Written by tanja-sdb on May 14, 2016
Scottish associational culture in Africa in the early 20th century
Research StoryIn Africa, like elsehwere around the globe, Scottish clubs and societies were a common development soon after the first foot fall of Scots on the continent. Contrary to popular assumption, and while there was a strong concentration, such associations were not restricted to southern Africa. By the early twentieth century we find societies in Salisbury
Written by tanja-sdb on July 24, 2014
Scottish Missionaries in Africa and Education
Research StoryWhile a significant number of Scots went to Africa with the London Missionary Society prior to the mid-nineteenth century, it was then that a notable change took place. This was triggered by the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843. After its formation, the Free Church began to keenly promote foreign missions. This had
Written by tanja-sdb on May 19, 2014
Scots and the Slave Trade
Research StoryAs Tom Devine has recently emphasised, the role of Scots in the slave trade has largely been ignored in traditional scholarship—a result too of the fact that prominent eighteenth-century Scots, including some of the leading thinkers of the Enlightenment, were opposed to it. For David Hume, slavery was ‘more cruel and oppressive than any civil
Written by tanja-sdb on March 28, 2014
The Scots Guards
Research Story28 March 1642 saw the formation of the Scots Guards regiment, when King Charles I commissioned the Marquess of Argyll, Chief of Clan Campbell, to raise a regiment of 1,500 men in Scotland for service in Ireland. The regiment was to become the King’s so-called ‘Lyfe Guard of Foot’, which eventually became the Scots Guards
Written by tanja-sdb on January 13, 2014
Mary Slessor and Africa
Research StoryOn this day in 1915 one of Scotland’s most famous missionaries, Mary Slessor, died. Her portrait is widely circulated thanks to it being used on the Scottish £10 note issued by the Clydesdale Bank (with a map of Calabar in Nigeria and African missionary scenes on the reverse). As MacKenzie has observed, Slessor is ‘often
Written by tanja-sdb on September 10, 2012
Exploring Africa: Mungo Park
Research StoryEarly September 1771 saw the birth, in Selkirkshire, of one of Scotland’s most famous explorers: Mungo Park. After being apprenticed to a surgeon in Selkirk, Park attended Edinburgh University between 1789-91, receiving a surgical diploma at the end. It was not, however, as a surgeon that Park would leave the most lasting mark, but as