Aberdeen Unitarian Church
CALENDAR
NOVEMBER 2009
FOREWORDWhen I was a youngster, the lady who lived next door to us occasionally suffered from depression (not that it was called that then). People would say that she needed 'to be taken out of herself'. Taking this expression quite literally, I spent hours pondering how this could be achieved. Was there something inside a person, perhaps a smaller version of the person, like a doll, that could be taken out by some medical sleight of hand? And once it was out, what difference would that make to the patient and could it ever be put back in again? One wet afternoon, I sat in the attic trying to identify the whereabouts of this inner me, but without success. What I didn't know then is that the search for the 'inner me', is and has been for centuries, one of the major preoccupations of religion, psychology and philosophy, and particularly so at the present time. It features prominently in 20th century literature and many of the products of the so-called 'self-help' industry focus on the importance of knowing oneself in order to bring about a transformation in one's way of life. Why should we wish to be 'taken out of oneself'? There is a general conviction among modern commentators and writers that an increasing number of us find our lives to be meaningless and bereft of fulfilment. There is nothing life affirming in our daily existence. Routines, time-tables, deadlines, obligations civil and domestic, working, shopping, attending to the family convert us into robots whose sole purpose is to fulfil these mundane functions. Joy, exhilaration, a sense of fun, imagination are scoured away by the unremitting grind of what the poet, Wordsworth called 'getting and spending'. Below this shell there may be other hardened layers of resentment, frustration, disillusionment and chronic unhappiness that imprison the true self that craves to celebrate its existence, to snatch that significance as a living being that is its birthright, to soar, to embrace the rest of creation that is its inheritance. Short-term sense of satisfaction we can achieve by fulfilling an ambition or attaining a target we have set ourselves, or competing successfully against a rival, but spiritual fulfilment that confers upon us that awareness that we are an absolutely essential (not accidental) part of existence, is acquired only when we have risen above all the exclusive, self-centred paraphernalia of individuality, such as self gratification and self interest to lose ourselves in the selfless love of someone or something beyond ourselves. This is how we are taken out of ourselves. This is how we experience that intense sense of participation in the on-going life of creation. Wm. S. Stephen (Editor) Email: william134@btinternet.com or editor@aberdeen-unitarians.org.uk PASTORAL GREETINGSTo our members who are housebound, in hospital and recovering from surgery we send our greetings. You are always in our thoughts and we miss you at all our congregational gatherings. We do hope that the Calendar helps you to feel part of the on-going life of the Church and that the pictures and the stories about what is happening month by month, in some small way convey the lively atmosphere of our Church occasions. CHRISTMAS SERVICESWe are planning three special services over the Christmas period: 6th December, Carol Service; 13th Christingle Service & Festival of Light; 20th Cantata Service, 'Creating Christmas'. TABLE-TOP SALEA Table-top Sale is scheduled for Saturday 7th November, at 2.00pm. This is an indoor version of a car-boot sale, where, as is the custom with these events, a wide variety of goods will be offered for sale. For entrepreneurs, tables may be hired at £5.00 each. For customers there will be a nominal entry charge of 20 pence per person. Kathleen Bruce & Kathleen McGregor are the organisers WOMEN'S LEAGUE SALES TABLE.The Women's League will have a wide range of goods for sale at their sales table during the Saturday Cafe on 14th November. WOMEN'S LEAGUE PROGRAMMESNOVEMBER 2009
THE KIRK SOIRÉEOn 13th November, we revive a traditional form of entertainment, The Kirk Soirée, which for many decades before the advent of television was a popular social event combining music, song, story telling, recitation and audience participation with tea and buns and general good cheer. We have assembled a troupe of superb performers and can guarantee a lively evening's entertainment. Tickets £3.00 each are now on sale. AUTUMN FAIRLast month's Autumn Fair raised £410.00. We wish to thank Rhona Stewart and her team for their efforts in organising it and to everyone who contributed to its success. CHRISTMAS CRAFT FAIRDecember 5th, 10.00 am is the day and time of our Christmas-Craft Fair when selection of original hand-crafted gifts, stationery, cards and decorations will be on sale. ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSby Rev. John Clifford Anniversaries are interesting things. Some of them are important only to a few people but to them they appear to be the stuff of life - we all know the image, if not the reality, of husbands who forget their wedding anniversaries (and what terrors can befall them when/if they do!). Other Anniversaries are very important to whole communities, even whole nations: We all know that this year has been designated Homecoming Year, the 250th year since the death of our national poet, Rabbie Burns. We know about it but a lot of money is being spent trying to get those of Scottish ancestry to know about it in the expectation that they will feel moved to bring something profitable to Scotland - like visit us and spend lots of money on accommodation, food, travel, and trinkets (many of the trinkets made in China). Next year, 2010, will be 251 years since his death, an even greater Anniversary in one sense but there won't be the same emotional impact because it won't be a nice round number. Next month will see the 150th Anniversary of the publication of The Origin of the Species - a very important book, indeed, in human history and its Author, Charles Darwin, has received a lot of academic and popular attention this year because this Anniversary has been used as a hook for a push to spread knowledge about his ideas and the scientific breakthroughs that these led to. How many people here have actually read this book? [one hand goes up] And mythology can play an important role in Anniversaries. Most Americans, when asked what is being celebrated on the 4th of July each year, will respond "the Birthday of the Country" or about how the US is the best country in the world, but if you press them for more detail about the date, they will eventually come up with "the signing of the Declaration of Independence" - but I was taught in American civics class that the signing actually took place on the 3rd of July, not the 4th. But since the celebration is well and truly established, a little matter of the truth is not going to get in the way of a rousing patriotic event. As most of you know, Barbara and I married each other fairly late in life although we'd known each other for decades. So we decided, reckoning that we won't reach many of the traditional marital milestones, to celebrate Anniversary Months, rather than years. And most months we do remember to reflect briefly on the fantastic day we shared the day after Burns's birthday in 2002. For those who are interested, last month we had our 92nd Anniversary. And we may be able to remember in our very busy lives that next May will see our 100th month of married bliss. So we come this month to the 176th year since the founding of this congregation. William kindly sent me the centenary booklet prepared in 1933 by your then minister from Wales, Ceiron Jones. It was very useful background to me but I'm not, as an incomer who has not even made annual visits to Aberdeen over the past 30 years, going to come here and teach you your own history. Each one of you, except any welcome visitors present today, will know it much better than I do, having participated in this annual event many times - in some cases, many, many times. Each one of you will also know something about the history of the congregation by living it and creating it, by taking part in the events and lives that make up real history, by having to teach it to children, by having to affirm it in the face of misunderstandings or even hostility in the larger society, by being living witnesses to your history. So I will limit my historical observations to the very important but also very common fact that Aberdeen, like other places where Unitarianism has been established, benefited greatly by a combination of local energy and insight and outside expertise, resources, and support. The particular balance of these factors will be unique to Aberdeen, but the geographic isolation of your congregation should never obscure the fact that its origins and continued existence depend on larger circles of community as well as on your own efforts - and knowing several of you as I do, I can attest to this awareness. Speaking of geographic isolation, I did a bit of research on Unitarian congregations around the world (I was until recently the Executive Secretary of the International Unitarian and Universalist umbrella group, after all) and am fairly certain that there is only one Unitarian Church in the world that is closer to the North Pole than Aberdeen, and it's not in Canada, it is Anchorage in Alaska, in the USA. It is also worth noting that the birth of this congregation was protracted and difficult - if it were a modern real birth it would have ended by a Cesarian section! Many people; many meetings attended by hundreds, most of them with more interest than commitment; many years in the making. In the early years the relatively short ministries often involved preaching and debating in public - what is currently, I believe, call evangelizing. The key I want to hold up this morning is not a history lesson, but an exploration of the basis for the continued existence of any community: the link between the values of that community and the actual lives of people who comprise the community. History is important. I forget who it was who said that those who do not learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, but I do remember that it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who put the same insight more positively as "one of the reasons we can see so far is that we stand on the shoulders of giants". But history is not some fixed thing like the platinum meter bars scattered around the world to maintain scientific standards actually, this standard was abandoned in favour of an even more fixed standard based on wavelengths of light, but that is another story. History changes as we discover new facts and it changes as we make our own contributions to collective memory and insights. It was just in the last weeks that a new fossil record was found that may change the whole scientific picture of human development. But my message today is much less about history than about value communities. As