My Great Grandfather The Radical Socialist Priest

Facing up to the past, good and bad.

Photo by National Library of Scotland on Unsplash

If you go to school in the UK, you will learn history. Mostly the history of Great Britain with a bit of ancient civilisation thrown in. There will almost certainly be mention of empire and a great deal of focus on the second world war.

You will probably come away with an understanding of history that goes something like this:

Stone age…blah blah blah…Romans…blah blah blah…1066…blah blah blah…Henry VIII…blah blah blah…Queen Victoria…blah blah blah… Empire… blah blah blah…WWII…blah blah blah…lost Empire…blah blah blah…the internet age.

When I was growing up, in the 80s and early 90s the prevailing attitude towards the dismantling of the British Empire seemed to be mild resentment. People would make jokes about other countries really being much better off under British rule.

Now, I think there is more recognition and understanding that perhaps what actually happened was that we were forced to return some places that we had stolen to their rightful owners (not, I might add, in the condition that we found them in).

Along with a lost empire, WWII is a central tenet of our national psyche. Britain is the little nation (all of a sudden) that stoically and steadfastly fought off…