 He said: 'I remember crying. What made it worse was that my mother was crying her eyes out when she left. That made it worse than anything. 'She was crying louder than I was crying. She just said, 'we'll get you back' and that was it. A year later, it was finally time for him to join his parents in London but although he was excited, he was also filled with dread. Ernest said: 'The ship was a big old thing. It was very big. I just remembered being very, very big. There were a lot of people there. 'That's why even now, I haven't been on a cruise. When I go on a ferry and things like that which I have done when I've worked in Amsterdam, and even then I still feel fearful. 'It was quite a journey. It was quite a few days. The rockiness and everywhere you looked it was just pure water.' When Ernest arrived in Kilburn, north west London, he remembers the special n){kind=link}
Ernest Theophile came to the UK as part of the Windrush Generation and faced many challenges navigating a new society but he never forgot his dominos
Moving to a new country can be an exciting adventure and opportunity to start an entirely new life.
But for Ernest Theophile, leaving Dominica at six-years-old and boarding a ship for the first time, left him feeling terrified.
Now 75, he still remembers how he had never seen a vessel of that size and how till this day the thought of sailing “frightens” him.
But before hopping on board, Ernest had to kiss goodbye to his mother and father who left him a year before to head to the UK, as they would arrives as citizens of the Commonwealth rebuilding Britain after the Second World War.