Thursday, June 18, 2020

Exclusive: Top British firms to pay compensation over founders' slavery links

Greene King and Lloyd's of London among the companies to apologise and pledge payments to BAME groups


By Christopher Hope, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT ;
Dominic Gilbert and Patrick Scott, DATA JOURNALISTS
17 June 2020 • 10:44pm

Two of the UK's biggest companies have pledged to pay large sums to black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities after their roles in the slave trade were highlighted in a major academic database.


Greene King, one of the UK's largest pub chains, and Lloyd's of London, one of the world's biggest insurance firms, both said they would make payments.

The payments mark the first time the controversy over the UK's past involvement with slavery, which has led to statues being torn down, has impacted the corporate sector.

Greene King was founded in the early 19th century by Benjamin Greene, one of 47,000 people who benefited from the UK Government's decision to compensate Britons when slavery was abolished in 1833.

Greene received nearly £500,000 in today's money when he surrendered rights to three plantations in the West Indies.

Details of the sums are set out in a comprehensive database held by University College London (UCL).

However, Greene King does not mention its past links to slavery on its company website, although they were set out in a 1983 book about the Suffolk firm's history.

The Greene King brewery in Suffolk CREDIT: Tony Buckingham
LOOK UNITED CHURCH ARCHITECTURE

On Wednesday night, Nick Mackenzie, Greene King's chief executive, told The Telegraph the company would update the website on Thursday and offered an unqualified apology.

He said: "It is inexcusable that one of our founders profited from slavery and argued against its abolition in the 1800s. We don’t have all the answers, so that is why we are taking time to listen and learn from all the voices, including our team members and charity partners, as we strengthen our diversity and inclusion work."

He added that Greene King would make a "substantial investment to benefit the BAME community and support our race diversity in the business as we increase our focus on targeted work in this area."


The interior of the Lloyd's of London building CREDIT: Reuters
THE MODERN CLOCK IS A PRODUCT OF CAPITALISM

The database showed that Simon Fraser, a founder subscriber member of insurer Lloyd's of London, was paid nearly £400,000 in today's money to surrender an estate in Dominica.

A Lloyd's spokesman said on Wednesday: "We are sorry for the role played by the Lloyd's market in the 18th and 19th century slave trade. This was an appalling and shameful period of English history, as well as our own, and we condemn the indefensible wrongdoing that occurred during this period.

"We will provide financial support to charities and organisations promoting opportunity and inclusion for black and minority ethnic groups."

Lloyd's also said it would now review its "organisational artefacts, to ensure that they are explicitly non-racist".

Greene King and Lloyd's were two of nine UK businesses – several of them high street banks – that benefited directly or indirectly from the compensation, according to the UCL database.

On Wednesday night, pressure was growing on the other companies shown to have links to slavery in the database to make some form of payment to BAME groups.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group were among a number found to have benefited directly or indirectly from the slavery payments.

In the case of RBS, it conceded in a report in 2009 that individuals "who were partners or directors of RBSG [Royal Bank of Scotland Group] predecessors may have owned slaves themselves or been otherwise directly connected to slave enterprises in the British West Indies.

"There is also evidence that other partners of RBSG predecessors may have been part owners of ships involved in slave trading voyages during the 18th and 19th centuries."

RBS hinted on Wednesday night that it would make a similar donation, telling The Telegraph it would "look at what more we can do as a bank and this includes looking at making contributions to BAME groups".

Layla Moran, a challenger for the Liberal Democrat leadership, said she would be writing to the bosses of companies highlighted in the UCL database, urging them to make donations to BAME causes.

She said: "No one can change the past – but these businesses can step up now and help to build a better, more inclusive future.

"I'm pleased to see some companies acknowledging this and responding to donation calls. I urge others to follow suit." 


The companies in Britain linked to the slave trade – and what they say today


Greene King

How Greene King is linked to the slave trade:

Brewery founder Benjamin Greene is listed on the UCL database as the sole claimant over three estates, one in Montserrat and two in St Kitts, both in the Caribbean. He was awarded compensation worth £483,308 in today's money when forced by Parliament to surrender them.

What Greene King says today:

Nick Mackenzie, the Greene King chief executive, said: "It is inexcusable that one of our founders profited from slavery and argued against its abolition in the 1800s. We plan to make a substantial investment to benefit the BAME community and support race diversity in the business as we increase our focus on targeted work in this area."