most of you will know, I am a firm believer in the central importance of communities of values. To be a Unitarian by one's self is only to reach a small proportion of our potential, both in terms of our spiritual development and in terms of the impact of our religion in making the world a better place. The reading from Phillip Hewett which Anita read for us earlier focused on one of the central historical emphases of Unitarianism - tolerance, which with our emphases of reason and freedom, comprised a description of our religious community by one of our greatest historians, Earl MorseWilbur. In it Phillip explains that maintaining tolerance in the face of adversity is not easy and even sometimes not good. When is it good to NOT be tolerant? When it would mean tolerating intolerance or when it would lead to greater suffering. Standards require a sense of purpose and direction; standards also need to be based on the people in community. The same is true for reason and freedom, of course. We were probably all required to read Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal in school, written during the Irish potato famine. How many people here have read this essay? [none] In it he very logically put forward the proposal that one could solve two problems at a stroke, the Irish famine and the increasing fear of overpopulation of the Irish, by encouraging the Irish to eat their babies. So much for "Reason" as a religious principle! As for "Freedom", knowing when the boundary line between legitimate limits on personal freedom actually become threats of slavery is a larger social issue we all face in our electronic surveillance society. So freedom, reason, and tolerance, while useful descriptive tools, are not the fundamental values which undergird our Unitarian communities. The founding fathers wanted freedom, they wanted tolerance, they wanted a rational religion. But even more, they wanted to create a community and a world where these descriptions could apply. Another way of saying this is that they had a religious identity which they shared, a set of commitments to values, which they felt needed a community to nurture and bring to fulfillment. The reading from Paul Rasor pointed to the connection between liberal identity and decisions i.e. commitments. Spiritual maturity, social justice, and interdependence are not just slogans, they are fundamental aspects of the link between individuals and their communities of commitment. Aberdeen Unitarians are important, not just to each other but to the larger society which you serve in many ways - the most unique and important way you serve, however, is your steadfast commitment to providing quality liberating worship. Your provision of worship is not an accident; it is not a by-product of socials or even social justice; it is at the core and centre of congregational identity and existence. Values must be celebrated, not just rationally explored. Worship, public worship, is not the same in essence nor in impact, of private devotions. Love is not just a topic for some philosopher to speculate about, it is a living spirit flowing through each of us that occasionally hits a bump and we need others to share with us to get back in the groove; love is a dynamic, productive reality within a community OR that community deteriorates to a social club of hurt and essentially confused individuals. This anniversary is another chance to remember the sacrifices and commitments of the founders of this congregation and a call to us to be clear and settled in our commitments to living the spirit of love, facing the problems and potentials of this age.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share this worship period with you. Thank you for motivating me to learn a bit more about our Unitarian history in Scotland. Thank you for bringing Barbara and me into your community on the 176th Anniversary of your founding. McCRAE'S BATTALIONBy Alan Prosser How many of you have driven into Edinburgh and travelled round a monument in the middle of the road, just outside Haymarket station? Have you ever wondered what it was? Most of you probably decided it was just another war memorial. Well I suppose it is, but it is a very special war memorial to Heart of Midlothian Football Club, to Edinburgh and it should be to the whole of Scotland. Since 1922, Hearts fans and players gather every Remembrance Sunday at this Haymarket memorial. Traditionally, this is the one weekend in every year when red, rather than maroon, is the colour that symbolises Heart of Midlothian. This is a recent quote from a club spokesman - "This is always a very moving event because it is so much part of our history. We expect one of the players to read a letter from a soldier, while the Salvation Army band provides the music. This is the last service at Haymarket before the memorial is temporarily moved for tram works, we hope as many supporters as possible are there to stand shoulder to shoulder." "The club captain will lead his colleagues in laying a wreath at the monument at1 1.00am, just as every Hearts captain before him for 86 years and then we will observe the traditional two minutes' silence." Hearts players and staff are usually given that Sunday off, so that the club can stage their annual Remembrance Service at the Haymarket war memorial. When the club was forced by Sky TV to play a game against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Remberance Sunday afternoon - the tradition was not broken and the players got on the bus straight after the