Jamaicans who emigrated to the United Kingdom between 1948 and 1971 are among the crowd of travellers from former British colonies who became known as the Windrush Generation.

The label originated in the UK and refers mainly to people from the then British Caribbean colonies who travelled to England at the back end of World War II aboard a vessel named the MV Empire Windrush, which collected them from their homelands to boost Britain’s post-war labour force.

Among those who landed in August 1955 was a young Jamaican opportunist, who was determined to become an engineer, after practising as a mechanic, but eventually ended up as a trade union activist in the British labour movement and enjoyed its umbilical link to the British Labour Party.

That young Jamaican was Navel Foster Clarke, who landed in London as an unknown migrant from Jamaica’s bread basket parish of St Elizabeth, that August, unsure of how British society would treat him, not only as a migrant but also has a citizen of the British Commonwealth, after a war that had opened up fresh eyes and minds to serious issues like human and workers rights inside the mother country.

Unfortunately, however, the migrants failed to produce enough people to write their history, an inexcusable mistake that Clarke felt he should make right.

He eventually returned home in the turbulent 1970s where he joined the People’s National Party (PNP) affiliate union, the National Workers Union (NWU), and was appointed to Senate where he eventually retired as the deputy president in 2016.

All that time he had been making notes, which, eventually, formed the nucleus of his book, strangely named The Necktie Man.

Clarke’s adventure was propelled by his determination to become a trained mechanic in Britain, which would be the basis for him to become an engineer. However, he did not achieve any of those goals, but he did learn enough about British history and lifestyle to put it to his own advantage as a workers’ rep at his workplace in the days, while dressing up in his suit and necktie to go dancing at one or the other of the famous London nightclubs which Jamaican fans of reggae music, as well as white British women liked.

Obviously, he earned the title “The Necktie Man”, after raising the interest of both the British women, and their jealous men who didn’t mind that as long as the reggae music, beer drinking and original “skanking” was available.

While his ability to show off his real Jamaican dance moves won the attention of the local night clubbers, it was his expensive suits and ties, which he said he never finished paying for, that earned him the respect of the locals who were not used to black men dressed in their suits and ties.

He was eventually jerked back to reality on one occasion when one of his co-tenants was beaten badly by a gang of “Teddy Boys” who were often engaged in inflicting beatings on those West Indians who travelled alone at nights.

So, despite the cheap-paying jobs, the shared apartments and the contact with the local pubs which ate up most of his low wages, he learnt how to survive and eventually made it to a senior organiser for the British trade union movement, as well as the umbilically connected Labour Party.

Close to the end of his stay in Britain, Clarke was seen as a possible candidate for the party in the Brent region. Unfortunately, by that time, he said, that he had already made up his mind to return to Jamaica, after engaging with Michael Manley, who was on pre-election trip to London and wanted him to help organise his schedule.

Manley suggested his return to Jamaica, and he took on the suggestion and did just that, after joining the PNP and its affiliated trade union, the NWU, and eventually retiring as a member of the Jamaican Senate, nominated in 2016.

Clarke’s book was launched recently at a function at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, where he was lauded for his efforts, at home and abroad, by former Prime Minister P J Patterson, as well as current leader of the PNP Opposition Mark Golding and guest speaker at the function, retired Public Defender Earl Witter.

The function was attended by other leading trade unionists and labour experts, including president of the Union of Clerical and Supervisory Employees Vincent Morrison.

In his message, which was read for the selected audience, Patterson offered regrets for his absence, which, he said, resulted from novel coronavirus pandemic restrictions. He commended Clarke’s work with the British TUC, as well as the PNP in Jamaica and its affiliates in the UK. He said he admired his “organisational competence” and was delighted that after the party’s victory in the 1972 General Election in Jamaica, he could not resist any longer the call to return home.

“ The Necktie Man is truly a remarkable story, spanning 20 years of a sentimental journey from the Windrush Generation that will be remembered for years to come,” Patterson added.

“But, I have news for the author. This is volume one. You owe it to history and succeeding generations to write the sequel to your foreign sojourn, from 1975 until now,” he suggested.

Guest speaker Witter warned that, “if we don’t tell our history ourselves, somebody else is going to tell it for us, and they don’t get it right”. He suggested that Clarke could have been a “shoo-in” for the Brent seat in London, if he had not chosen to return home.

In his response to the accolades, Clarke recalled facing the violence of the so-called racist/fascist group of “The Teddy Boys” in Notting Hill, which eventually transformed into the home of the annual Caribbean carnival.

He also spoke of his experiencing the beatings of close friends by the “ Teddy Boys”, which would leave innocent pedestrians severely wounded.

Challenged in getting suitably qualified jobs, Clarke also worked as a packer at a sausage delivery company; and a porter at the Paddington Hospital preparing potatoes for patients. At one stage he started buying records from a small local store, which he re-sold for a profit that became a useful source of extra funding, until the store crashed under the weight of the emerging hire purchase businesses which sold both the records and the record players.

Getting used to living in the British work environment, which made it difficult for immigrants to earn good wages, or be promoted to supervisory positions without resentment from the white majority, led to him, friends purchasing suits and neckties, which were highly respected by British natives and fellow West Indians to win their attention.

However, the lifestyle may have been helpful, when things changed for Clarke and his popularity as a dancer and trade union delegate led to him become secretary of the Brent Trades Council.

After personally acknowledging his efforts in London in 1969, working with British-based groups linked to the PNP and which assisted in the victory of 1972 General Election in Jamaica, he returned to contribute to Jamaica’s post-independence development.

Clarke left the Senate in 2016, with the change of government to the Jamaica Labour Party led by Andrew Holness, after 23 consecutive years in the Upper Chamber.

His years in the Senate is only bettered by former JLP member, Oswald Harding, who spent 25 consecutive years (1977 to 2002), during which he served as president (twice) and Leader of Government Business and Leader of Opposition Business over a total of 29 years.