A passionate Liverpool historian and tour guide who spent decades educating people about the city’s role in the slave trade has died at the age of 89.
Eric Lynch, an honorary Ghanaian Chief whose mother and father were born in Barbados, has run a history tour in the city since the 1990s which included monuments and reminders of the slave trade.
Eric left school at the age of 14 unable to read and write and became a shop steward as a bell boy at the city council where he supported a campaign for a slavery museum and began race awareness courses for local authority staff and Merseyside Police.
He wanted to research true history of the port
Saddened to hear that one of #Liverpool's greatest historians & Citizen of Honour, Eric Lynch, has died.
His contribution to our understanding of the city's role in the slave trade is @SlaveryMuseum for which he tirelessly campaigned for.#RIPEric
Pic: Leila Romaya & Paul McCann pic.twitter.com/JNHSjgpNC4— Liverpool City Council (@lpoolcouncil) November 2, 2021
Within a few years of leaving school Eric had taught himself literacy skills, partly because of his interest in the history of Liverpool.
He wanted to research the true history of the port. His enthusiasm even led him to unsuccessfully hide on a ship going to Barbados, but he was discovered just before the ship set to sail and he was returned to the Liverpool shore.
Eric was awarded the Citizen of Honour by the former Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson as he spent decades educating Liverpool on the uncomfortable truths on slavery. He won the award in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the city.
Great privilege to award the fantastic Eric Lynch the Citizen of Honour of Liverpool. Decades spent educating people about Liverpool’s uncomfortable truth about our role in the slave trade . He is truly inspirational. Well deserved Eric. pic.twitter.com/HnlBPhi08J
— Joe Anderson (@joeando58) June 18, 2018
