Scotland The story begins in the Land of the Brave; it begins with my great grandfathers, William Benson and Charles Ramage Blake. Both were born in Scotland within 10 years of each other.   William Benson William was born in Aberdeen on 18 March 1875, the middle son of William Henry Benson and Isabella Speid. William Henry had made his career in the Caledonian Railway, working his way up from a railway clerk in the goods’ department to the position of superintendent.   William’s elder brother, James Speid, began his career as a solicitor’s general clerk, eventually qualifying as a solicitor. James is listed on the Roll of Honour of Aberdeen University, which shows that he served as a Private from November 1914 in the 1st Volunteer Battalion Gordon Highlanders (previously the City of Aberdeen Volun...

                                                      Advertisement on the side of a building in Borough, London In September 1971 Kenneth William Benson (“Ken”) is driven away from Heathrow Airport by his brother Charles (and his girlfriend). As they took the exit onto the motorway a large sign proclaimed,   “Take Courage”. Ken who had just flown in from Calcutta where the temperature was a high 20C in comparison to London at the lower end of the scale, thought Britain must be a truly terrible place, if such a sign was necessary to stir the hearts of those arriving. Charles later informed Ken that the sign was in fact an advert for Courage Bitter, something for which Ken never developed a taste.   And so my Dad arrived in Britain to begin his new life. The Benson brothers had returned to “the old country” from where ...

                                                              Photo by Rashid on Unsplash Romance, racism and a mystery solved.  The history of my paternal family in fourteen chapters, from its roots in Scotland to its time in India, with reference to wider social and economic issues and reflections on how it relates to today.