Company connection
President
Trustee
Founder Subscriber
Member of Provisional Committee
Director
Partner
Senior partner
Other partner
Name partner
Firm Investment
Agent then Manager
Manager
General Manager
SUCCESSOR
COMPANY
CLAIMANT OR BENEFICIARY
RBS
Abel Smith
George Robert Smith
Samuel George Smith
Smith, Payne & Smith
John Smith
Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington
Abraham Wildey Robarts
Robarts, Lubbock & Co.
Russell Ellice
Archibald Paull
National Provincial Bank
Charles Selkrig
John Gladstone
Royal Bank of Scotland
Charles Selkrig
Hugh Duncan Baillie
Bristol Old Bank
James Evan Baillie
Isaac Currie
Raikes & Co.
Isaac Currie
Curries & Co.
James Auchinleck Cheyne
National Bank of Scotland
James Hughes Anderdon
Bank of London
John Atholl Hammet
William Esdaile
Sir James Esdaile & Co.
Pascoe St Leger Grenfell
Rees Goring Thomas
Thomas Scott
John Drummond
Drummonds
John Mello
Dorrien, Magens, Mello
Thomas Dorrien
John Stewart
London and Westminster Joint Stock Bank
John Vere
Vere & Ward
Milham Hartley
Hartleys & Co.
Thomas Hartley III
Richard Bright of Ham Green
Cave, Ames & Cave
Thomas Daniel
Sir Gerard Noel Noel 2nd Bart.
Davison, Noel, Templer,
Middleton & Wedgwood
Thomas Alers Hankey
Thomas Hankey II
Hankey & Co.
William Alers Hankey formerly Alers



Company connection
President
Trustee
Founder Subscriber
Member of Provisional Committee
Director
Partner
Senior partner
Other partner
Name partner
Firm Investment
Agent then Manager
Manager
General Manager
SUCCESSOR
COMPANY
CLAIMANT OR BENEFICIARY
RBS
Abel Smith
George Robert Smith
Samuel George Smith
Smith, Payne & Smith
John Smith
Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington
Abraham Wildey Robarts
Robarts, Lubbock & Co.
Russell Ellice
Archibald Paull
National Provincial Bank
Charles Selkrig
John Gladstone
Royal Bank of Scotland
Charles Selkrig
Hugh Duncan Baillie
Bristol Old Bank
James Evan Baillie
Isaac Currie
Raikes & Co.
Isaac Currie
Curries & Co.
James Auchinleck Cheyne
National Bank of Scotland
James Hughes Anderdon
Bank of London
John Atholl Hammet
William Esdaile
Sir James Esdaile & Co.
Pascoe St Leger Grenfell
Rees Goring Thomas
Thomas Scott
John Drummond
Drummonds
John Mello
Dorrien, Magens, Mello
Thomas Dorrien
John Stewart
London and Westminster Joint Stock Bank
John Vere
Vere & Ward
Milham Hartley
Hartleys & Co.
Thomas Hartley III
Richard Bright of Ham Green
Cave, Ames & Cave
Thomas Daniel
Sir Gerard Noel Noel 2nd Bart.
Davison, Noel, Templer,
Middleton & Wedgwood
Thomas Alers Hankey
Thomas Hankey II
Hankey & Co.
William Alers Hankey formerly Alers

RB


How RBS is linked to the slave trade:

An internal company report by RBS in 2009 found evidence that individuals "who were partners or directors of RBSG predecessors may have owned slaves themselves or been otherwise directly connected to slave enterprises in the British West Indies". In all, a total of 18 former companies associated with RBS have links to claimants or beneficiaries in the UCL database.

Two partners in Smith, Payne and Smith, which later became part of RBS, are listed as being claimants or beneficiaries from the fund. The 2009 RBS report says that in 1836 "the bank received its share (three-eighths) of the compensation for the 406 slaves" on a plantation.

What RBS says today:

A spokesman said: "As an organisation with a history stretching back more than 300 years, it is inevitable that these important and painful issues have a place in our history. We recognise our responsibility to engage with that.

"Over the past 15 years, RBS Group has been aware of these issues and has looked into its past links with slavery very extensively and thoroughly, using both its own archives and the growing body of research materials available externally to understand and document the connections. We have a substantial role to play in tackling those inequalities, and have recently set up a taskforce which will look at what more we can do as a bank."
Lloyds Banking Group



How Lloyds Banking Group is linked to the slave trade:

John White Cater, a president of London and Brazilian Bank, which later became part of Lloyds Banking Group, received compensation for five claims relating to estates in Jamaica. A total of eight former companies associated with Lloyds have links to claimants or beneficiaries in the UCL database.

