Remember Mabel

I was intrigued to read George Mair’s article in Saturday’s Scotsman regarding Annie Campbell Reid, who is believed to be the only woman named on a Scottish war memorial (3 November).

Here in St Matthew’s Church in Perth, we also have a woman honoured on one of our First World War memorials. The memorial came to us from the Perth Wilson UF Church, which amalgamated with our church (the then West Church) and two other Perth churches (Middle Church and Bridgend Church) in 1965 to become the current St Matthew’s Church.

The woman honoured is Mabel Lee Milne. She was a Sister in the Territorial Force Nursing Service. She was working in a field hospital in Saint-omer in France when it was bombed. She was killed on 2 October 1917 and is buried in Longuenesse Souvenir Cemetery, South of Calais.

Mabel was 31 when she died and was the daughter of James and Mary Milne, who lived in Craigie Road, Perth at that time.

The background informationonmabelmilnecametous courtesy of the pupils of Perth Academy and their retired teacher Dave Dykes, who had researched the names on their school war memorial and discovered that many of them were also on the St Matthew’s Church memorials.

We are now working with the pupils to create a special tribute to all the servicemen and women killed in the Great War which will be held in our church on 13 November, as well as some lunchtime talks each day this week.

The Perth Academy pupils have created a unique “Walk of Remembrance and Gratitude” through Perth from the Old Academy building in the centre of town to the current

building in Viewlands. It features photographs and information of the lost servicemen (placed in shop windows and on lamp posts on the route) and is a very moving tribute from today’s young people, who were horrified to discover that many of the names they researched were of the same age or not much older than themselves when they lost their lives.

JANET MARTIN Ardchoille Gardens, Perth