True colours Veterans head to London for march
SCOTTISH veterans will travel to London for the annual Remembrance Sunday Cenotaph March to make 100 years since the end of the First World War.
A total of 12 former soldiers, who all have visual impairments, will make the journey to join thousands of fellow veterans honour those who suffered or were injured in battle.
The group is being supported by Scottish War Blinded, who will take part in the event for the first time.
The majority of the group, who are aged between 35 and 90-years-old, regularly attend the Hawkhead Centre.
Jim Stevenson, from Cumbernauld, who served in the Royal Highland Fusiliers, will take part in the march. His sight loss began five years ago as a result of macular degeneration.
The 71-year-old said: “The sacrifices people made should never be forgotten. From a personal perspective, I was part of the Royal Highland Fusiliers – formed from The Highland Light Infantry, which lost many in the war, and The Royal Scots Fusiliers.
“I think the march is something I’ve always been interested in. I just want to be able to say I’ve experienced it. It’s hard to put into words.
“I’ll be going down to London with friends from the Hawkhead Centre. It’s the same camaraderie as it was in the Forces. That’s what the centre about for me.”
Gillian McDonald, the Hawkhead Centre’s deputy centre manager, will accompany the veterans in the march along with four other Scottish War Blinded staff members.
She added: “This means so much to everyone at Scottish War Blinded, especially with this being the centenary year. The veterans are so looking forward to it.
“With sight loss and health difficulties it’s going to be challenging, but they are so determined to take part, and it shows how important this is to them.
“Scottish War Blinded will support the veterans to participate in this important day.” is BY PHIL MILLER
THE artist describes them as portraits of extraordinary, but ordinary, people.
These are the new portraits of soldiers – of all ranks, sitting in the artist’s red studio chair, or in their own homes – that Tom McKendrick hopes will give the public a new insight into the men and women of the British Army.
Soldiers, a new free exhibition to open at Clydebank Museum and Art Gallery on November 6 and running to January 12 next year, features dozens of portraits of servicemen and women.
The exhibition, Mr McKendrick said, was conceived in 2012 to commemorate the hundred years since the end of the First World War.
The portraits he has created over six years range from a 100-year-old veteran of Dunkirk to a 13-year-old sea cadet. Many are shown with the results of their physical injuries.
It includes injured soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, a dog handler and a female medic.
The artist, who trained at Glasgow School of Art and travelled widely to capture the portraits, has also portrayed details not often seen in military portraits.
Dog handler Mick McConnell is pictured with his two dogs, for example, and Sub-Lieutenant Michelle Ping with daughter Ellena Rae on her knee.
The artist said he had been keen to avoid creating traditional military portraits, which tend to feature generals and other high ranking officers. The majority of those shown are in lower ranks.
He also interviewed each of them, and tells their stories in text which accompanies the exhibition.
Tom said: “I had been thinking about World War One, and the soldiers from that war are dead, but many of the soldiers I spoke to, they had family members who had fought in the war, like surgeons and teachers. Being in the army seems to run in families.
“The basic idea, really, of mine was that army portraits tend to be of the high-rankers, the upper crust of the army
“But I really wanted to keep this to normal people, to make portraits of them and see what they had to say about being the army, for themselves.”
He believes that British Army representatives were nervous about the project. Tom said: “I personally didn’t have any bias or prejudgement on what I would find.
“What I found was some outstanding, but very ordinary, people.”
The artist created the portraits on paper with mixed media, using acrylics and pastels as well as some watercolours – he is a member of the Royal Society of Watercolourists – and oil.
The exhibition includes an image of Corporal David Timmins, QGM, who lost an eye and suffered multiple injuries in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2009.
Of Corporal David Timmins, McKendrick writes in the book that accompanies the show: “Corporal Timmins’ story is indeed many stories.
“Among them, the extraordinary