A retired Birmingham production worker, he was a mischievous man who was never happier than when at home in Jamaica
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Earl Sewell was born in Jamaica and was part of the Windrush generation. His parents came to the UK in the 60s, to work in healthcare and construction, leaving Earl and his brother behind to be raised by their grandmother. By 1967, Earl’s parents were settled and sent for their children. Now aged 20, Earl arrived in the UK on a Saturday – and started work the following Monday, at a mattress factory in Birmingham. (His aunt had lined up a job for him.) “He couldn’t believe how cold it was,” says his wife, Jean, 68, a retired social worker. “The winters!”
“I was a bit oblivious to racism before I met Earl, to be honest,” says Jean. Being a mixed-race couple in the 70s was not easy. Some people assumed Jean was a sex worker and Earl was her pimp. On one occasion, their twin sons, Leon and Lloyd, were playing outside the family home when Jean overheard a woman telling them to “go back to where they belong”. Earl told Jean to leave it be, but she marched outside and confronted the woman.
