The Orator.Press Education Page: A ‘Windrush75 & Black History Month’ Special. Richie Sampson, The Charming & Very Disciplined Former South East London School Teacher Turned Soul Band Lead Singer Includes The Late Stephen Lawrence Amongst His Former Students And Talks Highly of Both Him And His Parents. And Shares Some of His Own Lifestory. October 2023

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Windrush Pioneers & The Pardoner Promise Funding System

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We Ask Richie What Things Were Like In His Early Days As A Child. He Explains That His Parents Are No Long With Us, But They Came To Britain At The Government’s Aforementioned Invitation And Worked Very Hard Doing The Best That They Could, Sometimes Sharing Living Quarters With Other Families, In The Beginning.

He Came To Britain At The Age of 7 With His Elder Brother, From Cheapside, St Elizabeth, Jamaica Where They Were Born. Their Parents Had Arrived Sometime Before Them And Later Sent For The Two Boys To Join Them.

He Says “We Thought The Snow Was Sugar”.

In Particular He Remembers They Used To Be Part of The Pardoner Self-Funding System. Windrush Caribbeans Operated A Goodwill Financial Hub Called A ‘Pardoner’ Where Different Social Groups Would Take It In Turns To Have Money At The End of The Month Collectively Financed By Each Member Paying An Agreed Amount Into A Collective Pot On A Monthly Basis To Help Each Other Survive & Eventually Buy Property. Each Member Had A Their Turn At The End of A Different Week or Month. This Was A Necessary Alternative To The Banks At A Time, As They  Would Not Give The New Arrivals Any Banking Credit or Banking Services.

Richie Says The Pardoner  System Alongside Working In Some Menial Jobs And Within The Caring Communities, Such As Nursing, Is How They Survived. “My Mum Was A Nurse And She Ended Up Being Promoted. She Was Head of The Old People’s Home, In The Midlands, A Place Called Dudley. She Had 5 or 6 Homes To Run”.