View source for Mapping the Past: A Search for Five Brothers at the Edge of Empire by Charles Drazin

{{infobox1
|title=Mapping the Past: A Search for Five Brothers at the Edge of Empire
|author=Charles Drazin
|reviewer= Steve Cotterill
|genre=History
|summary= A personal quest into the past, which draws on Drazin's family history and the broader history of the Victorian period. This is a fascinating book, full of not just good solid facts but intriguing snippets that delighted me. I found it a pleasant read, though one I felt best to take in small chunks, owing to the large amount of information Drazin provides.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=416
|publisher=Arrow
|date= April 2017
|isbn= 978-0099468271
|cover=0099468271
|aznuk=0099468271
|aznus=0099468271
}}
''Mapping the Past'' is at once a personal quest into the author's family history, and an account of some of the interesting, perhaps even amazing things the Royal Engineers have achieved over the past couple of centuries. Drazin is descended from a generation of Engineers; five brothers who all served in the Army, mostly as surveyors mapping the far flung parts of the Empire. This was despite them being both Irish and Catholic. He uncovers their pasts, the many things they undertook and how it affected them in the end. It's a story that's uplifting and extremely sad, as the First World War and the Easter Rising in 1916 seem to mark a true watershed for his family.

Drazin treats his subject as a journey, visiting County Clare in Ireland to see where the family lived, Dublin and the Royal Engineers training ground and museum at Chatham. He also takes trips to St Helena and Flanders, walking the past as much as mapping it. In doing so he lives the experiences of his ancestors to some extent. The other aspect of the book is to recount some of the highlights of the Royal Engineers' accomplishments from the period, and here he does not stint. We are introduced to key figures from the Royal Engineers' history, including General Kitchener, General Gordon, and Thomas Drummond. The first two names were far more familiar to me than the third, and yet Drummond seems the most desirable of the three of them by today's standards. Drummond is a hero in Ireland for his work there in the 1830s, creating the railways and campaigning for Catholics to be allowed into the police force, among other things. Drazin uses both Kitchener and Gordon to demonstrate the Empire's brutality and does not flinch from the crimes of Empire. The lacklustre efforts to help the Irish during the potato famine, or the mercenary way British troops looted the places they conquered both come under scrutiny. While Drazin's tone remains even, his disapproval can be felt rising off the page as he recounts how General Gordon sacked the Chinese Summer Palace or Kitchener's brutality in the Boer War. Nor does he flinch from discussing the racist attitudes towards indigenous peoples and their second class citizenship status, underscoring that in both Canada and Australia, as in the rest of the Empire, white meant right.

The five brothers, Jack, John, Patrick, Thomas and Michael, to list them in no particular order, served all over the Empire, whether as Ordnance Survey surveyors; or in the case of Michael as a submarine engineer, specialising in mines and harbour defence. The others spent a good proportion of their careers in Britain and Ireland, even ending up back at County Clare, before serving overseas in places as far flung as Gibraltar, Sierra Leone, Australia, Canada and in other places. Their exploits range from helping the nascent Australian Intelligence Service to map the continent to creating the first real maps of Sierra Leone. The road leads, inevitably, to World War One, in which Thomas lost his life during 1916. Drazin's tone becomes more sombre here, recalling not only the work the Engineers undertook, digging trenches, laying coils of barbed wire but also the stranger idea that bubbled up during the war as new technologies and concepts were developed. The final fates of the family members are revealed matter of factly, but with particular sobriety in reference to the war. Drazin's use of the family 'relics' here is particularly strong; he recalls his mother speaking of a bloodstone ring her father wore, and how in his imagination it was a gift from an African chieftain.

The result is an interesting read, aided by the judicious use of pictures and maps, as you might expect, given the book's title, to illustrate Drazin's journey. The author is an interesting, informative travelling companion, ever ready to supply his family's history to shed light on the situations his ancestors found themselves in, but never judging them for their actions. He is clearly a modern man, uneasy with aspects of the United Kingdom's imperial past, but at the same time committed to supporting the same regiment that his family have been a part of. It is interesting to see him draw parallels with the situation we face now with questions of loyalty and mixed identities, underscoring the idea that in the Victorian and Edwardian periods one could be Irish, Catholic and still a proud British soldier with the situation Muslims face today. Drazin is happy to pepper his narrative with surprising facts and his writing style is clear and concise for the most part, though he does occasionally become overly wordy.

I would recommend that fans of military history, and of family exploration pick this up and, should they enjoy it, consider the following books to read: [[Memories of the Rare Old Times: Through The Eyes of a Dubliner by Bernard P Morgan]], [[The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Murder That Changed the World by Greg King and Sue Woolmans]].

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