The Importance of Being Ernest's Great-Grandson

I travelled up by train to a family barbecue in North London today, hosted by my cousin John Garrad.

Part of the reason for getting together was for older members of what has become quite a far-flung family to share old photographs, memories, keepsakes and the like, and for younger members of the family to get to know each other better.

It was fascinating to read the obituary (pictured) of my great-grandfather, Ernest Garrad, from the TOT (Train Omnibus Tram, a friendly society, a forerunner of the London Transport Benevolent Fund) magazine of December 1929. Ernest started life in the East End as a road-sweeper, the son of a policeman. He served with the 20th Hussars in India, South Africa and the Great War. He served with Kitchener's and then Roberts' Horse, and in the Great War was a motor mechanic.

He was latterly a ticket collector at St James's Park tube station, by coincidence the station I used frequently when I was working for the Labour Party at Old Queen Street. I've always felt really at ease at St James's Park, and now I know why.

I'm supposed to have been given my middle name after this man. However, for mysterious reasons, it appears that he used the name Ernest and the name Edward, and my grandmother was under the impression that his name was Edward. So my middle name is Edward when it should really be Ernest!

As Wilde said "It is a divine name. It has a music of its own. It produces vibrations ... The only really safe name is Ernest."

So maybe I'll have to change it, or add it in.

Gordon Brown Wows the USA

If proof were needed of Gordon Brown's stature as a statesman, his visit to the United States, which included the remarkable move of getting the United Nations to back a peace plan for Darfur, has provided it. A friend in Washington has sent me the following link to a pro-Gordon paean by Brent Budowsky, who goes as far as wishing that our new Prime Minister could be President of the United States.

"Imagine," says Mr Budowsky "an American president who would speak as Gordon Brown speaks, and do what Gordon Brown proposes to do!

"November 2008 is coming and Americans will be astonished at the outpouring of idealism, optimism and excitement when the dead hand of the current course is removed, and a new government brings new life to our democracy and renewed
appeal as a beacon for the world.

"Gordon Brown, a man who prepared to be prime minister for a decade, has spoken the words with eloquence, and offered the plan with depth, that is a gateway to the future and a forerunner to what is coming.

"A new Democratic president, backed by a new Democratic Congress, working with a brilliant British prime minister, backed by a Labour Party majority in Parliament, would create a program that would rally support throughout the world, lifting two proud nations while lifting the aspirations of people everywhere."

http://thehill.com/op-eds/gordon-brown-for-president-2007-08-01.html