Memorials honour war dead who never came home

They are the men from RAF Montrose who died in the service of their country and lie buried far from home.

Their number includes Lieutenant Desmond Arthur from the Royal Flying Corps, who perished on the morning of May 27 1913 at the age of 29, after a routine training flight from Upper Dysart to Lunan Bay went tragically wrong.

Another is Captain Angus Mearns, shot down by the feared German flight ace Manfred von Richthofen – the Red Baron.

Graham MacIntosh and Lynn Johnson from Mo n t r o s e Air Station Heritage Centre have been working on a new project in Sleepyhillock Cemetery to discover and clean gravestones that bear these men’s names.

The condition of many of the old memorials in Sleepyhillock makes it difficult to read the inscriptions but so far they have discovered more than 90 such gravestones.

The project started after Graham and Lynn worked to restore the grave of a young pilot whose ghost is said to haunt the former air base.

Dr Dan Paton, historian of Montrose Air Station and Heritage Museum, said Lt Arthur’s lonely grave stands far away from the rows of Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstones that mark the graves of other men who were killed in flying training at RFC/RAF Montrose.

Because the accident happened before the First World War, and before the CWGC was formed, it is not within the remit of its staff who look after the 150 military graves in Montrose.

Wo r k i n g in the old cemeter y, Graham and Lynn discovered some gravestones, in addition to the names of family members who were buried there, bore the names of brothers and sons who had been killed in Belgium and France during the First World War.

These men are not buried there but their families put their names on the memorial stone so they can be remembered in Montrose.

Several have fixed to the stone the bronze memorial plaque presented to the families of all those killed in the war, commonly known as Dead Men’s Pennies.

One of them was Capt Mearns, 22, from Montrose who had transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.

He was flying as observer to Captain Norman George McNaughton, 27, from London, in a DH4 two-seat light bomber A7473 of 57 Squadron, on an operation between Keibergmolen in Beselare, Belgium, and

Lichtensteinlager, on June 24 1917, when they were attacked by von Richthofen in his all-red Albatross DV.

No name struck more fear into the hearts of Allied airmen than the Red Baron.

At the outbreak of war, Mearns was a student at St Andrews University.

He had joined the university officer training corps in 1913.

He was commissioned into the 11th Battalion of The Black Watch and was then posted to the 9 th (Service) B a tt a l i o n in March 1916, where he remained until he was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in March 1917.

Dr Pa t o n said Capt Me a r n s and his pilot became the Red Baron’s 55th conquest.

Capt Me a r n s ’ sister Blanche, an English teacher at Montrose Academy, made great e ff o r t s to commemorate her brother.

The gold dome, which is such a prominent feature of the 1815 school building, was gilded at her expense in memory of his sacrifice.

“The project to restore Lt Arthur’s grave suddenly became much bigger and Graham and Lynn are going to be working in Sleepyhillock for some time,” added Dr Paton.

“Desmond Arthur lies in splendid isolation but he is not alone in Sleepyhillock.

“There are 150 war graves in Montrose cemeteries and not far away are the graves of aviators like himself, casualties of flying accidents at Montrose from both world wars.

“At this time of year we see images of the vast cemeteries in Fr a n c e where, laid out with military precision, lie the dead of two world wars, each grave marked by an identical headstone, in plots where privates lie next to generals.

“This was the policy adopted by the Commonwealth Wa r Graves Commission, formed in May 1917, and given the task of organising the burial of British and Commonwealth dead.

“Today their work is universally admired but at the time it was difficult and controversial.

“After the First World War, over half a million corpses had to be dug up and reinterred in the new cemeteries, often against the wishes of families who wanted the bodies of their loved ones brought home for burial or to have their choice of headstone.

“Christians wanted crosses on the graves.

“Traditionalists were unhappy about officers lying next to other ranks.”

Dr Paton said the work of the commission is there to be seen in many Angus cemeteries where the plots with the familiar simple

Po r t l a n d stone grave markers are well maintained by teams from the CWGC.

He said: “Many of the dead buried here were aviators like Desmond Arthur but not all local casualties are buried here.

“Unlike the families of men who died overseas, the families of men killed in Britain had a choice.

“Their loved one could be buried with full military honours in a cemetery close to where he died or they could opt for the body, under escort, to be brought home for burial in the family plot with the headstone of their choice.

“Not surprisingly, many families chose this option so men and coffins, escorted by men in their best blue, were a frequent sight at Montrose Railway Station.

“Our cemeteries have interesting stories to tell and they are important in the history of our communities.”

Desmond Arthur lies in splendid isolation but he is not alone in Sleepyhillock