Arran’s slavery link

Sir,

I am thinking about everything that is going on as a result of George Floyd’s death. ‘No man is an island’ as the poet said, though here on Arran it is easy to think of ourselves apart from the world.

We have no statues to ask the council to remove but we do have Brodick Castle.

Before I go on, I should declare an interest: my father’s name was Beckford. He was Jamaican. His forbears were plantation slaves.

Many of you will have seen the silver in the Beckford room in the castle, acquired with money made through the plantations. I was utterly dismayed on a visit last year to find there was nothing in the accompanying explanatory notes to indicate there was anything untoward in the way the plantations were run – the exploitation, the cruelty, even the fact the people being employed had been forced away from their country of origin into slavery.

I would have expected that after the much-heralded overhaul of the castle, an effort might have been mad to rectify this. I could not stay in the room. I felt sick. No exaggeration.

I meant to write a letter then to complain and did not, but now – although the castle is unfortunately shut – with racism being the number one topic at the moment I decided it would be timely to raise the matter.

Surely, given the thousands of tourists of all ages and from many different countries who pass through the Beckford room, it would be responsible to educate and inform and shine a light of honesty on the silver.

Yours, Cicely Gill, Whiting Bay.