ceremony to travel north. That year, Hearts created a special strip to honour the fallen with seven names on every shirt. Each name was embroidered on the shirt sleeves and there was an embroidered poppy on the chest. What could evoke such a tradition in a football club - well today I am going to tell you that story - the story of McCrae's Battalion or as it is often called the Sporting battalion. There is a corner of a foreign field that is forever Edinburgh. It's called Sausage Valley and it remains entirely unrecorded in any history of Scotland's capital. The word 'valley' is misleading: Sausage is no more than a shallow depression, hidden among the rolling Picardy downlands of the French departement of the Somme. Today it is ploughed and planted with arable crops; 93 years ago it was pit-marked by shell-holes and craters, its northern end was dominated by a fearsome system of defensive entrenchments, bristling with German machine guns. On 1st July 1916, twelve infantry battalions of the 34th Division assaulted this position. It was the opening of General Sir Douglas Haig's grand summer offensive, the so-called 'Big Push'. Within a couple of hours all thoughts of breakthrough had dissolved in front of the Maxims. This was the British Army's 'blackest day': among 20,000 killed and 40,000 wounded were over a thousand officers and men from the division's two 'City of Edinburgh' units, 15th and 16th Royal Scots - more than three quarters of their total attacking strength. In spite of this, the 16th Royal Scots was credited with achieving the deepest penetration of the enemy line anywhere on the battlefront that morning: a small party from C Company fought their way into the ruined village of Contalmaison, only to be overwhelmed by the opposition and chased back out again. The survivors withdrew to join their remaining comrades in a captured German strongpoint known as Scots Redoubt, where they held out in the face of fierce counter-attacks for three long days and nights. The epic defence of Scots Redoubt is the great untold story of that dreadful day; the hero of the hour was an Edinburgh man, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir George McCrae. In August 1914 Great Britain went to war with Germany. As eager young men flocked to join Lord Kitchener's volunteer army, professional football became the target of a vitriolic campaign of unfounded abuse. Footballers, said the critics, were shirkers and cowards, content to hide at home while better men risked their lives at the front. The game was on the point of being 'stopped' by the government, until its reputation was saved by the enlistment of thirteen Heart of Midlothian players in a new battalion being promoted in Edinburgh by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir George McCrae. McCrae, a hatter by profession, was the former Member of Parliament for East Edinburgh. By 1914 he was serving as chairman of the Local Government Board for Scotland. On 20th. November, the Edinburgh papers carried an announcement that he had secured permission to raise a new battalion for active service in the field. It was his intention to lead the unit overseas. Sir George announced that he would have his battalion 'within seven days'. It sounded unlikely - until on Wednesday 25th November, when eleven professional footballers employed by Heart of Midlothian became his first enlistments. They were Alfie Briggs, Duncan Currie, Tom Gracie, Jamie Low, Harry Wattie and Willie Wilson from the League team; and Ernie Ellis, Norman Findlay, Jimmy Frew, Annan Ness and Bob Preston from the reserves. The following day they were joined by two team-mates, Pat Crossan and Jimmy Boyd. The' 'Football Sensation' captured the country's imagination: McCrae's Battalion (the 16th Royal Scots) was raised in record time. The example of the Tynecastle men was followed at once by around 500 of their supporters and ticket-holders - along with 150 followers of Hibernian. Other professionals volunteered from Raith Rovers, Falkirk and Dunfermline. In total, around 75 local clubs (of all levels) were represented - along with rugby players, hockey players, strongmen, golfers, bowlers and athletes of all persuasions. The men who swapped the roars of the crowd for the sound of gunfire were a special team in more senses than one. The maroons were in dazzling form that season and leading the League they won their opening eight league games in 1914-15. They were galloping to the title when the First World War broke out. Instead, they enlisted in the Army, swapping Tynecastle for the trenches. In December the battalion was drawn up along George Street before proceeding to its first home: George Heriot's school. Over the winter the recruits were put through an intensive programme of basic training, but the route marches in the snowy Pentland hills took their toll on the Hearts footballers who continued to turn out for their club. Agonisingly, they were pipped to the title by Celtic in the final weeks of the season. In the spring of 1915 the McCrae's left Edinburgh to undergo manoeuvres south of the border with other battalions which were to form the 101st Brigade. The town came out to see them off and the tears welled up. As the train pulled out of Waverley station, the fatherly Hearts manager, John McCartney, watched with disbelief as his beloved team disappeared from sight: 'The finest men I ever knew had gone.' The battalion - now more familiarly known as 'McCrae's Own' - was duly taken on the strength of Lord Kitchener's 'New' Army