What Lloyds Banking Group says today:

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesman said: "A lot has changed during the 300-year history of our brands and, while we have much within our heritage to be proud of, we can't be proud of it all. Like any institution that is so interwoven with our country's history, we must acknowledge and learn from our past.

"We stand against racism, slavery and discrimination in all its forms and truly believe that, by reflecting, understanding, promoting and valuing the diversity of our colleagues, we will deliver better results for our colleagues and customers."
RSA Insurance



How RSA Insurance is linked to the slave trade:

Five company directors and a governor of London Assurance, which was merged into Sun Insurance in 1959 and eventually RSA Insurance in 2008, are named as claimants or beneficiaries. In total, five former companies associated with RSA have links to claimants or beneficiaries in the UCL database.

What RSA Insurance says today:

A spokesman said: "RSA's origins in insurance date back well over 300 years, with many parts of our business founded in the 17th and 18th centuries. While this has brought positive things that have shaped us, there are aspects of that history that don't reflect the values we hold today.

"We will continue to work with our employees to tackle racism and other injustices wherever we encounter them through our actions."
Lloyd's of London

How Lloyd's of London is linked to the slave trade:

One founder subscriber and one former chairman of Lloyd's of London are listed as claimants or beneficiaries in the UCL database, and four others are listed as having links to estates. They include founder subscriber Simon Fraser, who was the former owner of the Castle Bruce estate in Dominica, which was handed compensation totalling £397,451 in today's money.

What Lloyd's of London says today:

A spokesman said: "We are sorry for the role played by the Lloyd's market in the 18th and 19th century slave trade. This was an appalling and shameful period of English history, as well as our own, and we condemn the indefensible wrongdoing that occurred during this period.

"We will provide financial support to charities and organisations promoting opportunity and inclusion for black and minority ethnic groups."
P&O

How P&O is linked to the slave trade:

Joseph Christopher Ewart, who later became a director of P&O Steam Navigation Co, along with others was awarded compensation for Long Lane Delap's estate in Antigua as mortgagees-in-trust. The total compensation in today's money was £334,336.

What P&O owner DP World says today:

A spokesperson for P&O said: "We believe that these records relate to a time before P&O was incorporated. Also, P&O ships did not trade on the Atlantic in this era and first went to the West Indies almost 100 years later, in 1932."
Danske Bank

How Danske Bank is linked to the slave trade:

Frederick Hervey Garraway was awarded compensation for eight claims over estates in Dominica, at the equivalent sum today of £905,150. Garraway made an investment in Belfast Banking Company, which became Northern Bank and was then acquired by Danske Bank.

What Danske Bank says today:

Stefan Singh Kailay, head of Media relations, said: "We have a zero-tolerance policy against all forms of discrimination, disrespectful behaviour, bullying, and harassment of any kind towards employees, customers, business partners, or any other persons connected to Danske Bank."
Barclays



How Barclays is linked to the slave trade:

A manager, one founder subscriber and three directors of the Colonial Bank – merged with Barclays in 1917 – are listed as claimants or beneficiaries by UCL. They include founder subscriber William Tetlow Hibbert, who was awarded compensation over nine claims relations to estates in Jamaica totalling £4.5 million in today's money.

What Barclays says today:

A spokesman said: "The history of Barclays, like other institutions, is being examined following recent events. We can't change what's gone before us, only how we go forward. We are committed as a bank to do more to further foster our culture of inclusiveness, equality and diversity, for our colleagues and the customers and clients we serve."
HSBC

How HSBC is linked to the slave trade:

George Pollard was first manager of London Joint Stock Bank, which was later absorbed by Midland Bank and eventually merged into HSBC. Pollard was trustee over a claim regarding Colhoun's estate in Nevis, for which compensation was paid totalling £289,586 in today's money.

What HSBC says today:

A spokesman had not commented at the time of going to press.


CHARTS WITH THE ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND HERE 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/17/companies-britain-linked-slave-trade-say-today/


Search Results

Web results

Legacies of British Slave-ownership. The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership has been established at UCL with the generous support of the Hutchins Center at Harvard.


