and admit that it’s one of those gifts you’re not overly fond of

Well, not really. He is well admired in the UK as well. You have to be really stupid to not know who Abraham Lincoln is by the time you leave school, especially if you are from cities such as Manchester or Liverpool. These cities were interconnected with the cotton trade (albeit we got ours from India and Egypt) and very interested in the American Civil War when it was raging (the Confederate navy's best ships were built in Liverpool, and the last Confederates surrendered in Liverpool).

Lincoln also earned a good reputation outside the Anglophone world. Leo Tolstoy had a lot to say about him https://www.thedailybeast.com/leo-tolstoys-love-letter-to-lincoln