Blog-log Day 8 - Old Gower, Liberal and Jewish...

In the annals of British History Herbert Samuel does not feature large - he's important but not a household name.

But let's re-cap:
- the first Jewish Cabinet member in Britain
- an Old Gower (pupil of UCS)
- First Governor of the Palestinian Mandate
- First Jew to govern 'Israel' since ancient times
- Liberal Party Leader 1931-1935
- First Jew to lead a political party in Britain

So on my journey to Israel I was pretty excited to find this plaque still up at the start of King George V Street.

KING GEORGE V AVENUE
OPENED BY
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR HERBERT SAMUEL
HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR PALESTINE
IN THE PRESENCE OF
SIR RONALD STORRS
GOVERNOR JERUSALEM-JAFFA DISTRICT
RAGHEB BEY EL NASHASHIBI
MAYOR OF JERUSALEM
9TH DECEMBER 1924
(it's in Hebrew to the left and Arabic to the right - immediately behind my head - but was quite hard to get me in the pic as you have to virtually stand in the road!)

Excited at this was one thing - but when I was in a bookshop and asked about the Mandate days the woman behind the desk revealed she had interviewed Herbert's son - Edwin - as an old man in Jersusalem in the 1970's. I'm now onto finding the person who has the notes an tapes of that interview...