'there's also an assumption here that one's forebears share the same nationality or indeed culture as oneself, which hasn't necessarily been the case for a lot of people in the UK'

It indeed was not the case with me, as a matter of fact. But it is where I was born, brought up, educated, have breathed and had my being all my life - so that I have absorbed its atmosphere culturally, as it were. I don't see that the fact that my ancestors were elsewhere at the time Of Shax & Dowland [to adopt Matt's two useful examples] disqualifies me from feeling part of the ambiance that their achievements are also part of.

I say again — it is possible to be too objective & rational ... to the exclusion of some valuable emotional experience.