West Ham abolitionist Samuel Gurney remembered as UN marks slavery’s end

Upton House, where Samuel Gurney lived Picture: Newham Archives (Image: Archant)

This victory came in the form of the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, which was fought for by William Wilberforce, Henry Brougham and Thomas Foxwell Buxton.

But another man – Samuel Gurney of Ham House, West Ham – was also crucial to the act’s passage.

Born in 1786, Gurney was raised in Norfolk and Surrey before beginning his illustrious career as a financier.

It wasn’t long before he achieved great success and wealth, taking control of what became Overend, Gurney and Company – a firm later known as the “bankers’ bank”, with Gurney the “bankers’ banker”.

The Samuel Gurney obelisk on The Broadway, Stratford (Image: Archant)

Money, however, was not his primary concern, with philanthropy – and particularly anti-slavery – occupying much of his time and energy.

As a member of the Anti-Slavery Society, Gurney joined abolitionists Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Joseph Sturge and others in pressuring the government to ban slavery through an Act of Parliament.

Last week, on August 23, the United Nations marked the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition.

In Newham, tributes to Gurney still exist – most notably in Broadway, Stratford, where a large obelisk bears his name.

North from Stratford, up through Leytonstone Road, Gurney Road also keeps his legacy alive.

And in the Museum of London Docklands, near Canary Wharf, the Buxton Table on which the 1833 abolition bill was discussed and drafted can be seen – which also bears Gurney’s name.

But his legacy is being kept alive in another, more active sense – by people committed to ending modern slavery, which continues despite all earlier efforts.

“I think everyone thought slavery had been abolished years ago,” Dr Mark Roycroft, criminologist and senior lecturer at the University of East London, said.

“But it’s just returned in a slightly different guise.”

Between January and March 2016, 895 potential victims of modern slavery in the UK were sent to the National Referral Mechanism.

Dr Roycroft said many of these people are lured to the country with the “promise of a legitimate job”, but soon end up enslaved.

“It’s not just people in car washes and nail bars – it’s more than that,” he said.

“Their lives are not their own – they are doing jobs they don’t want to do and their freedom is restricted.”

He added that the core of the problem is organised crime, with gangs choosing Britain because it has “livable laws”, a strong economy and a mixed population into which it is easy to blend.

But thanks to new slavery laws – namely the Modern Slavery Act 2015 – Dr Roycroft said the battle is progressing against slavers.

“It gives extra powers for those dealing with traffickers,” he said.

“Sentencing can also act as a deterrent, because if the risk is increased for the gangs then they will think twice.”

But he added: “As long as people make money from it, they will keep trying to enslave people.”