On Twelfth Night, the Three Wise Men presented their gifts to the infant Jesus, but – guess what – there is a Liverpool connection. Peter Elson reports
THEY were the unsung heroes of the British Empire, whose grit, determination and diligence kept the wheels of trade and industry moving.
The Yemeni community is Britain’s oldest-established Muslim community, as the men from this Middle Eastern country were recruited to stoke ships’ engines and later work in the coal and steel industry.
With Yemen’s incredibly hot climate, the belief was that its menfolk could undertake working in over-heated and dirty conditions that most Europeans would avoid.
This was particularly true in the steam-powered maritime era, when the famous Yemeni port of Aden became a crucial coal-bunkering station en route to India, east Africa, Australasia and the Far East.
With Liverpool’s status as Second City of the Empire, it became home to one of the largest Yemeni communities in the country.
These forgotten imperial footsoldiers, to whom we owe so much not only in peace, but also wartime when they crewed Merchant and Royal Navy ships (with many losing their lives) are now celebrated in a new book.
Through his exemplary work over 25 years, photographer Tim Smith traced the Yemeni men’s stories of migration, settlement in Britain and the return home for some.
The book, called Coal, Frankincense and Myrrh, Yemen & British Yemenis, brings together the source of Britain’s greatness and the priceless Biblical gifts the Wise Men bequeathed to the new-born Christ.
At the heart is the mysterious, ancient land of Yemen, from where Noah supposedly set sail, and whose people dealt in all three highly desired commodities.
Yemen is regarded as the home of the Queen of Sheba and has been at the crossroads of Africa, the Middle East and Asia for thousands of years, courtesy of its key position on the ancient spice routes.
Some 10,000 years of trade along Yemen’s Red Sea and Indian Ocean coasts, over its mountains and across its deserts made it a meeting point of people, ideas, money and goods, and the centuries of trading generated much wealth.
