Though Drax Hall is advertised as a holiday attraction, one of his descendants is the target of an increasingly vindictive campaign, orchestrated by civil rights activists backed by the ruling Barbados Labour Partys special envoy on reparations and economic enfranchisement. The process has been complicated, which led to this accidental oversight., Get UK politics insight with our free daily email briefing straight to your inbox. But the shadow of slavery hangs over the gilded life of Richard Drax, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. It is an ironic description, not only because would-be visitors driving into the remote sugar plantation over which the house looms are greeted by a keep out sign, daubed on an oil drum. Pamela Weeks (19312019) and a grandson of Admiral The Hon. He was privately educated at Harrow School before going to the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester where he graduated with a diploma in rural land management in 1990, receiving a further diploma in journalism in 1995. If Richard Drax was in front of me now, I would say: Mr Drax, the people of Barbados and Jamaica are entitled to reparatory justice., Beckles, the chair of the Caricom Reparations Commission and vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, said: Today, when I drive through the Drax Hall land and its environs, I feel a keen sense of being in a massive killing field with unmarked cemeteries. As Airbnbs shares go through the roof, we need to challenge the Big Tech monopoly, New Generation of Good Lifers who set out to grow their own Christmas. This was so new and startling that even Powell called it a colossal undertaking, while recognising that his ideas required care in the community (a phrase he did not use). Richard Draxs 17th-century ancestors James and William sailed toBarbadosin the late 1620s, where they cleared lush land in the centre of the island and experimented with growing and processing sugar. But it is Richard Drax MPs inheritance in Barbados, amassed over centuries by his ancestors ownership and appalling treatment of African people which drags him into the spotlight. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Though Barbados appears to be prospering, and is now rated a high-income economy, he describes it as a post-slavery society still struggling to recover. "He could donate his inheritance to the island on which it stands and still have plenty of property left.. [1] He was educated at Harrow School before going to the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester where he graduated with a diploma in rural land management in 1990, receiving a further diploma in journalism in 1995. The MP declined to comment this week. His great-uncle was the celebrated writer and playwright the 18th Lord Dunsany, and his maternal grandfather was General the Lord Weeks. Official sources in Bridgetown, Barbados, confirmed the MP now farms Drax Hall. One of only three Jacobean mansions in the Americas, the official Barbados tourism website lists it as one of the islands seven wonders. Until 2008 the plantations covered some 880 acres, but the Draxes have sold more than 200 acres, some for housing development. Drax has not yet declared the land or its properties in the parliamentary register of members interests. Drax responded to the incident by saying: "I popped in to get some literature and very thoughtlessly parked on those lines which I immediately regretted and apologise to the organisation straight away. How fitting! He replied: I cant be held responsible for something that happened 300 or 400 years ago. Drax said it was an attempt to smear him. Clive Stafford Smith organised fictional legal proceedings against Richard Drax using 40 pupils aged between 12 and 18, some of whom are from a school within his South Dorset constituency. A cousin is the 19th and present Lord Dunsany. The Sawbridge and Erle-Drax families had estates in Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Yorkshire (including Ellerton Abbey), Lincolnshire, Surrey, Suffolk and Barbados. The Mirror's newsletter brings you the latest news, exciting showbiz and TV stories, sport updates and essential political information. Richard Drax MP was one of the first MPs to call for the criminalisation of trespass. Tricky emoji quiz will put your knowledge of childhood classics to the test. The Drax fortune includes vast expanses of land and property in England but, as our investigation reveals, the familys role as plantation owners inBarbadosappears to remain key to the MPs wealth. We revealed in December Mr Drax had failed to register in Members Interests a Barbados sugar plantation he ran. In January 2016, the Labour Party unsuccessfully proposed an amendment in Parliament that would have required private landlords to make their homes "fit for human habitation". For full article, see https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/12/hes-the-mp-with-the-downton-abbey-lifestyle-but-the-shadow-of-slavery-hangs-over-the-gilded-life-of-richard-drax. Sleeping for less than six hours a night could increase your risk of getting infections by more Can you solve this trivia riddle? By 1680, he had 327 black chattels and just seven whites. Within three weeks, his ministerial circular envisaged a variety of services for mentally ill people. Richard Drax, Conservative MP for South Dorset, earlier this year. Long-term partner