| Topic: | Re:Hans Rosling - statistician | |
| Posted by: | Philippa Bond | |
| Date/Time: | 19/03/20 14:16:00 |
| Who is indigenous English? When were we indigenous English? My forebears include those who came over with William the Conqueror, Scots displaced by the highland clearances, Irish I think, Lancashire and Yorkshire (I don't think either of those last two consider themselves English). Several of us were born abroad but we are all British nationals and would probably call ourselves English because that is our native tongue and we consider England to be home. As soon as you start looking... When a young British friend of Indian heritage was told that India was once ours - he looked quizzical and asked: "Well where were we then?" Many of the young men from these islands spent time in the British Army overseas at a time when overseas meant travelling by boat rather than by plane and so seemed a very long way away. So far away that they sometimes took and kept a local wife as well as the one that they had left at home. Amusingly and interestingly the arrival of the internet and the introduction of air travel has meant that some of these children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are now finding each other. |