Grandson takes on Islay war grave duties
Ahead of Remembrance Day today (Friday), the UK commission that honours the graves of 1.7 million soldiers who died in both world wars has thanked a young man on Islay, who has taken over the upkeep of Kilnaughton Military Cemetery from his grandfather.
For more than 20 years, Kilnaughton Military Cemetery was tended by John Macallister, a retired bus driver from Port Ellen.
But when John grew too old to look after it, his grandson asked the Commonwealth War Graves Commission if he could take it over.
‘I felt it would be nice to take it on after him,’ said Andrew Wright, a 27-year-old property manager who lives down the road from the cemetery and his ‘papa’.
‘I used to go down when I was a wee boy, messing about in the sand dunes, walking the dog. It is a nice thing to do for the war graves.’
Kilnaughton Military Cemetery was created in 1918 to bury the dead of the SS Tuscania.
On February 5 that year, the British ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat just off the Mull of Oa while transporting American troops to Europe.
Around 210 US servicemen and British crew members lost their lives.
Four Commonwealth crewmen from the SS Tuscania are now buried at Kilnaughton trimmers J Logan and Charles Mullen, steward G Simpson, and fireman H Stewart – alongside one American soldier, Private Roy Muncaster, and one unidentified burial, also lost in the SS Tuscania. Eighty-four American graves, mainly of the 20th Engineers, who were passengers on the SS Tuscania, were later removed.
There are a further five Commonwealth burials in Kilnaughton from the 19391945 war: flight lieutenants John Victor Tree and Gilbert Lloyd Holloway, sergeant Thomas Jamieson, able seaman Alfred Mark Rosoman and assistant steward Alfred W Imhofe.
The last two were sailors from the HMS Corncrake, a Royal Navy minelaying converted trawler which foundered in the North Atlantic in heavy weather on January 25, 1943.
This will be Andrew’s third year tending their graves. ‘It is quite a basic job,’ he said.
‘It is cutting the grass, keeping it tidy. I go down every two to three weeks, just making sure there are no rabbits.
‘The season for grass cutting seems to be getting longer every year.
‘It seems to be getting warmer and warmer every summer. I may be grass cutting in November next year.
‘It is nice to be part of it all,’ he concluded.