and later wife of Thomas Legal Yates. Its perpetrators lived like princes. [12][non-primary source needed], In the House of Commons he has sat on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and currently serves on the European Scrutiny Committee. The Park, with its outstanding garden and ancient deer park, is just a part of the 14,000 acres of Charborough estate that makes Drax and his family the largest individual landowners in Dorset. . NEW ROMNEY1818 - 8 Feb. 1819Family and Education b. The Erle family had owned Charborough House, Dorset, since the C16th and through the marriage, Drax took possession of it. A wealthy Tory MP is facing demands to pay reparations for his familys part in the Caribbean slave trade after the Observer revealed that he now controls the plantation where his ancestors created the first slave-worked sugar plantation in the British empire almost 400 years ago. Drax was born on 29 January 1958 in Westminster, London, into a landowner family. Since his wealth is based on murder, kidnap and theft, the least he can do is return his plantation in Barbados to its rightful owners, the people who live there now. Contact Richard Drax This section contains web, social and other contact information for Richard Drax. But for all his wealth and power, there is a dark shadow hanging over Richard Drax his familys historical links with slavery in the plantations of the West Indies, which are now prompting mounting calls from former Caribbean colonies for reparations. He is said to have spent money prodigiously [Matthew Beckett] on both Olantigh and Charborough Park, including on the building of the celebrated brick wall surrounding the estate which is said to use about 2 million bricks. (LogOut/ Published: 00:53 GMT, 3 December 2022 | Updated: 02:01 GMT, 3 December 2022. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. Its conical tower once held a huge bell that tolled at dawn each morning, summoning the slaves to their 12 hours of back-breaking toil. They had 7 children: John Drax, Richard Draxand 5 other children. Beckles told us that historically the Drax family has done more harm and violence to the black people of Barbados than any other family. Richard Drax registered the details as the Sunday Mirror revealed his ancestors' past - and how he still makes a packet from the business. They have a responsibility now to make some effort to help repair the damage. He also admitted that he had never given Mr Drax a second thought until he was contacted by Dorset-based members of Stand Up to Racism. He'd neglected to mention it on the House of Commons Register of Members' Interests until 29 December 2020, despite the estate being in his family for more than 400 years. Copyright Legacies of British Slavery - UCL Department of History 2023. Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission and vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, said: People of Barbados and Jamaica are entitled to reparatory justice. Mr Whitehead pointed to a clearing, shaded by tamarind and sandbox trees, where the slaves slept in wooden huts. From the very early stages of the familys involvement in slavery and the sugar trade, through the career of Sir James Drax in Barbados during the 17th century, the Drax dynasty were able to generate extraordinary wealth through the cultivation of sugar by enslaved Africans.. Richard Drax has replaced a decade of accounts for four farming firms. The rape of female slaves was also common, punishable only by a small fine. To restate its commitment to recruit 50,000 nurses by the end of the current parliament not only fails to respond to the immediate shortages but also takes no account of the fact that the target was set before the onset of the pandemic. Those who survived this so-called Middle Passage were paraded, naked and in chains, at an auction in Bridgetowns main square. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Why did this happen? When he first stood for parliament in 2010, he was asked by the Daily Mirror about his historical responsibility. Proud to say I have achieved my APM Project Management Qualification (on the second attempt albeit), with help from Richard Leach who has been delivering a | 12 LinkedIn Tom Henderson LinkedIn: #engineering #power #projectmanagement | 12 Richard DRAX MP not (@DraxNot) / Twitter Richard DRAX MP not @DraxNot not a Land owner of a walled estate in Dorset. The Drax Hall plantation is not referred to in Richard Draxs Register of Members Interests declaration, and we could not find any family document referring directly to the plantations in the public domain since his great-grandmothers will in 1916, when the Baroness Dunsany bequeathed her estates and plantations in Barbados to her son, Richards grandfather. We are establishing a fund into which families, corporations and establishments like universities that were implicated in some way in the crime of enslavement can pay. This is a part of the nations history, from which we must all learn.. Its always intrigued me that Drax Plantation is still functioning. he is one of famous Politician with the age 63 years old group. IT and other providers signed up to contracts they knew were drawn up by employees who had no experience or ability to think through the detail. The accounts reveal in 2014 it had assets of more than 3.1m, and 3.4m in 2019. 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