as the 16th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Scots. Training was completed in Edinburgh, Yorkshire and Salisbury Plain. They embarked for France in January 1916 and spent their first few months learning the ropes in the quiet zone around Armentieres. The move down to the Somme took place in May - giving them only a few weeks to prepare for the Push. The trench system that faced them to the east of the main Bapaume road was arguably the most dangerous sector in the entire German defensive position. No ordinary unit would have been chosen to assault it. The ultimate objective was a line running through fields slightly to the north of the fortified village of Contalmaison. Before the war Contalmaison consisted of about 70 houses, scattered round an open square and a substantial brick-built church. Most of the five hundred inhabitants made their living from the land, growing wheat and sugar beet or grazing small herds of cattle on the verdant chalk downlands that rolled into the distance as far as the eye could see. By 1916 the cattle were dead, the people scattered and the houses flattened by a pitiless succession of British artillery bombardments. Concealed within the ruins were the headquarters of the 56th German Reserve Infantry Brigade. The village was protected by two formidable entrenchments, 'Kaisergraben' and 'Quadrangle', each of which was screened by several bands of barbed wire, eight feet high and thirty yards broad. In order to reach this position, however, the attacker had first to negotiate the enemy 'front system', which consisted of three additional lines of trenches, each with its own dense entanglements. Every approach was covered by machine-guns. It was a veritable fortress. At 7.30 on the morning of 1st July, McCrae's Battalion rose up from their shallow assembly 'cuts' and advanced in line abreast towards the wire. Almost at once the guns opened fire. 'The lads,' wrote one survivor, 'fell like corn before the scythe.' They pressed forward, however, fighting their way into the enemy trenches with bomb and bayonet. Shortly before 10am. the remains of C Company arrived at Birch Tree Wood, about a thousand yards south-east of Quadrangle. They had Contalmaiso in their sights: by some miracle all the officers and around half the other ranks were still standing. The little command included several 'soldier footballers' from Hearts, Falkirk and Raith Rovers. The sergeant-major was the Tynecastle half-back, Annan Ness, whose surviving playing comrades included full-back, Pat Crossan, and Harry Wattie, who was regarded as the finest inside-forward in Scotland. Corporal Michael Kelly, by comparison, was a humble bowling-green keeper, employed by Edinburgh Corporation. He owed his stripes to a short spell before the war with the Dublin Fusiliers. Kelly's platoon officer was George Russell, a young bank clerk, who had joined the battalion as a private in 1914. Shortly after 10am The company was led out of the shelter of a shallow sunken road and found themselves faced by three enemy Maxims. Within minutes they had lost half their strength. Most of the survivors were pinned down in the numerous shell-holes that peppered the surrounding meadows. Over on the right flank, a group had managed to elude the guns, find a gap in the wire and cross Quadrangle just south of the main road. There were around 30 men. They worked their way into the village, where they were joined by a dozen Northumberland Fusiliers who had broken through further north. A runner was sent requesting assistance. Five minutes later they were almost overrun and they decided to withdraw. They had nine men left, all but two of whom were wounded. They took off down the road, hoping to find friendly troops coming up in support. Arriving back at Quadrangle, they found their escape blocked by a party of German signallers. Kelly charged at them, despatching five before he was shot in the chest. They fought them off and led the survivors back through the German line and into the relative safety of the cratered shell-fields. A further nine days would pass before the village was finally captured. McCrae's Battalion's ill-fated entry into Contalmaison represents the most advanced penetration of the enemy line anywhere on the front on 1st. July 1916. Until now, their achievement has never been recognised. Four officers and 225 other ranks were killed on the village approaches; six officers and 341 other ranks were wounded - of these, 27 died of their injuries in the following months. Theirs is a story of poignancy and heroism, but they would not claim it any more so than that of other players and men from all walks of life who served, suffered and gave up their lives for their friends during those long years of endurance. These were ordinary men who took part in extraordinary events. