In the television series Great British Railway Journeys, Michael Portillo got off the train to visit Tyntesfield1. One of the guides showed him around and explained to him that William Gibbs had no responsibility for the enslavement of the Chinese. He said, “It was the Peruvian government who were doing the mining”. In another typically British euphemism the guide admitted that the working conditions were “pretty grim”. There was no mention of the thousands of Chinese slaves who were worked to death mining the guano. Instead of this we heard that William Gibbs was teetotal, a pillar of the Establishment, a member of the High Anglican Church and believed in prayer, both in the morning and in the evening.
Then in 2018 came the programme in which Alan Titchmarsh eulogised William Gibbs using a tone that was deferential, respectful and, it has to be said, frankly sycophantic2.
You will remember that it was after this that I wrote to the customer services department at the National Trust (NT). As you know, they assured me that everything was changing at the NT: the programme presented by Titchmarsh was now two years old and they would never again speak of Tyntesfield in the same way: “we are now working to do more to talk about the horrific history of the guano industry and how it brought wealth to the Gibbs family”. In the future they would present “an accurate, open and inclusive history of the property including the link to the guano industry”.
But afterwards, only a few weeks ago, came the programme that the NT made in collaboration with Channel 4: in George Clarke’s National Trust Unlocked 3 they again painted William Gibbs as a very successful trader who made his fortune from a heap of bird droppings. Once again, we heard the same innocence, we heard the same old cliches, we heard the same ‘humorous’ remark and we heard the same expurgated version of what happened.
After my last blog post I wrote to Hilary McGrady, the Director General of the NT, asking her the reason why it was that the NT continued to talk about the guano without mentioning the slaves and the role that each and every one of them played in the creation of the Gibbs family fortune. Ms McGrady has spent a lifetime working in marketing. She understands very well the benefits of good publicity and the value of a good relationship with her public.
She did not deign to reply.
I do not understand why the NT considers itself obliged to be an apologist for a man who built his stately home on the profits he obtained from a Victorian concentration camp. I do not understand the reasons why the NT continues with the charade of insisting that William Gibbs was an honourable gentleman and an ingenious businessman.
Does the board of governors of the NT think that people will stop visiting Tyntesfield if it becomes known that it was built upon the torture and death of the real creators of the fortune that gave rise to the house and its grounds? I think this is an example of upside-down thinking. Generally speaking, the NT public is well educated and middle class and is comprised of people who would prefer to be informed of the true history of the place.
The reality is that the majority of NT members only want to have a nice day out with the family, going round a house of historic interest, strolling through the well-kept gardens and having something tasty to eat in the restaurant.
It is grotesque and deceitful that the NT should continue to limit itself to saying that it is most amusing that a man should have made a fortune out of the poo of South American birds. Because it is not true. The value was created by the slaves. Without the kidnapped Chinese workers imprisoned on the Chincha Islands, Gibbs could not have bought the guano at such a low price and sold it at such a profit. Not to recognise this is an insult to the intelligence of NT members. Moreover, it is an insult to the Chinese people who were sacrificed on those barren, remote and desolate islands.
Chinese lives matter as well.
References
1 Great British Railway Journeys S7 Ep 14. BBC 2015. At present this episode is not available on the BBC ¡Player. However, there is a poor-quality copy on YouTube.
2 Secrets of the National Trust S3 Ep 6, 08/08/2018. Channel 5
3 George Clarke’s National Trust Unlocked S1 Ep 4, 13/09/20 Channel 4
Ingleses 