Sacrifices of nine finally honoured

FOR 106 years, their sacrifice has gone unrecognised on the cenotaph in the community they would never see again.

But nine Brechiners are finally to be honoured on the town’s war memorial.

Their inclusion on the monument is the result of former Royal Marine Steve Nicoll’s determination to “right the wrongs of the past” for those whose names were missed.

Mr Nicoll, a retired major, has researched the headstones of Brechin cemetery to match names with those on the war memorial and uncover those who were not honoured.

“My survey identified nine names of Brechin war dead named on family headstones that I’ve corroborated with details from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database and Scotland’s People,” he said.

“We should right the wrongs of the past, but given the way things were recorded back then, it is inevitable that some would fall between the cracks and not be recorded on the war memorial.

“But we now know that they will be honoured – as they deserve to be. And my hope is that we can have those names in place by this year’s remembrance commemoration.

“If there are family members still around, they will be able to attend the remembrance and see these names on the memorial for the first time.”