Edmund Morel and his connections to West Kirby.

Edmund Morel lived in West Kirby on the Wirral from at least 1897 until 1902. Despite  being well known during his lifetime for his great commitment to humanitarian campaigns, unfortunately few people know of him today. Sadly, there isn’t a memorial to him anywhere in the world. Tina Read has been working as a Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) tutor with a group of people on the Wirral to develop ideas for a glass memorial to him in West Kirby Library. We are planning to work with West Kirby resident and glass artist Robbie Macoy. Wirral Libraries have agreed in principle to the memorial, the details of the design are still in development.

Morel was born in Paris in 1873, he was brought up bilingual as he had a French father and English mother.  In 1891 he left Paris to return to England having obtained a job as a clerk at the shipping firm Elder Dempster in Liverpool. The company made use of his language skills and whilst he lived in West Kirby he was sent to Belgium to supervise the company’s contract for shipping between Antwerp and the Congo. Through his work for Elder Dempster he was able to look at the books for King Leopold’s companies in the Congo. Ships were going from Belgium to the Congo with arms and soldiers and returning with rubber and ivory – since there were no payments being made, Morel concluded that a forced labour system must be in existence. Morel dedicated years to his campaign against the atrocities in the Congo. His efforts helped to ensure that the Congo Free State passed out of King Leopold’s direct rule in 1908 and it was taken over by Belgium as the Belgium Congo. He then ran equally committed campaigns against the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles after the war.

 

We are looking to fundraise to cover the costs of having Robbie Macoy involved in this project (http://robbiemacoy.co.uk/). We have been working closely with Morel’s granddaughter and great grandson, Mary and Shaun Kenny. They, like us, would be really proud to see a memorial to Morel in a place so central to his campaigning work on the Congo. The Congo Children’s Trust will be collecting donations for this project as they are happy to be involved in a project which raises awareness of the Congo; all donations from this webpage will be ring-fenced for the Morel memorial. If you feel you can contribute in any way all donations will be gratefully received.

 

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