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Colonel and his wonderful battalion is the fact that they were so thoroughly forgotten. The familiar thin account of Tynecastle's 'en masse' enlistment was always more of a tenuous rumour than a matter of authentic historical record. Jack Alexander's book about McCrae's Battalion, published after more than a decade of detective work, rescued this tale from extinction. The efforts of the Great War Memorial Committee have now ensured that the McCrae's are commemorated by the most ambitious battalion memorial to be erected on the Western Front since the period immediately following the Armistice. In 1920 battalion survivors proposed the creation of a unique memorial to the sacrifice of their comrades. Identical stone cairns would be erected - one in Edinburgh, one in Contalmaison. These would carry identical bronze plaques, incorporating the Edinburgh city crest, the regimental badge and a brief history of the McCrae's. Each year, on 1st July, a party of local schoolchildren would make the pilgrimage to France to lay wreaths in honour of those who had given their lives. These plans, however, were expensive and, in the absence of any help from Edinburgh Corporation, the cairns were reluctantly abandoned - to be replaced by a simple stone tablet, which was unveiled in the High Kirk of St Giles in 1922 and which makes no specific mention of the events of 1916. Since then, they had been thoroughly forgotten. In November 2003 Jack Alexander published McCrae's Battalion, a definitive history of this wonderful unit. The research took him twelve years and involved the tracing of more than a thousand families of Sir George's original volunteers. The book was therefore carved from a self-assembled mountain of letters, diaries, photographs and personal recollections. One element of the story which he 'rescued' (from a biscuit tin!) was the plan for the abandoned memorial: a fourteen-foot high Scottish cairn in the rebuilt village of Contalmaison, complete with a large bronze relief plaque which was intended to record the battalion's sacrifice for generations to come. Just as the book was about to appear, Jack Alexander was invited by Tom Purdie, security manager of Heart of Midlothian, to a meeting at Tynecastle. Tom said that a supporter, Jimmy Paris, had visited the Western Front and noticed that there was no memorial to the Hearts players who had died on the Somme. A small committee had just been formed (independently of the club) to explore the possibility of redressing this omission, and he wondered if Jack would be good enough to explain some of the historical background. He duly went along and subjected Tom and his pals to a bit of a history lesson. Before the meeting closed, they had torn up their plans for a dedicated Hearts memorial and committed themselves instead to helping complete the original 'McCrae's' scheme proposed by the battalion in 1919. The first thing Jack had to do was draw up plans for the principal plaque. The design incorporates images of the period: a Royal Scots cap badge, the Edinburgh crest, the chequerboard sign of 34th. Division, a portrait of Sir George. Adjustments were also made to add two smaller 'supporting' plaques - one to the players and supporters of Heart of Midlothian, the other to the 15th Royal Scots, who served beside McCrae's that morning. These drawings were then converted into clay moulds by the Orkney sculptor, Gary Gibson, who passed them on to the Black Isle .Bronze foundry in Nairn for casting. Jack secured planning permission from the French authorities in only five months, and before they could change their minds, a trio of stonemasons were sent over from Watson Stonecraft (of West Calder, near Edinburgh) with a huge articulated lorry-load .of Elgin sandstone, Caithness slate. and other assorted materials. Foundations had been laid in advance by local builders: the ground was so corrupted by war-time shelling that they were forced to go down an unlikely sixteen feet to find a solid base. Moreover the eventual hole was fourteen feet square - which is a fair old load of concrete. The final stage of construction involved the installation of the plaques just one week before the unveiling ceremony was due to take place. The main party arrived in two large coaches and visited Gordon Dump Cemetery. For most of the 'pilgrims' this was the first time they had set foot in a burial ground of the Great War and as Jack picked out the lads of the 16th and 15th Royal Scots, his companions became noticeably quiet. For the unveiling ceremony they were led by pipers Kenny McBride of Lothian and Borders Police and Alan McIntyre of the Royal Scots. A crowd of nearly 500 was waiting for them. The cairn, draped in its flags, looked magnificent. The unveiling was performed by Sir George's grandsons, George McCrae and Ken Hall. The principal wreaths were laid by families of the battalion, followed by tributes from (among many others) the Great War Memorial Committee, Heart of Midlothian F.C., Hibernian F.C., Edinburgh City Council and the Scottish Executive. Julian Hutchings laid a wreath with his daughter, Charlotte, and his Scottie dog, Stuart. Stuart was attending on behalf of the battalion's Great Dane mascot, Jock, who died near the village in 1916. This was a profoundly moving occasion, characterised by a wonderful sense of comradeship - epitomised by the two official representatives of Hibernian FC cheerfully pushing the ninety-year-old niece of a dead Hearts player two miles uphill in a borrowed wheelchair. The Australians used to call it 'mateship' and it's what made the trenches bearable. It was a weekend of banter, abiding friendships and stunning achievement. They had succeeded in creating one of the finest battalion memorials on the entire Western Front: everyone who is interested in the Great War is now talking about them in admiration and in awe. Moreover, the whole of 34th Division is finally getting the credit it has always deserved for its astonishing tenacity on the first day of the Somme. Contalmaison was unreachable, but they reached it. |
EARLIER CALENDARS
2008 November, December/January 2009.
2009: February, March, April, May, June, July/August, September, October.