Hugh Smith’s letter from Islay
Royal presence at commemoration
THE PRINCESS Royal will be joined by dignitaries and several hundred invited guests tomorrow morning (Friday May 4) at the First World War centennial commemoration at the Port Ellen war memorial.
The ceremony will honour the close-on 700 US servicemen, along with British crew members, who lost their lives when the troopships Tuscania and Otranto sank off Islay’s shores in the closing months of the 1914-18 war.
Also honoured will be the 200-plus Ilich who were wounded or killed in the carnage of the trenches.
Islanders who rescued survivors and had the gruesome task of recovering the bodies will also be remembered. Gratitude will also be expressed for the hospitality extended to the survivors and for the dignified way in which the burials were carried out.
The ceremony begins at noon and will be preceded by the parade of state flags, created by members of the Islay Quilters, and carried high to the monument site by children from all the island schools.
Among the VIPs in attendance will be Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, David Mundell, Secretary of State for Scotland, and Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs.
They will be joined by Woody Johnson, the United States Ambassador to the UK, and by Emmanuel Cocher the Consul General of France in Scotland. Also in attendance will be the acting ambassador of Germany and the Consul General of Germany in Scotland. Local MPs and Argyll and Bute officials and councillors will be among the many other groups represented.
The commemoration devotions will be conducted by the Rev Valerie Watson, minister of the North and West Church of Scotland, and prayers will also be offered by the Very Rev Dr Derek Browning, current Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
The Ella Edgar Dancers will perform an interpretive dance, Mòd Gold Medallist Alasdair Currie’s song choice will suit the occasion, as will a reading by local GP Dr Angus MacTaggart.
Following the ceremony, everyone will make their way to the Ramsay Hall for refreshments and a closer look at the flags and other art works pertaining to the event.
The commemoration begins at 8am with a service at the American War Memorial at the Mull of Oa, overlooking the sea area where the Tuscania was sunk by a German U-boat. The band of the Royal Marines will beat the retreat at 4pm.
Tonight, Thursday, at Bowmore village square at 6.30pm, The Story of Islay’s War, written by Les Wilson and Stuart Graham, will be told through narrative, song and dance by local Gaelic choirs, community pipers and the tireless Ella Edgar dancers. Also tonight in Bowmore village hall at 8pm, five-piece bluegrass band The Coal Porters, whose extensive repertoire includes music from the Appalachian mountains area of the USA, will perform.
This is fitting as a number of the servicemen lost in the sinking of the Tuscania and Otranto hailed from this region.
Islay songs pertaining to the First World War will be performed by Ballygrant songstress Libby Morrison and Kilmeny Mòd Gold Medallist Alasdair Currie. Giving the bluegrass boys the opportunity to draw breath will be Campbeltown fiddler Archie MacAllister.
This event has been organised by Islay Arts Association, with support from Lagavulin Legacy Fund and the Mactaggart Third Fund.
The programme compere is BBC political broadcaster Glenn Campbell, very much ‘one of our own’.