Thanks Michael, for the information about the letters from a Scottish family.
Interestingly enough, your comment that it was difficult to distinguish their
ethnicity brings up a problem I encountered when I first began to research
this topic. Originally, I had intended to concentrate on Irish, Welsh and
Scottish identities in relationship to "Britishness". I soon found that there
was an absence of issues which actively defined the Scottish relationship to
British national identity. For example, a number of special royal visits were
made to Ireland and Wales, but such visits were routine in Scotland and
received little commentary about their meaning in relation to Scottishness.
Scotland seems to have been reconciled to the British monarchy well before
the period of my study (1899-1919) during the earlier reign of Queen Victoria.
Ireland and Wales, on the other hand, were generally ignored by Victoria and
their subsequent alienation proved to be problematic to the construction off
an inclusive sense of Britishness, hence the special visits, ceremonys and
extensive commentary associating Irishness and Welshness with an overarching
identification with the monarchy. In the realm of politics, Irish and Welsh
identities were at the heart of the Home Rule and Disestablishment controversys
which threatened to completely transform the British constitution. While
there was a Scottish Home Rule movement, it was more of an offshoot to Irishtoo
Home Rule. Scottish identity seemed to be much less politically controversial
than Irish and Welsh identity during the Edwardian period. Finally, during
the First World War, special Irish and Welsh recruiting organizations and
"national" army divisions were created specifically to harness Irish and Welsh
national sentiment to the war effort. No such special measures were insti
instituted on Scotland's behalf. Again, I think this is because Scottish
identity was less controversial. Both Irish and Welsh identities contained
a traditional antipathy to service in the British army that needed to be
addressed. The Scots, on the other hand, had an opposite tradition which
associated their ethnic identity with military service.
In the end, I think the absence of defining issues in regards to Edwardian
Scottish identity is due less to any weakness in the vitality of their ethnic
identity than to the fact that Scottish identity had been reconciled to a
a sense of Britishness long before. Linda Colly identifies this as taking
place between 1707 and 1837 in her book "Britons". Scotland had simply ceased
to be problematic to a sense of British national identity by the turn of the
century. Irish and Welsh identity, on the other hand, still presented problems
to the essential integrity of the nation-state and needed to be addressed and
reconciled.
John S. Ellis Boston College ellisjg@bcvms.bc.edu