Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Memorial launched for gamekeepers and gillies
The Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust (GWT) has used All Souls Day to launch its Memory Tree. The Memory Tree is an online space to allow friends and family to preserve the memory of gamekeepers, stalkers and gillies who have died.
Gamekeepers do not have a national memorial anywhere in the UK to give a focal point for the collective mourning of the community when a member dies, and so the Memory Tree will serve that purpose.
Collective memorials to the dead extend back at least 4,000 years, with Syria’s white tower the oldest proven example, and almost all towns and villages in the UK feature a war memorial to act as a focus of remembrance.
The GWT’S chief executive Helen Benson said: “The Memory Tree is an important part of the way we as a community can remember and pay respect to those who are no longer with us.”
Anyone wishing to have a friend or family member added to the Memory Tree should contact the GWT.