Black lives regained
Some of the names in a new book that celebrates the lives of pre-Windrush immigrants take even Angela Cobbinah by surprise
Francis Barber
HE helped advance Darwin’s theories of evolution through his skills in taxidermy and knowledge of the South American tropics, but few will have heard of freed slave John Edmondstone.
The extraordinary story of how he began working with the young Darwin after moving into the same Edinburgh street as him in 1823 is told in
Before Windrush: West Indians in Britain, the latest book to emerge from husband-and-wife team Martin and Asher Hoyles.
“Edmondstone was a skilled taxidermist and taught Darwin how to preserve vertebrate specimens for his research,” says Martin.