Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
An example can be seen with Sir Hugh Gilzean-Reid (1836-1911) who has only been mentioned in passing on the Forum, and yet he was MP for Aston Manor in 1885, losing his seat the following year having split with Chamberlain over the Home Rule issue. He was one time owner of Warley Abbey.
A trusted source for biographies would be the ODNB, but even here there is a "gloss" over certain issues...
"...Gilzean-Reid saw newspapers as a means of educating and enlightening people politically and otherwise....In 1883 Gilzean-Reid moved to Worley Abbey near Birmingham, where, freed from operational concerns, he became more active politically. The estate became a meeting place for leading midlanders, including Joseph Chamberlain and Richard Tangye, founder of the Birmingham engineering firm, as well as for leading National Liberals and friends from Gilzean-Reid's past, such as Professor John Stuart Blackie from Edinburgh. Described as a non-doctrinaire radical in favour of reasoned progress, Gilzean-Reid appears to have taken his cue from Chamberlain. He was proud of his achievements in turning Conservative newspapers Liberal, and he expressed the hope to Chamberlain that his activities had given service to the advanced cause..."
"...Two other strands in Gilzean-Reid's life stand out; one is his commitment to the international penny post. In the early 1850s he had accompanied Elihu Burritt on his visit to Scotland to promote this in conjunction with Burritt's movement for international peace and arbitration. Gilzean-Reid was at the fore in supporting a motion early in 1886, during his short parliamentary career, for the establishment of such a scheme. The other strand is his attachment to Belgium, and in particular his involvement with colonial and missionary agencies active in the Congo. After his wife's death in 1895 Gilzean-Reid gave up Worley Abbey and spent long periods in Belgium, though he kept a London residence at Dollis Hill and then, from 1906, at Tenterden Hall, Hendon, in Middlesex; the death of his third son, Hugh, in the South African War appears to have increased the solace he sought in foreign travel in his later years. For his services to Belgium Gilzean-Reid was made an officer of the order of Leopold in 1897 and a knight-commander of the order of the Crown in 1899..."
It is in the last sentence that a whole can of worms can be opened. Wikipedia says this of Leopold II...“Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe committed the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. From the beginning, however, Leopold essentially ignored these conditions and ran the Congo using a mercenary force for his personal gain. Some of the money from this exploitation was used for public and private construction projects in Belgium during this period……His regime was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 2 to 15 million Congolese.”
Gilzean-Reid was a indefatigable apologist of the Congo State in the British Press, and was challenged by the Congo Reform Association..."The Crime of the Congo" is a 1909 book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, about human rights abuses in the Congo Free State, a private state established and controlled by the King of the Belgians, Leopold II. Conan Doyle was "strongly of the opinion" that the crimes committed on the Congo were "the greatest to be ever known", and he lauded the work of the Congo Reform Association.
A more modern description can be seen in the book "King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa" (1998) by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium between 1885 and 1908, as well as the atrocities that were committed during that period.
It seems beyond belief that Gilzean-Reid, a leading Baptist, was oblivious to these events.
A trusted source for biographies would be the ODNB, but even here there is a "gloss" over certain issues...
"...Gilzean-Reid saw newspapers as a means of educating and enlightening people politically and otherwise....In 1883 Gilzean-Reid moved to Worley Abbey near Birmingham, where, freed from operational concerns, he became more active politically. The estate became a meeting place for leading midlanders, including Joseph Chamberlain and Richard Tangye, founder of the Birmingham engineering firm, as well as for leading National Liberals and friends from Gilzean-Reid's past, such as Professor John Stuart Blackie from Edinburgh. Described as a non-doctrinaire radical in favour of reasoned progress, Gilzean-Reid appears to have taken his cue from Chamberlain. He was proud of his achievements in turning Conservative newspapers Liberal, and he expressed the hope to Chamberlain that his activities had given service to the advanced cause..."
"...Two other strands in Gilzean-Reid's life stand out; one is his commitment to the international penny post. In the early 1850s he had accompanied Elihu Burritt on his visit to Scotland to promote this in conjunction with Burritt's movement for international peace and arbitration. Gilzean-Reid was at the fore in supporting a motion early in 1886, during his short parliamentary career, for the establishment of such a scheme. The other strand is his attachment to Belgium, and in particular his involvement with colonial and missionary agencies active in the Congo. After his wife's death in 1895 Gilzean-Reid gave up Worley Abbey and spent long periods in Belgium, though he kept a London residence at Dollis Hill and then, from 1906, at Tenterden Hall, Hendon, in Middlesex; the death of his third son, Hugh, in the South African War appears to have increased the solace he sought in foreign travel in his later years. For his services to Belgium Gilzean-Reid was made an officer of the order of Leopold in 1897 and a knight-commander of the order of the Crown in 1899..."
It is in the last sentence that a whole can of worms can be opened. Wikipedia says this of Leopold II...“Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe committed the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. From the beginning, however, Leopold essentially ignored these conditions and ran the Congo using a mercenary force for his personal gain. Some of the money from this exploitation was used for public and private construction projects in Belgium during this period……His regime was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 2 to 15 million Congolese.”
Gilzean-Reid was a indefatigable apologist of the Congo State in the British Press, and was challenged by the Congo Reform Association..."The Crime of the Congo" is a 1909 book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, about human rights abuses in the Congo Free State, a private state established and controlled by the King of the Belgians, Leopold II. Conan Doyle was "strongly of the opinion" that the crimes committed on the Congo were "the greatest to be ever known", and he lauded the work of the Congo Reform Association.
A more modern description can be seen in the book "King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa" (1998) by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium between 1885 and 1908, as well as the atrocities that were committed during that period.
It seems beyond belief that Gilzean-Reid, a leading Baptist, was oblivious to these events.