By James Craig and Edited by Tom Guyton-Day
Following the announcement that the University of Liverpool would seek to rename Gladstone Hall, some students have begun a campaign in an attempt to get the university to reconsider. The #SaveGladstone campaign has gathered over 1500 signatures on a petition urging the university to keep the name of its halls of residence.
The university came to its decision following an open letter that was created in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder and in the middle of the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests across many countries. This was despite the fact that students voted to keep Gladstone’s name as recently as 2018.
The leader of the original campaign to save Gladstone’s name in 2018 has created the #SaveGladstone campaign, at a time when the appropriateness of statues of historical figures across the country is causing a wide-spread public debate about how we remember our colonial past.
William Gladstone’s father was involved in the slave trade in the early nineteenth century, despite financially supporting the Parliamentary career of prominent abolitionist William Roscoe. Gladstone went on to become a four-time Liberal Prime Minister who was responsible for the Secret Ballot Act, Universal Schooling, and attempts to pass Irish Home Rule.
The University has previously failed to put up a plaque detailing Gladstone’s familial links to slavery. One of the leaders of the Save GladstoneCampaign, James Craig, said in an interview that its recent announcement is “a case of the university wanting to be seen to do something more than it actually wants to do something.”
In an article opposing the change, University of Liverpool Politics lecturer Dr David Jeffery wrote:
“To me, William Gladstone is exactly the type of person to honour – not only does he have an inspiring political legacy, with his governments enacting a series of reforms that markedly and materially improved working-class life, he also went against his family’s – and his own – material interests in order to do what was right and supported the abolition of slavery.”
There has also been a petition opposing calls to remove a statue of William Gladstone and his name from a Flintshire library, which has so far gathered over 2700 signatures.
You can find the Save Gladstone Campaign on Twitter @Save_Gladstone or sign the petition: Change.org/SaveGladstone
The university came to its decision following an open letter that was created in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder and in the middle of the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests across many countries. This was despite the fact that students voted to keep Gladstone’s name as recently as 2018.
The leader of the original campaign to save Gladstone’s name in 2018 has created the #SaveGladstone campaign, at a time when the appropriateness of statues of historical figures across the country is causing a wide-spread public debate about how we remember our colonial past.
William Gladstone’s father was involved in the slave trade in the early nineteenth century, despite financially supporting the Parliamentary career of prominent abolitionist William Roscoe. Gladstone went on to become a four-time Liberal Prime Minister who was responsible for the Secret Ballot Act, Universal Schooling, and attempts to pass Irish Home Rule.
The University has previously failed to put up a plaque detailing Gladstone’s familial links to slavery. One of the leaders of the Save GladstoneCampaign, James Craig, said in an interview that its recent announcement is “a case of the university wanting to be seen to do something more than it actually wants to do something.”
In an article opposing the change, University of Liverpool Politics lecturer Dr David Jeffery wrote:
“To me, William Gladstone is exactly the type of person to honour – not only does he have an inspiring political legacy, with his governments enacting a series of reforms that markedly and materially improved working-class life, he also went against his family’s – and his own – material interests in order to do what was right and supported the abolition of slavery.”
There has also been a petition opposing calls to remove a statue of William Gladstone and his name from a Flintshire library, which has so far gathered over 2700 signatures.
You can find the Save Gladstone Campaign on Twitter @Save_Gladstone or sign the petition: Change.org/SaveGladstone
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