The Editorial in a Colne Newspaper is trying to promote St. George’s Day as “an ideal cause for celebrating our Englishness and all that is great about our country”.

I think it is flogging a ‘dead dragon’!

For a start, St. George wasn’t English. He came from the Middle East, born in Eastern Turkey around 270AD [formerly Cappadocia in Asia Minor].

As a Christian and member of the Roman Army, he refused to obey the orders of the Emperor to persecute his fellow Christians. He did not deny his faith and was beheaded in 303AD.

If we wanted a home grown English Saint, we should have chosen St. Alban, who also served in the Roman Army and was beheaded in 304AD for his Christian Faith!

George is worthy of remembrance as a humble, morally courageous and peaceful Saint. Other countries have honoured him as their Patron Saint, such as Palestine, Portugal, Greece, Canada and Georgia.

I am happy to support the inclusion of Turkish George as our Patron Saint as he reflects the multi-cultural and racial mix of the English in Britain.

I certainly do not support the linking of George with the fictitious legend that he slew a dragon in the 13th Century (900 years after his death) or with the introduction of the English Flag. George was accepted as a Patron Saint (in place of Edward the Confessor) in 1222AD by the Council of Oxford with 23rd April being later chosen as a National Feast Day.

This was after King Richard 1, in 1194AD, had ordered that the Cross of St. George to be adopted as the national flag of England to lead the Crusades in the 12th & 13th Centuries.

It is an insult to George’s memory that he and his flag were used by King Richard as a rallying cry during the despicable Crusades in Christendom’s assault on the Middle East with the full blessing of the RC Church. This was one of the most disgraceful and regrettable episodes in our history.

Unfortunately, this tainted history has tarnished the image of George and his flag with its present overtones of jingoism and the attempt to make out that true English people can somehow be identified as a single entity.

In fact, we are the sum total over many centuries of invasion, immigration and settlement by numerous peoples ranging from Angles (English), Jutes, Saxons, Norse, Celts, Scots, Romans, Normans and further afield – to a name but a few.

We are not a monochrome society. The unity of our nation should not be equated with sameness. The richness of culture and diversity of race should be a cause of celebration in England and Britain as a whole.