London's Chelsea Flower Show display pays tribute to Windrush Generation
Britain's Queen Elizabeth looks at a display of roses as she tours the Chelsea Flower Show 2018 in London, Britain May 21, 2018. Richard Pohle/Pool via REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's most prestigious flower show, a celebration of the genteel world of gardening, opens this week with a tribute to the "Windrush" generation of Caribbean migrants whose recent treatment has provoked a political scandal.
The floral tribute at the Chelsea Flower Show is designed to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush ship, bringing the first in a wave of immigrants who were invited to Britain after World War Two to plug job shortages.
Although fully entitled to live and work in Britain, an unknown number of Windrush descendants have been wrongly identified as illegal immigrants and denied basic rights such as healthcare.
A display of Roses are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Some have been detained and up to 63 immigrants wrongly deported to the Caribbean in a scandal that engulfed the government and led to the resignation of the government's Home Secretary, the interior minister.
The exhibit at the Royal Horticultural Society's annual Chelsea Flower Show depicts the moment that the HMT Empire Windrush arrived in Essex, southeast England, in 1948. It features a model of the ship and its passengers and includes flowers and plants from both sides of the Atlantic.
It was designed by the former television presenter and now life peer Baroness Floella Benjamin, who arrived in Britain from Trinidad and Tobago in 1960 aged 11 and worked on the project with the Windrush Foundation and the Birmingham City Council gardening team.
A display of Clematis is seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Prime Minister Theresa May was one of the guests to the show in the grounds of London's Royal Hospital Chelsea on Monday ahead of its official opening on Tuesday with Queen Elizabeth also expected to attend.
(Reporting by Ana de Liz; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
A display of Hippeastrum are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleVisitors view floral displays at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville Britain's Queen Elizabeth is presented with a Chinese silk scarf depicting two whales after she looked at the Chinese show garden as she tours the Chelsea flower show in London, Britain May 21, 2018. Richard Pohle/Pool via REUTERSA display of Flytraps are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleREFILE - CORRECTING BYLINE Britain's Queen Elizabeth attends the Chelsea Flower Show 2018 in London, Britain May 21, 2018. Richard Pohle/Pool via REUTERSA display of Daffodils are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA display of Allium are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA display of Lupins are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA display of Chrysanthemum are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA display of Auricula are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA display of Fuchsia are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA display of Foxgloves are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA display of Cacti are seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA woman carries a floral design handbag at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleVisitors view floral displays at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA woman makes adjustments to a floral display based on thrones and chairs at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA Chelsea Pensioner views Viola on display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleAn Auricula is seen on display in a picture frame at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleDetail of a peacock themed display is seen at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleDetail of figures and flowers are seen on The Windrush Garden, created by Birmingham City Council at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA woman displays her floral decorated boots at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA man photographs a gladioli display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleDetail of jewellery and floral display is seen on a woman promoting a stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA floral display is seen on a Citroen H-Van at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA woman takes photographs at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleA woman views a floral display on a Citroen H-Van at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleBritain's Prime Minister, Theresa May, and her husband Philip visit the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleBritain's Prime Minister, Theresa May, and her husband Philip visit the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleBritain's Prime Minister, Theresa May, visits the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleBritain's Environment Secretary Michael Gove reacts during a visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
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