Pete Wishart
SNP MP FOR PERTH & PERTHSHIRE NORTH Repairs cash for war memorials
this weekend and the run up to it has seen the usual range of remembrance events commemorating the war dead.
particularly of the First and second World Wars, but in other conflicts too.
I would like to be able to attend them all but that is simply logistically impossible and I am grateful to Bob Ellis for having laid a wreath on my behalf at the Blairgowrie remembrance service.
the first service I attended this year was at the polish Cemetery in perth.
Many people are unaware of the close ties between perthshire and the polish army but they are very important indeed.
In 1940, after the fall of France, the remnants of the polish army were evacuated first to ports in England and then onwards to scotland.
the reformed polish army was given the task of defending the east coast of scotland against the threat of invasion by Nazi germany and in perth, at the Jeanfield and Wellshill cemetery, there is the largest number of polish war graves in scotland.
A special section in the cemetery has 381 polish war graves and it was my honour to join with veterans and representatives of the polish community at the memorial there.
the sheer scale of casualties in those two world wars is staggering and no wonder that so many local communities sought to commemorate that loss by commissioning and erecting memorials in memory of the fallen.
As we approach the centenary of the end of the First World War many of those memorials are starting to show their age so I was really pleased when the Centenary Memorials restoration Fund (CMrF) – a £1 million fund – was launched by then First Minister Alex salmond in 2013, to help communities across scotland undertake necessary repair and conservation work on local war memorials.
the fund forms a central part of the scottish government’s commemorations of the centenary of the First World War.
Funding was announced this week ahead of remembrance sunday for a number of memorials across scotland – in Fife, perthshire, the Western Isles, East Lothian and the Highlands – bringing the total number of beneficiaries to 95.
Many more projects are set to benefit from the fund between now and March 2018.
our local war memorials are a mark of history and a tribute to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
While so many communities take great care of local memorials, upkeep can be expensive – and it is a real shame when these memorials are visibly in need of repair.
It would be great if as many repair projects as possible could be completed in time for the centenary of Armistice Day in 2018.
l would encourage all communities with a memorial in need of a bit of tLC to get in touch with the War Memorials trust if they haven’t already done so.