cheers, and stay well,
Tim

I believe the following. Thomas Morgan Robertson is the son of Theodosia Cecil Spring Rice and Charles Martin Robertson. Theodosia had 1 brother, Steven Edward Spring-Rice, T/LT, RVNR. Steven Edward Spring-Rice was presumed lost on HMS P48 at the age of 23. P48 was not believed to have been on exercises. It is believed that P48 was attacking an Italian convoy, and was depth-charged on 25th December, 1942. It was finally listed as “overdue” on 5th January, 1943, which is the date officially given as Steven Edward Spring-Rice’s passing. There appear to be no other “uncles” on either the mother or father’s side of the family that correspond with WWII submarine losses.

My Father was a good chum of your uncle, Stephen Spring Rice during WW2 (I was named in memory of him) . I have his christening tankard, sent to my Father by Stephen’s Mother and would be happy to return it, if it is of interest. I am also trying to find the name of his submarine.

Just read it last year, and it’s a terrific book. When Mr. Herman outlines the discoveries & inventions which defined the 20th Century, it’s amazing how many times a Scot is involved.

Also a great outline of Scottish history, including the above mentioned forced-immigration.

.

The Pogues did a remake of a Ron Kavana Track called Young Ned of the Hill on their Peace and Love album. I basically hit at Cromwell’s fervent desire to rid Ireland of its heritage…….. And people…..

Canadian textbooks have a lot of information missing from them, too. I had never heard of ‘the Highland Clearances’.

What was I taught in school, instead of useful information and
real history? Useless crap like how to estimate the height of a tree
by measuring its shadow.

‘Free passage to the new world…’, indeed. More like, ‘Don’t let
the door hit ya on your way out.’ My paternal grandparents left
Scotland voluntarily, as far as I know…I wonder if they knew how
lucky they were. I have no living paternal relatives to ask about
it. I tried a little geneological research on the ‘Net a few years
ago, but I didn’t get very far. My family’s clan is either Cameron
or Scott, and that’s all I know {my surname is Laidlaw}. I don’t even know if the word ‘clan’ should have a capital ‘C’…I haven’t
a clue about my family history, I guess, because it was all
written down on marriage certificates and so on, which have
since been lost. My paternal grandfather died before I was born,
so I never had a chance to so much as meet him, never mind
hear him talk about our family history.

Contrast my own ancestors’ carelessness with the way the
exiled Scots hung onto their culture. I guess when people leave
their homelands voluntarily, as my paternal grandfather did, they probably have all of their paperwork with them, so they rely on that to tell the story…until it gets lost or crumbles with age. They rely on pieces of paper for an account of their history, instead of determinedly locking everything up in their memories the way the exiled Scots did. So now the Canadian Maritime Celts have this
rich, amazing culture…

History is so often lost when it gets glossed over with euphe-
misms that sound like they should be in a travel brochure…
so thank you, Thomas, for getting the real truth out there. It
needs to be told, even though it hurts like hell.

Yours in admiration for your emotional bravery,
Kara