Stories

The stories here are of people who came to east London from the 1930s under the age of 18 from different parts of the world. They shared their experiences of migrating to, and settling in, the UK with Eithne Nightingale as part of her collaborative PhD between Queen Mary University and the V&A Museum of Childhood between 2011 - 2019. They are featured here rather than in Child Migrant Voices in Modern Britain - Oral Histories 1930s to the Present Day because, although just as rich in content, it was not possible to include all east London stories in the book. Explore the interactive timeline below:

1930

Max Levitas

Max Levitas, born in Southern Ireland in 1915 of a Lithuanian father and a Latvian mother, went to Scotland with his family at the age of 12 and to east London two years later.

Read more

1946

Wiktor Brodzinski

Wiktor Brodzinski, born in Poland in 1935, came to the UK, aged 11, having spent some of the war years working on a German farm until the arrival of the Allies. 

Read more

1962

Nurul Giani

Nurul Giani was born in Sylhet in 1946 in what was then East Pakistan. At the age of 16, he applied for a work voucher to come to the UK, arriving in east London on his own in 1963. 

Read more

1962

Mohammed Abul Jabbar

Mohammed Abul Jabbar, born in Sylhet, East Pakistan in 1946, came to the UK at the age of 16 with his father and brother. Their father, having arrived in the UK in 1956/1957, was already resident in the East End.

Coming soon

1967

Monaf Miaf

Monaf Miaf, born in East Pakistan in 1952, came to east London at the age of 15 with his father, already living in the UK, and younger brother.

Coming soon

1968

Errol Forrester

Errol Forrester, born in Jamaica in 1954, came to East London at the age of 14 to join his mother, sister, stepfather and half siblings from his mother’s second marriage.

Coming soon

1975

Surya Turner

Surya Turner, born in east London in 1969 of Antiguan parents, left to live with her grandparents in Antigua when she was about 18 months old. She returned to live with her parents in East London at the age of six.

Coming soon

1982

Tomasz Wlodarkczyk

Tomasz Wlodarkczyk, born in 1968 in Poland, came to the UK to join his mother and her partner when he was 13 or 14.

Coming soon

1990

Mathy Lisika Minsende

Mathy Lisika Minsende, born in the Congo in 1980, came to London with her mother aged 10 having previously lived in Belgium and France. Aged 14, she and her mother returned to the Congo where she reunited with her father, a Colonel in Mobutu’s government. After two and a half years Mathy went with her brother and cousins to stay with her uncle and wife in South Africa.

Coming soon

2001

Ligia Lima

Ligia Lima, born in Brazil in 2001, came to East London at the age of seven with her Brazilian mother and British stepfather.

Coming soon

2006

Saqib Waqar

At the age of 12, Saqib Waqar, born in Pakistan in 1994, was brought to east London with his grandparents to live with his aunt and uncle.

Coming soon

2011

Sadeka Nujhat

At the age of one Sadeka Nujhat, born in 1996 in Sylhet, Bangladesh, went to Italy with her mother to join her father. At the age of 15 she came with her parents and brother to east London.

Coming soon

2014

Fabiha & Rubaiya

Fabiha Ullah, born in Italy in 2002 and Rubaiya Ullah, born in Italy in 2008, came to the East End from Italy in 2014 with their brother and parents, of Bangladeshi origin.

Coming soon