I REMEMBER...Andrew Pritchard

Andrew Pritchard (56) went from an Action Man kid and music-obsessed teenager to one of the UK's biggest drug smugglers, who served time in HMP Belmarsh. Now he's helping to guide at-risk young people away from a life of crime

MUM ARRIVED IN THE UK IN 1951 AS PART OF THE WINDRUSH GENERATION. Marion, or Mavis as she became known, was born in October 1930, in a small village called Alligator Pond, in the parish of St Elizabeth, Jamaica. In December 1951, at the age of 21, Mum flew from her native Jamaica to Canada, then boarded a boat to the UK.

DAD, RONNIE PRITCHARD, WAS A WHITE LOCAL EAST END BOY WHO STARTED OUT AS A BUILDER. In the Fifties, he started delivering paraffin to West Indian customers, becoming friends with many. One of Dad’s new friends was a Jamaican called Bill Hill. Bill, something of a rogue, had the ambition to create the first Caribbean nightclub in London. Racism was rife in those days, so Dad agreed to help by becoming the secretary to Bill’s company. It would be easier for a white man to apply for a music licence. The Pepper Pot Club opened in 1958 at 60 Green Lanes, Haringey. Every weekend, smartly dressed West Indians would gather to listen to the latest tunes from Federal Records and the Blue Beat music labels.

ONE SATURDAY EVENING BACK IN 1958, Dad was invited to a blues party in North London. That’s where he met Mavis. Soon after, they got married and they didn’t spend a day apart for 60 years.