The Famous Faces of Clan Home

So let’s begin the famous faces of Clan Home by looking at the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, John Hume! John who is renowned as one of the most important figures in Irish history ever, was born in 1937 into an Irish Catholic family in Derry. He trained as a priest as a teen but eventually left the priesthood to join the civil rights movement as the Troubles began.

John cut his political teeth as the leader of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement, a grassroots campaign dedicated to ending housing, employment, and voter discrimination against Catholics. The teachings of MLK led him to follow the policy of peace but peace was not popular at this time in Irish history making him an enemy of both the IRA and the Unionists.

Hume convinced Gerry Adams to move the IRAs politics towards a path of non-violence and soon came the Good Friday Agreement. For ending the brutal 30-year war in Ireland John was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Gandhi Peace Prize, the Martin Luther King Award and Pope Benedict himself awarded him the Order of St. Gregory the Great award!

Who pops into your head when you think about famous detectives? Yes, that’s right, Sherlock Holmes! The Holmes name comes from relatives of Clan Home and was used to create to the most famous fictional character ever.

The infamous private detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first featured in 1887 and has gone on to be adapted over 25,000 times. For over 100 years audiences have been glued to his amazing intellect and fascinating deduction but also for his many flaws.

Holmes is emotionally distant and struggles with substance abuse which humanises Holmes robotish character and that is why we love the character. We also get to see him struggle with his relationship with Watson, his brother and his arch nemesis Moriarty (10-year-old me is still terrified of him from the BBC adaptation). Holmes's timeless character is still being retold with new books and movies being released each year!

There was no way we could have gone through this list without mentioning David Hume. David was born in Berwick and is regarded as the most important philosopher to have written in English. Leading the charge on the Scottish enlightenment, Hume’s ‘Treatise of Human Nature' remains one of the most important pieces of philosophy to the present day.

Hume went on to become a founding member of the Select Society and the Poker Club. In these clubs Hume would debate with fellow famous academics like Adam Smith, the founder of capitalism and historian William Robertson. Imagine being a fly on the wall during these debates!

Also born in Berwick, Patrick Hume, was a Scottish statesman and a staunch supporter of William of Orange. Patrick grew up in Berwick until he moved to Paris to study Law and soon became a member of the Scottish Parliament. He landed himself in trouble with the law due to links with the Covenanters and was placed in prison.

When he was freed, he automatically joined the famous unsuccessful plot to assassinate Charles II at Rye House. He was forced into hiding in the Netherlands biding his time until the next revolution, luckily revolutions were popular in the 1600s. He joined the Argyll revolution which was hugely unsuccessful and returned the Netherlands as a doctor. Third time lucky? This time he was with another nephew of the crown who you might know, William of Orange. After the successful uprising he was made Lord Chancellor and Earl of Marchmont in 1697.

Now to a more modern Home, Alec Douglas-Home, conservative politician and Prime Minster of the United Kingdom. Alec political career can largely be split into two parts: Firstly as a member of the House of Commons and political parliamentary aide to Neville Chamberlain during the unsuccessful campaign of appeasement against the growing power of the Nazi party. During this campaign he was sadly diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis and left the his position.

His political career had a secondary rise after his father’s death when he became a member of the House of Lords and soon after began to rise the ranks. Whilst being speaker of the House of Lords and the Foreign secretary, the PM became ill and resigned. This was his chance, after 30 years in politics he became PM, but it wasn’t a great time for this government. He lost the next election due to the reputational damage caused by the Profumo affair in which the Secretary of State for War was involved with a possible Russian spy. You may have seen this documented in the Netflix TV show the Crown! He later retired from politics and died in 1995.