8 May 2003 On 8 May 2003, soldiers of the Black Watch regiment, searching for a suspect looter with convictions for murder and rape, raided a house in Basra. They were frustrated to find only his father, taxi driver Radhi Nama, along with his two daughters and three grandchildren. According to his daughter Afif, when…
12 March 1563 The 12 March 1563 is not a date which receives attention in most history books, which routinely laud Queen Elizabeth’s celebrated sea dogs, not least Sir John Hawkins, who’s name graces public buildings, streets and at least one town square in memory of his daring courage which helped defeat the Spanish Armada…
11 December 1752 Today, John Newton is revered as the author of ‘Amazing Grace’ and other well known Christian hymns, but as a young man he earned an enviable income for several years as a captain of a slave ship. Even after his realisation that God had ‘chosen’ him, Newton remained committed to the slaving…
11 October 1736 In 1735, falling sugar prices combined with a prolonged drought threatened many of Antigua’s British plantation owners with significant financial losses. Their response was to cut rations for their slaves, to raise daily work quotas and to severely flog those failing to meet them. This may explain why in November a group…
23 December 1954 Duncan McPherson, Assistant Commissioner of Kenya’s colonial police, was a rare exception to the norm of complete British indifference to the suffering of ordinary Kenyans. Britain was then engaged in a brutal campaign to crush the Mau Mau insurgency, which aimed to bring an end to colonial rule. Thousands were detained in…
18 December 1965 On 18 December 1965, medical reports by the Aden Director of Health Services were submitted which corroborated allegations of torture made against the British run interrogation centre at Fort Morbut in Aden.1Â A representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was eventually authorised to visit the prison to investigate on…
10 December 1963 On 10 December 1963, Britain’s high commissioner, Kennedy Trevaskis, declared a state of emergency in Yemen in order to crush a nationalist insurgency against British rule. Within hours, the British army was rounding up dozens of trade union officials and members of Yemen’s People’s Socialist Party.1 The emergency laws gave Trevaskis and…
10 December 1953 On 10 December 1953, in a letter to the War Office, General George Erskine, commanding British forces in Kenya, admitted that he was aware that the police and army in the colony frequently resorted to summary executions and torture against suspect Mau Mau insurgents. ‘There is no doubt’, he confessed to Whitehall…
5 December 1920 On 5 December 1920, three boys discovered the mutilated bodies of two brothers, Pat and Harry Loughnane, 29 and 22 years old. They had been tortured and killed by British auxiliary forces known as the Black and Tans, who had been deployed to crush a widespread Irish rebellion against British rule. The…
26 November 1955 During a short radio statement at 17.00 GMT on Saturday 26 November 1955, Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the newly appointed governor of Cyprus, announced draconian emergency laws to crush a growing revolt against British rule. The death penalty could now be applied for the possession of firearms, ammunition or explosives regardless…