Engaging with the legacies of British slave-ownership

Submitting Institution University College London

Unit of Assessment History

Summary Impact Type Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies


Download original PDF
Summary of the impact

Professor Catherine Hall and her team have instigated a high-profile public debate about British slave-ownership and its long-term influence on British society, economy, politics and culture. The team's research results have been shared with a wide audience through an intense programme of public engagement, including a number of exhibitions, and extensive media coverage in the UK and abroad, as well as indirectly through an acclaimed work of popular fiction. Above all, their research has been made publicly available via an online Encyclopaedia of British Slave-ownership which has encouraged non-academic users to pursue their own research and make active contributions to the project.
Underpinning research

Catherine Hall, Professor of Modern British Social and Cultural History at UCL since 1998, has been a prime mover in the establishment of the `New Imperial History', which argues for the centrality of Empire in the formation of modern Britain and for the necessity of considering metropole and colony in a single analytical frame [a]. Within this context, Professor Hall and her research associates, Dr Nicholas Draper and Dr Keith McClelland, conducted the ESRC-funded project Legacies of British Slave-ownership (1/6/2009-31/5/2012) which established a wider empirical base for research on colonial slave-ownership and substantiated its economic, political and cultural impact on metropolitan Britain.

Legacies of British Slave-ownership has used the records of the £20m paid in compensation to slave-owners in 1833 for the loss of their `property' as a starting-point for documenting the c.46,000 individual claims and awards made to those who either owned slaves or benefitted indirectly from ownership. The result is an online Encyclopaedia of British Slave-ownership [b], launched in February 2013, which gives the amounts of compensation awarded to each of the named claimants and establishes the life-trajectories of the c. 3,000 absentee slave-owners in Britain. The legacies of these beneficiaries and their descendants are traced through six strands — commercial and financial continuities (e.g. the compensation money that went into banking, insurance and railways); cultural and institutional legacies (e.g. philanthropic endeavours and collections of artefacts); political affiliations and associational networks created by recipients of slave compensation; historical lineages and memories of slavery (e.g. the national, familial and local histories produced); imperial legacies across the wider circuits of Empire; physical legacies in the built environment (from country houses to urban development).

The project's overall finding is that British colonial slave-ownership was of far greater significance to metropolitan Britain's economy, society, polity and culture than has previously been recognised, and that its importance continued beyond the period of Emancipation. A comprehensive approach and the construction of a major new dataset allowed the team to move beyond the case-study approach to provide a systematic account of slave-ownership which strongly supports the view that empire was constitutive of modern Britain, a thesis which has remained highly contested [c, d]. As part of the project, Draper has significantly modified the `decline' thesis of the decay of the West Indian slave-economy after the abolition of the slave-trade in 1807 by identifying the rise of a new planter class in Britain connected with British Guiana [e]. Among other major research contributions, the team has traced the continuing importance of slave-owners in the development of new sectors of the City of London, especially in the development of the financial structures of the settler colonies and in a commercial `swing east' by former slave-owners; they have demonstrated the role of slave-owners and their immediate families in the rewriting of slavery after Emancipation to re-denominate the slave-owners as the victims of Emancipation; and they have shown the re-incorporation of the slave-owners into the mainstream of British politics of the 1850s and 1860s, both developments contributing to the `racial turn' in British thinking in the third quarter of the nineteenth century [f].
References to the research


[a] Catherine Hall, Civilising subjects: metropole and colony in the English imagination (Cambridge, 2002). Winner of the American Historical Association's Forkosch Prize for British History and the Reece Prize for imperial history. Available on request.


[b] Legacies of British Slave-ownership (2013) www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs. Website.


[c] Catherine Hall and Keith McClelland (eds.), Race, nation and empire: making histories 1750 to the present (Manchester, 2010).
Published by prominent academic publisher, with contributions from many distinguished scholars. Available on request.


[d] Nicholas Draper, The price of Emancipation: slave-ownership, compensation and British society at the end of slavery (Cambridge, 2010).
Winner of the Whitfield Prize. Available on request.




[e] Nicholas Draper, `The rise of a new planter class? : some countercurrents from British Guiana and Trinidad, 1807-33', Atlantic Studies 9.1 (January 2012), 65-83.
Peer-reviewed journal. DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2012.636996.



[f] Catherine Hall, `Troubling memories: nineteenth-century histories of the slave trade and slavery', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 21 (December 2011), 147-69.
Peer-reviewed journal. Submitted to REF 2.


