LIVES THAT MATTER
Here are just four lives which could feature in the history taught in Scotland’s classrooms
JOHN EDMONSTONE
Everyone knows the name Charles Darwin but few know he was taught taxidermy in Edinburgh by freed slave John Edmonstone. Originally from Demerara in Guyana, South America, Edmonstone learned taxidermy from Charles Waterton, whose father-in-law owned a plantation in Demerara. After he was freed, Edmonstone came to Glasgow with his former master, Charles Edmonstone, in 1817. From there he moved to Edinburgh, where he taught taxidermy to students at the University of Edinburgh, including a teenage Darwin.
ARTHUR ROBERTS
Veteran Arthur Roberts was one of the few black soldiers from Glasgow to serve in the First World War. The son of AfroCaribbean ship steward David Roberts, he grew up in Tradeston in Glasgow and served with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers and the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1917 and 1918. He survived the Battle of Passchendaele. He died, aged 85, in 1982.
ANDREW WATSON
Britain’s first black footballer was a Scot, Andrew Watson, the son of wealthy Scottish sugar planter Peter Miller Watson and West Indian woman Hannah Rose. He studied at Glasgow University, where he developed his love of football, Aged 19 in 1880, Watson signed for Queen’s Park and won three caps for Scotland.
JOSEPH KNIGHT
Joseph Knight was born in Africa and sold as a slave in Jamaica to John Wedderburn, who brought Knight with him to Scotland in 1769. Knight demanded wages and when Wedderburn refused, Knight fled and was later arrested. He brought a suit against his master in 1774 and won. His case established the principle that Scots law would not uphold the institution of slavery.