The National Trust discovers Britain had colonies and links to the African slave trade - who would have known such a thing?

The National Trust seems to have just discovered that Britain once had colonies – who would have known such a thing if they had not informed us!?  And – shock, horror, - Britain was once involved in the African slave trade.  I can’t imagine that this would be startling news to anyone who was given a half decent education.  I learnt about such things at junior school in the late 1950s.

Be that as it may, in order to keep up with the wokies in academia the National Trust’s historians have compiled a list of properties which have links with colonialism and the slave trade.  The fact that practically everything British has such links does not appear to have occurred to them, therefore the national list, not surprisingly, is a long one.

In Somerset there are four properties listed: Clevedon Court, Bath Assembly Rooms, Barrington Court and, amazingly, Glastonbury Tor.

Barrington Court’s presence on the National Trusts dossier is due to the fact that the house, acquired by the Trust in 1907, was leased in 1920 to Colonel Arthur Abram Lyle, the grandson of the founder of Abram Lyle & Sons, a sugar producing company.  The business was founded after the abolition of slavery so for some reason the Trust went to great lengths to find a connection to a supposedly morally dubious past.

Here is Barrington Court’s “crime sheet” from the Trust’s national report “Interim Report on the Connections between Colonialism and Properties now in the Care of the National Trust, Including Links with Historic Slavery.”:

The National Trust acquired Barrington Court in 1907, in a derelict condition. From 1920, Barrington was leased and restored by Colonel Abram Arthur Lyle (1880–1931), using architectural salvage collected from other houses. Lyle was the grandson of the founder of Abram Lyle & Sons, a sugar-producing company of which the colonel became director, and which merged to form Tate & Lyle in 1921. Both businesses were established after the abolition of slavery. The early nineteenth and early twentieth century British sugar industry was predominantly supplied by Caribbean plantations, founded under colonialism and supported by enslaved labour.

As for Glastonbury Tor being on the Trust’s dossier, words fail me!  It strikes me that those running the National Trust cannot be happy in their job if they think many of the properties in their care have dishonourable links.  Perhaps they should resign and let pragmatists take their place.

The Law Commission following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union's Stalinist authorities? A cautionary tale!

I came across this letter in The Week (November 14) which illustrates what may happen if the Law Commission’s proposals on hate speech come to pass.  And they say an Englishman’s home is his castle!

Lethal home truths.

To The Times

The Law Commission’s proposal to extend the jurisdiction of hate speech to private homes has unhappy parallels.  In 1932 Soviet, propaganda had it that a 13-year-old dedicated Young Pioneer, Pavlik Morozov, did the “right thing” by denouncing his father, Trofim, to the Stalinist authorities.  Trofim was said to have been executed as a result.  Members of Pavlik’s family, somewhat unhappy with this, then murdered the youth.  In turn they themselves were executed.  Pavlik was lauded in the USSR as a martyred hero, an example for Soviet youth to follow.

Michael Olizar, London.

Sunset over South Somerset.

Pleasing sunset this evening over Herne Hill on the fringe of Ilminster in South Somerset.

Sunset over Herne Hill in South Somerset on 25th November.

David Miliband, former Labour foreign secretary, has a salary four times higher than the Secretary-General of the UN.

These days I am very reluctant to give money to charities as it seems many of their CEOs are reported to earn six figure salaries.  So I was not surprised to read this story in a recent issue (November 7) of The Week magazine.  It certainly reinforces my disinclination to contribute to such institutions.

"Good week for David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, whose salary has soared to over $1m a year.  When Miliband became head of the New York-based aid charity the International Rescue Committee in 2013, he was paid $332,778. His new salary is four times higher than that of the Secretary-General of the UN."

Nice work if you can get it!

The war memorial in Watchet on the Somerset Coast.

 I visited the Somerset coastal town of Watchet back in the spring of 2018 and, while strolling around the harbour and esplanade, my wife and I came across a rather unique war memorial.  It stands by the wall of the public library, a building which was the town's lifeboat station until 1944.  The stone memorial is new and in the form of a structure representing sand bags.  It was unveiled on 28 June 2014. 

Originally Watchet had remembered its fallen by creating a recreation ground named the Memorial Ground.  It consisted of a sports pavilion and stand which was opened in July 1929.

The distinctive new memorial commemorates 42 men who were killed in World War One and 16 in World War Two. 

The war memorial in the Somerset coastal town of Watchet.

 

The loss of the armoured cruiser HMS GOOD HOPE at the Battle of Coronel. One of her crew is remembered in the village of Broadway, South Somerset.

As soon as war began in August 1914 Vice-Admiral Graf Von Spee’s Asiatic Cruiser Squadron, based in Tsingtau, about one hundred miles north of Shanghai, commenced a campaign of commerce raiding against British merchant shipping across the Pacific.  Von Spee’s squadron was built around two powerful modern armoured cruisers, SCHARNHORST and GNEISENAU, each armed with eight 8.2 inch and six 5.9 inch guns.

The Admiralty gave the task of intercepting the German commerce raiders to Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock’s squadron which consisted of the old battleship HMS CANOPUS and the armoured cruisers HMS GOOD HOPE and HMS MONMOUTH, together with the light cruiser HMS GLASGOW and the armed liner HMS OTRANTO.

Cradock left The Falkland Islands in GOOD HOPE on the 22 October and sailed into the Pacific aiming to rendezvous with the rest of his squadron off the west coast of South America.  However, he left CANOPUS behind as she was suffering from engine problems.

On November 1^st 1914 Cradock’s squadron came upon Von Spee’s ships off the Chilean port of Coronel.  Cradock ordered the lightly armed OTRANTO to clear the area leaving GOOD HOPE, MONMOUTH and GLASGOW to engage Von-Spee’s two armoured cruisers and their accompanying light cruisers DRESDEN and LEIPZIG.  The two forces were not evenly matched.  The British ships mounted a total of four 9.2 inch, thirty two 6 inch and ten 4 inch guns compared to the German’s sixteen 8.2 inch, twelve 5.9 inch and twenty 4.1 inch guns.

Three hours after forming line of battle the action was over.  GOOD HOPE and MONMOUTH were overwhelmed and sunk with all hands; Cradock and 1600 men were lost.  GLASGOW escaped to fight Von Spee another day at the Battle of The Falklands.

One of those lost with GOOD HOPE was Able Seaman George Mattravers Stoker 1^st Class, the son of John and Eliza Mattravers of Broadway in South Somerset, he was aged 31.

Able Seaman Mattravers is remembered on a commemorative plaque in Broadway’s Church of St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburga, and on the village’s war memorial.  His name is also on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

The plaque inside the Church of St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburga at Broadway in South Somerset commemorating those who served 

Note.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission spells Mattravers as Matravers.  I use the spelling Mattravers as it is used in Broadway’s village church and on its war memorial.