A Gladstonian Evening

My father migrated to England from (then-communist) Bulgaria in 1991, just after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Bulgarian history is rather complicated: full of empire expansion, defeat and occupation by other powerful nations. A place in the country’s history that stands out for me personally is the Batak Massacre in April of 1876 (with the conflict fittingly being remembered as the ‘April Uprising of 1876’). The massacre in Batak consisted of a roughly 5,000 casualty slaughter of non-combatant civilians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. The most brutal slaughters took place at the local Bulgarian Orthodox church, “Sveta Nedelya”, where the Bashi-Bazouk (irregular Ottoman soldiers who became notorious for looting and plundering) besieged the church for three days with most of the inhabitants finally surrendering due to lack of resources and being either beheaded or burnt alive. It is said that the Ottoman authorities tried to bury the bodies, paint the church walls and finally burn the church to the ground, but could not remove the smell of the carcasses or the bloodstains from the walls. The stone walls survived being burnt down and it still stands as a memorial of the tragedy.

I went to Batak last year and found out that only two people survived being in Sveta Nedelya to tell the tale: one of whom was my great great grandmother.

From then on, I decided to delve deeper into Ottoman rule and the West’s response. It turned out that the main voice in Britain in 1876 against Ottoman rule was a Mr. William Gladstone MP, who had already been the Liberal Party leader since 1867, Chancellor of the exchequer three times and Prime Minister once (and was to be again three more times) but had lost to Mr. Benjamin Disraeli MP in 1874.

In September 1876, Gladstone wrote a pamphlet called ‘Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East’ which was aimed at attacking Disraeli’s government and Britain’s foreign policy for its indifference to the Ottoman Empire’s violent repression of the Bulgarian people. Disraeli’s policies also seemed to favour support of the Ottoman Empire as a counterweight to Russian imperialism. Despite widespread indignation (mainly as a result of the publication of the pamphlet), European powers did little to alleviate the situation in the East, and the climate of opinion changed after Russia attacked Turkey in 1877.

The Bulgarian Crisis (or the Eastern Question) ended as a result of the Congress of Berlin in 1878 which created a small, autonomous Bulgarian principality, still under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire and confined to territory north of the Balkan Mountains.

Bulgaria only became independent from the Ottoman Empire on October 5th, 1908 when Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg proclaimed himself Tsar.

Therefore, in terms of relieving violence in the East, historians argue that Gladstone was essential in bringing peace. He and his pamphlet also brought light to the massacres for the world to see, leading to a quicker solution.

Even today it seems that Gladstone’s influence has lived on in Bulgaria. I remember hearing from my dad that when he first came to England, he wore a watch with Gladstone’s portrait as its face.

Therefore, it seemed fitting that we get more information about Gladstone; and where better to go than the National Liberal Club (NLC). Founded in 1882 by Gladstone itself, an event was held on the 20th of September in the advent of Bulgarian Independence Day to show the member’s appreciation for what Gladstone had done to help the response. We went since we knew that it would be a great evening and one to remember for years to come. It did not disappoint.

The evening included a lecture on the topic by an esteemed historian (who had taken the subject on as a PhD) and a Bulgarian-style dinner to end the event. Additionally present would be the Bulgarian ambassador to the UK, which was significantly exhilarating.

I sat excitedly in the front row alongside about thirty others in the Smoking Room (which turned out to be a library with a bust of every Liberal PM and NLC chairman along the sides of the extravagant room). The lecture had touched on the Batak massacre, at which point my ears pricked up in curiosity. When the lecture ended, questions were asked, the first being from my dad:

“Have you been able to gain any information from survivors of the Batak massacre?”

The historian replied, “Unfortunately, no. Language barriers have prevented this.”

“This is very interesting”, my dad pointed out. “But it turns out that my son and I are both living descendants of a survivor of the massacre (my great grandmother as it happens). Therefore, I would be happy to give you some insights”.

The room went silent in anticipation.

The historian cheerfully pointed out that “in that case, you must meet with Mr. Francis Gladstone, great grandson to the club’s founder.”

He looked to the back of the room.

“That should be alright, Mr. Gladstone?”

“Quite.”

The crowd was later escorted to the Lady Violet Room where the dinner was to take place.

The dinner in question consisted of a starter of a traditional Bulgarian potato salad (Shopska Salad), a Mesana Skara grill of pork and lamb, and a sweet pumpkin Tikvenik (a cinnamon and pumpkin-flavoured filo pastry). All the food was expertly cooked and tasted delicious, taking me back to the few times I have been to Bulgaria.

During the meal, Francis made a speech commemorating his great-grandfather’s actions against Disraeli and the Ottoman occupation. This spurred me on to find him by the end of the evening, which I had the pleasure of doing. I simply thanked him for the great evening and discussed Batak.

He was a truly inspirational person.

We walked out of the club: me, Mr. Gladstone, and my dad, down the velvet staircase as (I realised) William Gladstone, Winston Churchill and many others of that status must have done countless times over.

As I write this article and look back at the events of that evening and beforehand, I am reminded that each of us has a unique story like this that not many have experienced. Fundamentally, I implore all of you to be proud of your heritage and stick to it like glue because, think about it, in fifty years or so, you may be the only one of your dynasty to remember your past. Stick to it and spread stories far and wide: that is the only way anyone learns anything, is it not?