Harold was silent – but his kin can make some noise
HAROLD Lloyd (1893-1971) was one of the great silent film comedians. As familiar as Charlie Chaplin, with his trademark glasses and hair-raising stunts.
In the 1920s Harold was famous across the world and hugely successful, with a big house in Hollywood, then a career which extended into film production and served him well for the whole of his life.
Harold knew that his roots lay in south east Northumberland. Amid considerable publicity in 1935, he visited Blyth and Ashington looking for relatives of his great grandfather, apparently without much success. In fact his great grandmother Mary Ann Robinson (1796-1880) came from Newbiggin by the Sea and there are thousands of family members, living all around.
A few of her sixth cousins recently had an online call to Harold’s granddaughter still living in Hollywood. Suzanne Lloyd works hard to keep her grandfather’s legacy alive and we are now hoping to show some of Harold’s classic films as part of the 2027 ‘Newbiggin Homecoming’. Many thousands of people living across the world are descendants of Richard Robinson and Katharine Milburne, who were married at Woodhorn in November 1627. What a truly extraordinary, 400th wedding anniversary, global family festival, this is going to be.
The whole of humanity is connected by the invisible bonds of genetics, we all originate in Africa but many of us left there very long ago, to populate the whole world and then continue to move on. Even when you consider family connections across a mere 200 years and the 5,227 miles between Newbiggin by the Sea and Los Angeles, there’s such a sense of wonder about all the connections between us. Then compare the global reach of the first film stars, with the technological revolution that makes knowledge so available and communication so easy, via our mobile phones. Well, it’s just awesome to contemplate; all the myriad possibilities, all the power and fascination, all the warmth and depth of humanity in our hands.
Family history is my hobby, but actually we’re all family and the extraordinary possibilities of global interconnectedness can help to transform everything about our lives.
My great grandfather, a shaftsman at various collieries, grew up in Easington, his grandfather was a pitman in the area and his father ran a pub.
Last weekend I was back there, with some fine people, to talk about elections and candidates and to hear from Jamie Driscoll, the North of Tyne Mayor. Answering a question, Jamie replied that ‘progressive politics tries to plan for the long term’.
Now I agree with this, but I also believe that just as regional policy should accord with the pattern of devolution across the whole UK, so much of our national politics needs to have a global dimension. The environment and global warming do not stop at national borders, nor does the economy, or technology, or the great issues of war and peace and the movement of people. Just as we urgently need to improve our understanding and commitment to our own citizenship and democracy, so should we all strive to be citizens of the world .
Last week, I found a cutting from Hansard in 2004, where I asked Tony Blair about the work that he and the UN leadership were doing to tackle genocide taking place in Darfur. This is one of the most remote places in Africa, I had visited as part of a Parliamentary delegation and I was struck on re-reading what we had both said, that 20 years on, almost every week, I come across someone newly arrived in Northumberland, who is seeking sanctuary from war and oppression in Darfur. Then there are those, getting on with living decent lives, from Syria, Kurdistan, Ukraine and Russia, and many more.
All these good folk should be welcome to bring all their talents to the aid of our communities, without being driven out of their homes. At the General Election I’ll be working with the organisation Democracy without Borders, with people in every UK constituency to raise the issues of global politics with every parliamentary candidate. Seeking to help create an all-party group within Parliament to lobby for global change, whoever is in government.
The UK itself requires wholesale democratic reform. Just as we urge people to use the power that they have within a democratic society, so we should be supporting people to become global activists. Perhaps we need a new sort of ‘community twinning’, to link Newbiggin with Hollywood - and Easington? To communicate with places in Australia to which family emigrated in the 1920s, to engage people facing challenges in north east England with those in monumental difficulty in Ukraine, Russia, Syria, Kurdistan, Darfur?
Indeed we are all family, and the extraordinary possibilities of global interconnectedness actually can help to transform everything – if we listen and learn.
I think of my Grandad; oblivious to his kinship, laughing at the antics of Harold Lloyd, from his seat in the Wallaw cinema, Newbiggin by the Sea. I wonder at the worldwide democratic change we might spark, if we bring people together, if we try.
Let’s use our power.