Updated 8th January 2025: One year on from the walk, and with a new Equalities Minister in post, the Scottish Government has yet to publish its commissioned desk research or meet with Lynne or other campaigners.
On 8th January 2024 Dr Lynne Tammi-Connelly embarked on a 100 mile walk from her home town of Montrose to the Scottish Parliament to raise awareness of the Gypsy Traveller children trafficked to the colonies, particularly but not exclusively Canada, in the hope that, despite previously refusing [citing possible prejudice to Scottish Government commissioned desk research as her reasoning], that the then Equalities Minister, Emma Roddick, would meet her in person to discuss the campaign and her recent field trip to Canada which, amongst other things, identified the names and causes of death of children trafficked by Quarrier’s and who not being placed by Quarrier’s into indentured service remained at Fairknowe, their holding centre, died there and were buried in unmarked graves.
Not in good health, and therefore requiring rest days, the walk took over two weeks to complete. Lynne was joined by a number of supporters along her route, many of whom she had not known before the walk. Without their support the walk would have been far more of an onerous a task. She thanks those who joined her in person and those who supported her in other ways such as financial donations, supplying food and hot drinks and warm clothing, messages of support and phone calls, including one from the late Alex Salmond, the former First Minister of Scotland, on the eve of the walk. She will not forget their kindness. See below for a sample of communications between Lynne and the Minister and the Minister and her officials on her desire *not* to discuss the issue with Lynne.
Shortly after the walk, the Minister blocked Lynne from her official Twitter account.
Lynne kept a video diary of much of her walk. A selection can be viewed below:
Despite the walk being covered by major daily newspapers and online bloggers these efforts fell on deaf ears with the Minister choosing to stay inside Parliament on the day Lynne and a group of supporters arrived to speak with her. Undeterred by this setback Lynne continued to campaign for an apology and a memorial to the Gypsy Traveller children trafficked to the colonies as part of the wider Tinker Experiments. 1 One year on from the walk, and with a new Equalities Minister in post, the Scottish Government has yet to publish its commissioned desk research or meet with Lynne or other campaigners.
- See other posts for further information on the experiments which, amongst other things, included a visit in 1938 by Wolfgang Abel a Nazi eugenicist to undertake invasive tests on Gypsy Travellers in Caithness and Sutherland – a visit which was facilitated by Neville Henderson, the then UK Ambassador to Germany. During his time in Scotland he met with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other elites, at the house of Neville Henderson to explain his research on Gypsy Travellers in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe. ↩︎