out to Hamburg long before Brian Epstein came along. Brian actually jumped onto their bandwagon and ran with it.

Prime Minister Theresa May after the service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey to mark the 70th anniversary of about 500 Caribbeans stepping off the Empire Windrush
Theresa May after the service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey to mark the 70th anniversary of about 500 Caribbeans stepping off the Empire Windrush

"When Allan and my father took The Beatles out to Hamburg in August 1960, they were young and inexperienced.

"Hamburg is where The Beatles really developed and through their own hard work eventually became world class working long hours each day on stage."

Harold's many stories from the time include smuggling an underage George Harrison into Hamburg.

Carol said: "Having himself dealt with joining the RAF with his older brother ‘s passport, he was willing to take the chance on smuggling George Harrison into Germany illegally.

"I don’t think that there are too many who would frown on this as it was one of those things that made it all possible.

Harold had experienced his own fame at the same age as The Beatles were in Hamburg - when he was part of a group The Young Brigade put together by Calypsonian Lord Kitchener in 1947.

Kitchener took them from Trinidad to tour with him and Lord Beginner in Jamaica for six months, just before all three men were to sail on the Empire Windrush in 1948.

Arthur Dooley's 'Black Christ' statue at Princes Park Methodist Church, Toxteth
Arthur Dooley's 'Black Christ' statue at Princes Park Methodist Church, Toxteth

Carol said the legacy of the Windrush generation was 'dynamic and memorable'.

She said: "From the hot sauce that he used to make to putting together places of music entertainment when they would have not even been able to get into clubs in the town centre, to the shops selling Caribbean foods.

"My father would start up clubs and bars. He could turn his hand to a lot of things and would paint and decorate most of the clubs in the Toxteth area. Later, he also taught painting and decorating to local youth in government schemes, and some of those lads still talk about it today."

Among his friends was the famous Liverpool sculptor Arthur Dooley, who asked him to model for his statue The Resurrection, known as The Black Christ on Princes Avenue around 1969.

Carol hadn't realised the significance of her father arriving on HMS Windrush until she had grown up.

Workshops were held at Blackburne House and led by Marjorie Morgan. Producer Bea Freeman is pictured centre
Workshops were held at Blackburne House and led by Marjorie Morgan. Producer Bea Freeman is pictured centre

She said: "My mother was born in Liverpool and was ‘mixed-race’ - she referred to herself as ‘Anglo-African’. Her mother was from Northumberland and her father was from Nigeria.

"Growing up I was used to mixing with people from many different ethnic backgrounds, friends who had parents from different cultures, many rich cultures - we just got along and didn’t really think twice about it.

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"I grew up knowing that my father first arrived here in 1943 to fight in World War 2 and then returned back here after the war. I don’t think that the word Windrush was mentioned that much.

"Times could be hard and there was racism but there was also a sense of belonging even though I knew about racism.

"I think that people as far as I can recall began talking Windrush around about 1998 when there was the 50th anniversary. A lot of information and stories came to light."

A rally in support of the Windrush Movement
A rally in support of the Windrush Movement

Her family's beginnings in Liverpool pre-date the Windrush, with her grandfather on her mother's side - who served in the Merchant Navy - coming to the city around 1910.

Carol said: "There was a major influx of Caribbean people between 1948 to the 1960s but Liverpool has a much longer history than the Windrush ship and it goes back hundreds of years to the days of slavery.

"I see the Windrush as a very important point when talking about the benefits of Immigration - many great things came about from the people who arrived here via the Empire Windrush.

Carol and her father's story, and those of other migrants and their descendants, who came to the UK from the Caribbean, have been told in a new documentary produced by veteran film and documentary maker Brenda Freeman, which premiered at Blackburne House this December.

The project at Blackburne House aims to ensure the stories of the women and daughters of the Windrush generation are recorded and told
The project at Blackburne House aims to ensure the stories of the women and daughters of the Windrush generation are recorded and told

Daughters of the Windrush features interviews with Liverpool women who either came over to the UK from the Caribbean or whose parents did and settled on Merseyside.

The documentary also includes interviews with well-known Liverpool figures, including Kuumba Imani chief executive Michelle Charters and Maria O'Reilly from the Liverpool 8 Law Centre.

Some of the women who feature in the documentary came to the UK to work in the newly created NHS, and spent their entire working lives caring for the sick and injured in the UK.

Producer Brenda Freeman, who is also conference and events manager at Blackburne House said: "We wanted to produce a legacy piece that would educate as well as commemorate the contribution as well highlight the hardship of the Windrush generation when they arrived in Liverpool in 1948.

"We have recorded, up to this point, the unheard stories of the daughters and granddaughters of the Windrush generation that settled in Liverpool.

"As with so much of British history, women's voices are almost absent from many key parts of an admittedly unexplored chronicle.

"These stories are so we can both remember and celebrate their lives and their contribution to British society."

The Windrush generation and their legacy was thrust once again into the public eye when it emerged in 2018 that Theresa May's 'hostile environment' had led to the forced removal and detention of many of these remarkable people who, as Carol describes, "came willingly to help the mother country".

At the Daughters of the Windrush launch, Blackburne House board chair Liz Cross, said: "If we don't carry the stories of each other through we wont tackle the challenges of yesteryear and today.

"We need to make sure every voice is heard as everyone has a place in history."

Daughters of the Windrush will be available to view at Museum of Liverpool and the North West Film Archive.

For more information about the project, visit Blackburne House's website.