To quote Charles Dickens, "It was the best of times it was the worst of times." It was a time of revolutions, political upheaval and unrest across Europe, sparked off in large part by the French Revolution. The status of Royalty was challenged. The landed aristocracy were having to bend with the wind of change. Democratic systems of governance were beginning to emerge. But like all revolutions the momentum faltered and the old order was in part restored. Yet in 1848 there was the start of momentous change, of something very new. In Great Britain, largely unaffected by the turmoil in Europe, the Industrial Revolution had taken off and was to have a major impact across the world. For the first time since the wheel was invented men increased their physical power. Up to 1830 men, animals, wind or water were the sole means of movement. All at once machines driven by steam enabled men to move quicker and further and produce more and faster.

Across the Channel in Germany the sleeping giant of Europe was beginning to stir; historically fragmented by mediaeval hierarchies and dynasties some far-sighted men now had a vision of a united German nation, and set about achieving that goal. Bismarck had an even greater ambition, nothing less than the United States of Europe, little dreaming that later his dream would be realised albeit as the European Community. Ruthless in pursuing his goal, his decisions were to have an effect on every aspect of life in Prussia, Southern Germany, Austria and Schleswig-Holstein, bringing into conflict these hitherto independent states. His actions encroached men's liberties and religious beliefs and touched almost every family. His decision to increase the Prussian army from 25,000 men to 65,000 sent a shiver of apprehension into every family with sons in their late teens.

One such family was that of John Hagedorn, a farmer living near Kiel. The family was already facing persecution, as Lutherans in a predominantly Catholic region. The added prospect of losing their sons Henry and Charles to the harsh traditional discipline of the Prussian army was more than they could bear. John Hagedorn was a stern unbending man; he, his wife and their children were a close-knit family who worked hard and led the orderly simple lives of country folk of that period. The secretive lowlands of Schleswig-Holstein with their horizontal rainstorms, red farms, green fields and cloud stacked skies, bred a dour but determined breed of men and women whose relaxation was often limited to a pot of Lubeck beer, pickled herring and a glass of Schnapps after a trudge along the dykes following a day in the fields.

On a windy April night around 1854, John Hagedorn and several of the neighbouring farmers, also with sons reaching conscription age, met in the white-washed rafted kitchen of John Hagedorn's farm to consider what could be done. The problem was the most difficult that any of them had ever faced. It was agreed finally that his sons were to work their passage on a ship trading with Great Britain. The boys themselves, although aware of the trauma the prospect of parting would involve, saw in it a great adventure, a journey into the unknown, a new culture, language and strange customs, and the excitement of a completely new world. Following the patriarchal ways of the period, the mothers busied themselves with preparing a meal carefully avoiding any display of anxiety. The boys sat together near the large blazing log-lit hearth and watched the shadows thrown on to the white rafted ceiling from a flickering oil-lamp. Eventually they were called to the table and told their fate. Within days arrangements would be put in hand for the youngsters to board a merchant ship from Bremerhaven bound for a port on the west coast of a small country called Wales, or as the French more descriptively called it "Paye de Galle", the Country of the Celts.

© March 2001