Village tribute to its WW1 heroes
Sacrifice made is marked
Headstones have been erected for two Gartmore men who died in the First World War.
Pte James Cameron, Second Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers, died on June 13, 1917, aged 34, and Archibald Graham, First Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, was 24 when he died on June 16, 1918.
They were buried at Gartmore but were not commemorated as war dead because the Commonweath War Graves Commission was not informed of their deaths.
Thanks to the In From the Cold Project, which researches and identifies servicemen and women missing from the official list of casualties from the First and Second World Wars, the commission has been able to rectify this and both men have been properly honoured for the sacrifices they made.
In a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the erection of the headstones at Gartmore Church Yard children from the village’s primary school laid poppies on the men’s graves.
Pte Cameron enlisted with the KOSB in May 1904 and was sent with his regiment to France in August 1914. In February 1915 he was returned to Scotland, possibly as a prisoner of war with other exchanged wounded, and died at Gartmore Lodge, the home of his sister and brother-in-law.
Pte Graham had been gassed early on in the war while serving in France. When he returned home due to illness the War Office made an application for sanatorium treatment for tuberculosis for him. He died as a result of the gassing at Stonefield, Port of Menteith, his sister’s home.
CWGC’s regional supervisor for Scotland Iain Anderson said: “It is always an honour to be able to remember those who served and died with a commission headstone and for their names to be added to the Roll of Honour.
“In Scotland alone we have more than 20,000 war graves and memorials and now Archibald and James will be recognised for their sacrifice in WW1.
“I know it also means a lot to some of our staff who installed the headstones, as they are former service personnel who served in the same regiments as these men.”
“Many service personnel from both world wars who are buried in the UK came back during active service and died of their injuries or illness.”
It is always an honour to be able to remember those who served and died