Details of the impact

Legacies of British Slave-ownership (LBS) had an immediate and highly visible impact on public debate. A dramatic example was the response to its findings about the extent to which the prosperity of the City of London, including some of its most distinguished firms, was built on money awarded as compensation to slave-owners. From the moment the project was launched in 2009, this discovery attracted much media attention, including a front-page story in the Financial Times which drew largely on research underpinning Draper's book [d]. The media coverage elicited public statements from merchant bank N. M. Rothschild and law-firm Freshfields acknowledging the findings of the project and expressing regret for their past associations with slavery. Draper was invited to meet with senior managers at Freshfields to talk about the project's discoveries and their implications for the firm's view of its own history and McClelland was invited to address the Black and Asian employee group of BP. As a further result of this research, the Royal Bank of Scotland changed their Historical Research Report, `Predecessor Institutions Research Regarding Slavery and the Slave Trade' to include directors of the bank and its British predecessors who were awarded slave compensation but had previously not been identified as connected to slavery [1].

The project also attracted the interest of acclaimed author Andrea Levy, whose novel The Long Song makes extensive and fully acknowledged use of Hall's research [a]. The novel — shortlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize, longlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers Prize and named as a 2010 New York Times Most Notable book — aimed `to instil pride in anyone with slave ancestors' and has been widely lauded for its ability to evoke the plight of slaves and their relationships with slave-owners. Levy further acknowledged the importance of the LBS project to her work by giving a public reading and speaking at the Neale conference organised by members of the team in March 2012 [2].

To enhance the reach and significance of the project's impact on public awareness and debate, members of the team have spoken to very many diverse organisations and groups about the project and its work. Most importantly, the team organised workshops (6 in 2010, 2 in 2012) in London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol which ensured that members of the public could participate in the research process, sharing ideas and findings. Around 220 people attended, mostly local and family historians from outside academia, librarians, school teachers, museum professionals and community activists. These workshops outlined the findings of the LBS project, focusing on the relevant region or city, and then gave independent researchers the opportunity to talk about their work before opening up the sessions to collective discussion. The feedback forms distributed after each workshop revealed an overwhelmingly positive response. Participants wrote that what they learned was useful to understanding their own family history: `Good to have input that makes me think'; `Will add a new dimension to my local history research'. School teachers commented on the benefit to their work: `As a teacher it is always useful to know or learn of different approaches to teaching Black History... the topics, relevant, very enlightening'; `As a school teacher, this information is vital — knowledge of oneself + history of surroundings helps to promote self-value & sense of worth'. Many feedback forms stressed the events' inclusivity and diversity (22 of 97) and their usefulness in helping participants network and make new contacts (23 of 97) [3].

The LBS team created two exhibitions based on research towards the Encyclopaedia [b]. `The Slavers of Harley Street' at the Museum of London in Docklands in 2008-9 was widely reviewed in the local press with all commentators noting that the exhibition enabled them to view the history of the area in a new light: `new research reveals a sinister side to the noble street that will send shockwaves through consulting rooms and operating theatres across Marylebone' (West End Extra); `lifts the lid on London's middle class investments in slavery, dispelling the myth that the archetypal slave-owner was sitting on a porch in the Caribbean surveying his plantations' (Ethnic Now). The Museum of London in Docklands received nearly 159,000 visitors during this year, one-third more than expected. A group of emerging film-makers produced a film inspired by the exhibition: according to a Museum of London Docklands Inclusion Officer, `it was a subject they knew very little about and their inspiration came from the Museum and gallery space enabling them to produce a touching and informed film'. Draper was invited to give a public lecture on the exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands, which also led to an invitation for him to give a talk to the Marylebone Local History Society in April 2010; the findings presented in his lecture were described as `quite astonishing' in their newsletter [4].

A second exhibition, `The Slave-owners of Bloomsbury', was created at UCL to commemorate Black History Month in 2011. An updated version was on display at the Archives Centre in Holborn Library in 2012; after receiving positive feedback from members of the public, library staff transferred the exhibition to the public lending section, ensuring a higher public footfall [5].

The LBS team are also active members of the Facebook groups Jamaican Colonial Heritage Society and Coming to the Table which have a combined membership of over 2,500 people. The project has its own blog and produces a monthly newsletter with over 200 subscribers [6].

Finally, a very substantial impact in terms of both reach and significance is achieved by the online Encyclopaedia of Slave-ownership [b], launched on 28 February 2013. Crucial to its success is its accessibility and usability for the general public. Visitors to the site can search for individuals by surname, forename, age, address, religion, occupation, by level of wealth, by size of slave-ownership, by colony and estate name for each holding or by an open search of the freeform notes — and therefore easily access the data according to the users' wide variety of interests. The team organised a major publicity drive so that a wide audience would become aware of the Encyclopaedia and its possible relevance to them. All members gave interviews to the press and the launch of the website was discussed in over 60 broadcasts and publications with a reach of 20 million people, including national and international media — e.g. the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 or the Jamaican Voice newspaper — but also regional media focusing on the relevance of the project for specific areas. For example, Hall gave an interview to Radio Solent and This is Plymouth published a piece on Devon's links to slavery [7].

