Traumatic experience

“I thought perhaps your readers would be interested in the Carmyllie Heritage meeting when the theme was Aspects of the First World War,” says chairperson Anne Law.

“The Rev Brian Dingwall enthralled us with various aspects of the First World War. For example, from the start, the British were at a disadvantage as the trenches were built on the flat whereas the German trenches were on a slope with better drainage.

“The mud that accumulated not only caused chronic disease but reduced movement, some drowning, some sinking revealing previous dead bodies.

“Inefficient hand grenades were a danger to soldiers before reaching the enemy. On return there was little help to those who survived the traumatic experience.

“In Carmyllie parish alone, 128 men left to serve in the war with 30 fatally wounded. Out of the hundred survivors many did not return as work in the quarries had ceased and Panmure estate sold farms and small holdings to private owners.”