Links with Scotland

The English have many links with Scotland, some that we should be proud of, and some that we should regret.

I have links through my grandmother, Ruby Leslie, who was born and grew up in the district of Maryhill in Glasgow before moving south at the age of six.

My great grandfather was a lay preacher by the name of Robert Leslie, after whom I was named. The first Robert Leslie travelled around his part of Lancashire spreading the word - preaching the fellowship of man, later called socialism. He was something of a poet, and I am proud to be his great grandson.

The Clan Leslie, of which I am but a limb, has the motto, 'Grip Fast' - something else I am proud of.

My grandfather on my mother's side, William Edgar Parkin, joined the Canadian Black Watch Regiment whilst in Canada just at the outbreak of the First World War, and transferred to the Scottish regiment, the Black Watch, and went to fight and survive the Battle of the Somme. He had played football for Oldham Athletic and Newton Heath, the forerunner to Manchester United.

Having spent some time in the beautiful city of Glasgow recently, those links have been renewed somewhat, and my pride in those links has also been renewed.

Now we have links of our own, in Livingstone Tower, and in Ingleby Drive in the district of Dennistoun in Glasgow. All these links are forged into chains that can never be broken.
Robert Leslie Fielding