For as long as she can remember, Lorna Boothe has loved running.
As a child she did not use a bike for her paper round - she simply ran her route - while a first district-level medal at the age of seven was an early sign of her potential.
And some potential it turned out to be, with the 100m hurdler going on to represent Team GB at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic Games.
Boothe’s hurdling prowess was nurtured at Mitcham Athletics Club, though earlier in her life she had undergone a journey far more significant than any sporting one.
On June 22nd 1948, the HMT Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks carrying 1027 passengers and two stowaways on a voyage from Jamaica to London, a moment that became symbolic of the Commonwealth citizens who came to live in Britain between 1948-1971.
Boothe is part of the Windrush Generation, born in Kingston, Jamaica, in December 1954 before moving to the UK aged five.
It might have been over six decades since she lived in Jamaica, but it is a time that Boothe, now 68, recalls fondly.
“I grew up with my Grandma from the age of two to five,” she recalls. “My grandma was my world really, and I was the first grandchild so I was probably a little spoiled!
“I had two sets of grandmas around me, as I also spent time with my paternal grandma and all my cousins there. It was a really enjoyable time of my life, for me it was heaven because I was a pretty carefree child, very loving and very sensitive. The whole world just revolved around my grandma.
“My fifth birthday, we had ice cream and my little cousins were all around me. My grandma had these little gold tea sets. I was allowed to drink my tea and have my birthday with these little gold cups.
“Funnily enough, she left me two cups and saucers of that same set which I still have today.”
At that stage, Boothe’s parents were only faces in family photographs to her.
They had moved to England when she was two, and it wasn’t until early 1960 that, chaperoned by a family friend, she flew over to England to join them.
Her first six months were spent in a large shared house, with four families split across six bedrooms.
“It was a family which my mum had made friends with, and until they all passed they were her best friends.
“We were all really close and you were almost part of a bigger family, and up until this day the girls who were part of the family that owned the house, we are still very good friends until this day. There’s a bond between us.”
For Boothe and her family there was undoubtedly a sense of community with families also in their situation, something that was hardened by the years to come.
Six months into living in England she and her parents moved to Mitcham, Surrey becoming one of the first black families to live in the area; it was there where she began to encounter the racism and prejudice that so many members of the Windrush generation tragically experienced.
Standing on the shoulders of giants.
— Team GB (@TeamGB) June 22, 2023
To those with Windrush and West Indies heritage, to our past, present and future athletes, we give thanks… #Windrush75 pic.twitter.com/h1n1rD5sLT
She said: “In Jamaica you have people of every colour and creed, and you’re not seen as a particular colour - you are just Jamaican. So, when I came to Britain, I realised that actually you’re being classed as different, because you are different colour.
“Once we came to Mitcham that’s where it became more noticeable because we would get called all kinds of things. Walking along the streets, you would get called names.
“While I was at school it wasn’t too bad, but by then I had a little brother and they used to pick on him. I was a little bit more feisty, I was more confident in myself but then that’s how I grew up - I was always taught that everyone should accept you for what you are, not for the colour of your skin.
“I became quite confident, but there was loads of name calling on the street. If you went into somewhere, in the line they would push someone ahead of you because you were obviously a different colour.
“You did get treated differently.”
One place Boothe wasn’t seen as any different was in sport, her star potential obvious from a young age.
With two sporting greats of her day behind her, she felt there was nothing she couldn’t achieve.
“My dream from the age of seven was that I was going to be in the Olympics no matter what. I was going to be in the Olympics and I was prepared from that age, that was my goal.
“When I went to my secondary school I was 11 and I got taken to the Mitcham Athletics Club by my school teacher, Jackie Fidgen, who was a Surrey netball player. She was always there, took me to meetings and made sure I was entered into competitions - she also did a little bit of my coaching.
“I had Dorothy Tyler - Olympic high jumper - who was also my teacher. I had both of those who really pushed and supported me right through, and up until this day I still keep in touch with Jackie.
“I trained at Mitcham until I was 18. I had a choice whether to play the piano, go to University or do athletics, and I chose athletics.
“I’d obviously watched the Olympics so I knew what I wanted, and I saw the likes of Mary Peters going out and the joy it brought to her and to the rest of the country.
Such support set Boothe on the path to a trailblazing career that saw her not only compete Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980, but also win Commonwealth gold and silver and become a British record holder.
Her game-changing impact did not stop after her retirement.
After briefly living in the US, she returned to the UK and began coaching across south London, before training to be a team manager.
She made history at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, becoming both the first black person and the first woman to be Team GB’s senior team manager, and was awarded an MBE in 2019 for her contribution to sports coaching and administration.
Boothe’s impact on the fabric of British sport has been significant, though she, perhaps more than most, is as keen as ever to recognise the impact the Windrush generation have had and continues to have across the nation, 75 years after HMT Empire Windrush docked.
“People from the West Indies were invited across to help build the country, and that is so important as I think Britain today wouldn’t be where it is today if we hadn’t been invited across to build the country.
“I think it’s important that everybody knows the history, whether you’re black or white, it’s important that we know the contribution that’s been put into this country from our grandparents and parents, and even myself as part of that process of building the country, and recognising what we’ve actually done as part of the community.
“I think we’ve contributed in so many ways and it’s not just sport, it’s what we’ve contributed in teaching, what we’ve contributed in hospitals and all various parts of life.”
Sportsbeat 2023