The Encyclopaedia had 137,998 visits from 108,022 unique visitors between the launch in February and 31 July 2013 [8]. The news spread quickly through online shares, likes and tweets. For example, the Independent on Sunday article of 28/2 was shared 26,000 times and received over 1,000 comments. Bloggers reported on the broad scope of the project — for example the British GENES blog (which first picked up a tweet about the project from Dianne Abbott MP) — but also used our search functions to report on specific interests — for example, a blog on the Ekklesia website which discussed slave-owning clergymen [8]. Between February and July 2013, the LBS project received and replied to over 500 emails from members of the public, the great majority from descendants of slave-owners and the enslaved. Some e-mails reported personal reactions, many contributed additional information on individuals in the database, and many led to a long correspondence [9]. On numerous occasions the team was able to provide information on ways in which people can pursue their own research beyond the Encyclopaedia. Conversely, the Encyclopaedia was enriched by their input: over 330 entries in the database [10] now present information contributed by members of the public, and 30 to 40 links to other people's websites have been added as a way of providing access to more detailed information.

In sum, the LBS project has not only made its research available to large numbers of people through a wide range of media but helped thousands of non-academics to conduct their own historical investigations. In doing so, it has succeeded in making the legacies of slave-ownership a topic of engaged and informed public debate.
Sources to corroborate the impact

[1] Impact on City firms: Financial Times 27/28 June 2009 pp. 1, 3 (and www.ft.com/slavery), and 1 July 2009, p. 4 for Freshfields and Rothschild statements. Royal Bank of Scotland, Historical Research Report, Predecessor Institutions Research Regarding Slavery and the Slave Trade (May 2006, updated May 2009): http://bit.ly/1b412iL [PDF]; Glasgow Sunday Herald, 19 December 2010, p. 13 (http://bit.ly/eqyhZl ) and p. 11 in `Opinion' supplement (http://bit.ly/hcPIMe). Indicative list of media coverage at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/media.

[2] Acknowledgement of Catherine Hall in Andrea Levy, The Long Song (London, 2010), p. 310; available on request.

Reviews of The Long Song: Sunday Telegraph, 20/01/2010: http://bit.ly/bKyKEZ; Guardian, 07/02/2010: http://bit.ly/aHXLNx; evidence of impact on the public in reviews on Amazon: http://amzn.to/17gyvm1.

Programme of the Neale colloquium including Levy's attendance available on request.

[3] Details of workshops on the LBS events page: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/events. Discussion of one workshop in North East Slavery & Abolition Group ENewsletter No. 9, September 2010: http://bit.ly/19ac5aJ [PDF]. Other talks, e.g. UCL Lunch Hour Lecture. `What does London owe to slavery?', 26 October 2010 (http://bit.ly/GRfaSI). Feedback dossier from workshops available on request.

[4] Examples of local press coverage: `"Street of Shame": Harley Street's links to the slave trade are examined in a surprising new exhibition', Marylebone Journal, 1 February 2009; available on request. `Slavers of Harley Street' exhibit at Museum of London in Docklands, Ethnic Now, November 2008: http://bit.ly/17gzdzM. `Before doctors, Harley Street was floating on "slave money"`, Camden New Journal, 14 November 2008, p. 5: http://bit.ly/1e4hnFU. Museum visitor figures http://bit.ly/1e8evrx [PDF] (p. 2). Film makers: Museum of London Docklands Inclusion Officer's personal testimony available at http://bit.ly/1er77rz. Draper's lecture: `Marylebone's connections to slavery', St Marylebone Society's Newsletter, No. 329, Summer 2010; available on request.

[5] Corroborating statement from the Archives Officer at Holborn Library available on request.

[6] Blog: http://lbsatucl.wordpress.com/. Newsletter subscriber list available on request.

[7] Examples of national media coverage: Independent on Sunday, 24 February 2013, pp. 22-23, `Britain's colonial shame: slave-owners given huge payouts after Abolition' http://ind.pn/YMtAGQ. Today, BBC Radio 4, 27 February 2013, Catherine Hall interviewed by James Naughty, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21598782 . The Voice, 25 February 2013, `David Cameron's ancestors received slavery compensation', http://bit.ly/XcHVgy. The Plymouth Herald, 28 February 2013, `How Plymouth turned its back on slavery in 1833', http://bit.ly/Wr10yX.

