Memorial for those who made ultimate sacrifice
The huge crowds look on as Colonel J R Gray Buchanan leads the ceremony on Sunday, October 16, 1924.
He had lost two sons in the war, and many of the people standing around the Cenotaph never saw their loved ones again either.
Four years earlier, the council agreed to have a commemorative memorial erected in Rutherglen with the names of the area’s 545 soldiers who had died in the war.
The final design for the memorial was an obelisk holding a bronze figure of Courage, which was sculpted by George Henry Paulin.
It was erected at the head of Main Street at the spot where the Main Street and Old Rutherglen Road divided.
After Colonel Buchanan unveiled the memorial to those who had fallen, there was a one-minute silence and a prayer of dedication was offered. The Last Post then sounded, the pipers played The Flowers of the Forest and the bugler sounded Reveille.
Along with the names of the Rutherglen men who had lost their lives, the memorial bears the inscription “In Honoured Remembrance of the Men of Rutherglen who fell in the Great War 1914-1918”. Later, 1939-1945 was inscribed beneath those dates to commemorate those who lost their lives in World War II.
Another memorial stands in Rutherglen Cemetery, which features a cross and the Sword of Remembrance. It was also constructed in the 1920s and features an inscription, although no names are included on it.