Family of former PM say they're sorry for 'vile' slave trading ancestor
The descendants of a former Prime Minister have apologised for their family's role in the slave trade and vowed to pay reparations.
The great-great grandson of William Gladstone - who held the office four times in the Victorian era - said he felt "absolutely sick" when he discovered his family's past. Charlie Gladstone branded one of his slave-holding ancestors a "vile man" and said he committed "crimes against humanity".
The 19th century PM was son of Sir John Gladstone, one of the largest slave owners in the British West Indies. He made a fortune as a Demarara sugar-planter in Guyana, forcing hundreds of enslaved people to work on his land. When slavery was abolished in 1833, Sir John received the largest compensation payment made by the Slave Compensation Commission - around £93,000 - the modern equivalent of about £10 million.
Former slave trader Sir John Gladstone was described as "vile" and "greedy" by his great-great-great grandson (Daily Record)
Charlie Gladstone says he will travel to the Caribbean to apologise for his family's colonial past (Publicity picture)His son, who was Prime Minister four times between 1868 and 1894, passionately argued for such compensation, before later branding slavery "by far the foulest crime that taints the history of mankind". His family have called on Rishi Sunak to apologise for the sickening trade on behalf of the British state.
Charlie, president of Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, North Wales, told The Observer: "John Gladstone committed crimes against humanity. That is absolutely clear. The best that we can do is try to make the world a better place and one of the first things is to make that apology for him. He was a vile man. He was greedy and domineering. We have no excuses for him."
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He and five other family members are due to travel to Guyana in South America to make an apology for John's ownership of Africans. The Gladstone family plan to make their official apology at the opening of the University of Guyana's International Institute for Migration and Diaspora Studies, which it is reportedly helping to fund with a grant of £100,000.
Rob Gladstone, Charlie's brother, called on the UK Government to begin "reparative justice" by apologising for slavery within the British Empire. But so far the PM has shown no willingness to do so.
The Gladstones' planned apology comes after a former BBC reporter apologised to the people of Grenada for her ancestors owning slaves in the 1800s. The Trevelyan family had more than 1,000 slaves on the Caribbean island and owned six sugar plantations, broadcaster Laura Trevelyan has said.
The family intends to donate £100,000 to establish a community fund for economic development on the island, according to BBC reports in February. Earlier this year Grenada's Prime Minister, Dickon Mitchell, called on Mr Sunak to open talks about reparations.
Earlier this year Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy called on the PM to acknowledge the wealth Britain accumulated as a result of colonialism and slavery and offer a "full and meaningful apology". In April Ms Ribeiro-Addy said she and others had been calling for this for decades.
But Mr Sunak declined to make such an apology, instead saying: "What I think our focus should now be on doing, while of course understanding our history in all its parts and not running away from it, is making sure that we have a society that is inclusive and tolerant of people from all backgrounds. That is something that we on the Government benches are committed to doing and will continue to deliver. But trying to unpick our history is not the right way forward and is not something we will focus our energies on."
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