[8] Google Analytics report available on request. British GENES, 27 February 2013, `Legacies of British Slave-ownership', http://bit.ly/1fdlItz. Ekklesia, 27 February 2013, `New research reveals how clergy claimed compensation for slave ownership', http://bit.ly/V8Nb6f.

[9] Selected e-mail correspondence available on request.

[10] E.g. http://bit.ly/17nmonf (slave-owner, and former slave, Laurencine Whiteman identified by a correspondent); another correspondent provided new information about six of her ancestors including Susanna Fletcher Ingram (http://bit.ly/1e8SpVU) and Benjamin Travers (http://bit.ly/16RDv7f), and in the process corrected a mistake in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
The truth is out there: The Milky Way could be home to
 36 alien civilisations, say scientists

By Euronews • last updated: 16/06/2020

Christopher Conselice, professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham and co-author of the research, speaking to Euronews on Monday, June 15, 2020 - Copyright Euronews


It's a cosmic question that has stumped humanity for generations: is there intelligent life beyond our planet?

There's still no conclusive proof that aliens are actually out there, but new research says that our galaxy could be home to 36 civilizations on other planets.

The study says that if life can evolve on other Earth-like planets, three dozen "intelligent civilizations" could exist across the Milky Way. They should also be capable of broadcasting signals into space in the same way that humans do.

"The way we define it is something, an intelligence, which communicates through technology like radio waves, sending lasers into space, optical light going into space, like from our cities, that kind of thing," said Christopher Conselice, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham and a co-author of the research paper, published in the Astrophysical Journal.

The findings hinge on a number of assumptions.

"The main calculation involves knowing how many stars in our galaxy could be old enough to host life," Conselice said in an interview on Euronews Tonight.

"We know how life forms on Earth and our own solar system. We know how long it took. We know what kind of metallicity – that is the kind of metals we have. And if you look at what other stars in our galaxy have those properties, you're able to come up with this number," he explained.

So, why haven’t we heard from any other life yet? That’s a decades-old question, also known as the Fermi paradox.



Conselice suspects that it’s because these types of communicating civilisations are "very rare" and their lifetimes not very long.

"So we just haven't been able to detect them yet. And they haven't been able to detect us because we've only been emitting light, like radio waves into the galaxy for about 100 years – and 100 light years is how far that could have traveled, but that's not very far," he said.

"It’s just that they’re so far away," he added, predicting it would take "thousands of years" for radio emissions from Earth to reach them.

Watch highlights from the interview in the video player
Lloyd's of London and Greene King apologise over slavery links

A spokesperson for Lloyd’s said on Thursday the company was “sorry for the role played by the Lloyd’s market in the 18th and 19th century slave trade.”

LLOYDS IS TOO COY BY FAR
THEY WERE FOUNDED TO PROTECT BRITISH SLAVERS FROM PIRATES AND PRIVATEERS WHO INCLUDED FREED BLACK SAILORS IN THEIR GUILDS

It came after the company was asked by news outlets about several of the company’s founder subscribers’ inclusion on a University College London (UCL) database on slave-owners and their legacy.
Founder subscriber Simon Fraser is reported to have benefited from compensation worth the equivalent of £400,000 ($502,248) today after slaves were released from his family’s plantations.


Lloyd's of London. Firm Details. Founder Subscriber. Simon Fraser of Ness Castle. Founder ...
Tom Belger Finance and policy reporter Yahoo Finance UK18 June 2020

Lloyds of London's building in central London. (PA)


Lloyds of London and Greene King have both apologised over their links to Britain’s historic slave trade.

The insurance giant and pub chain both also vowed to do more to tackle challenges facing ethnic minorities, including funding external organisations and internal diversity and inclusion measures.

It marks the latest development in the fallout from the toppling of a slave trader’s statue in Bristol during a Black Lives Matter protest, triggered by the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans at the hands of the police.

Several companies have pledged their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, but many face increasing scrutiny over their own records, past and present.

A spokesperson for Lloyd’s said on Thursday the company was “sorry for the role played by the Lloyd’s market in the 18th and 19th century slave trade.”

It came after the company was asked by news outlets about several of the company’s founder subscribers’ inclusion on a University College London (UCL) database on slave-owners and their legacy.

Founder subscriber Simon Fraser is reported to have benefited from compensation worth the equivalent of £400,000 ($502,248) today after slaves were released from his family’s plantations.

“Lloyds has a long and rich history dating back over 330 years, but there are some aspects of our history that we are not proud of,” said the spokesperson.

“This was an appalling and shameful period of English history, as well as our own, and we condemn the indefensible wrongdoing that occurred during this period.”

He added that an inclusive culture was one of Lloyd’s “top strategic priorities,” admitting not enough progress had been made.

The company adopted a range of measures earlier this month to “help improve the experience of black and minority ethnic talent in the Lloyd’s market.”

They include investment in programmes to recruit, retain and promote ethnic minority staff, a review of company policies, a review of its artefacts and “how Lloyd’s presents its history,” and financial support for charities promoting “opportunity and inclusion” for ethnic minorities.

The company also said it was grateful to ethnic minority colleagues who had helped “shape our conversations” and create an environment “free from injustice.”

Greene King’s chief executive officer Nick Mackenzie also released a statement after facing questions about the company’s founder Benjamin Greene.

Greene is also included on UCL’s database, receiving compensation worth £500,000 today for surrendering three plantations in the West Indies, according to PA. A total of 47,000 people are reported to have received compensation as slave owners when slavery was officially abolished in 1833.

READ MORE: Employees speak out as firms back Black Lives Matter

Mackenzie said: “It is inexcusable that one of our founders profited from slavery and argued against its abolition in the 1800s. While that is a part of our history, we are now focused on the present and the future.”

He said staff were “from all backgrounds” and that racism and discrimination had “no place at Greene King.”

“We don’t have all the answers so that is why we are taking time to listen and learn from all the voices, including our team members and charity partners as we strengthen our diversity and inclusion work,” he added.

The company also announced new investment in both its own diversity and inclusion policies and its work with charity partners. “We plan to make a substantial investment to benefit the BAME community and support our race diversity in the business as we increase our focus on targeted work in this area,” said Mackenzie.




Enslaved African man's grave in Bristol smashed in 'retaliation attack' over Colston statue

David Mercer, news reporter Sky News18 June 2020

The grave of an enslaved African man has been vandalised in an apparent "retaliation attack" after the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was torn down in Bristol.

The Grade II-listed headstone in memory of Scipio Africanus, who lived in the city in the 18th century, has been smashed and a message scrawled in chalk on flagstones nearby.

The message warned: "Put Colston's statue back or things will really heat up."

The memorial to Scipio Africanus, who died aged 18 in 1720, is located in St Mary's churchyard in Henbury, Bristol.

Local councillor Mark Weston said the vandalism "looks like a retaliation attack for the recent events involving the Colston statue" and asked: "Where will this end?"

He told Sky News: "I'm absolutely gutted.

"The listed grave is part of the community's history.

"To see it has been wantonly damaged has caused a lot of upset among residents."

Cllr Weston added that work to repair the headstone was already under way.

The vicar of Henbury, David Lloyd, said there had been plans to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Scipio Africanus' death this year before the coronavirus outbreak

He told Sky News: "People visit from all over the world to pay their respects and look at the monument."

Avon and Somerset Police said it was investigating a report of criminal damage, which is believed to have happened between midday on Tuesday and 8am on Wednesday.

A force spokesman said: "Our investigation into what happened is at an early stage. Officers have been at the scene and have carried out house-to-house and CCTV inquiries."

Police have urged anyone with information about the vandalism to contact them.

The tomb is an early example of a memorial to a man born into slavery and who ended his life as a servant in an English aristocratic household, Historic England states on its website.

Most of the available information about Scipio Africanus is "inscribed on his tomb", it says.

During his life, Scipio Africanus was servant to Charles Howard, the 7th Earl of Suffolk.

The headstone, which features black cherubs, states he was born in about 1702 and died on 12 December 1720.

Scipio Africanus was given his name by the Earl or by a previous "owner" - names of Roman origin were frequently chosen for enslaved people, Historic England states.

Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol, described the memorial as an "iconic piece of Bristol's history".

Earlier this month protesters used ropes to pull down the Colston statue, which was erected in 1895, from its plinth in Bristol city centre.

It was then dragged to the harbourside, where it was thrown into the water near Pero's Bridge - named in honour of enslaved man Pero Jones who lived and died in the city.

Bristol City Council retrieved the statue, which will be displayed in a museum along with placards from the Black Lives Matter protest, from the water on 11 June.