Memorials are poignant reminder of city’s history

Last week I went to visit Major Crum’s house … no not the character from Wallace and Gromit but a former officer who was instrumental in developing a systematic approach to sniping during World War 1 and also a major figure in the development of Scouting round Stirling.

Major Crum also founded the wonderful Boys Club up the town.

This was meant to be a joint base for both the Scouts and their rivals, the Boys Brigade.

You know the building, the one with all the mottos on it?

It’s difficult now to imagine just how involved the military were in the 19 th and early 20 th century Stirling. The Castle was the active base of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and retired soldiers filled the town. At the same time because of the rail connections to Glasgow, Stirling was a fashionable place to stay.

This means that a walk through any cemetery in the town and in particular the Top o’the Town is like reading a history of the Victorian Empire. The Crimean Campaign, the‘indian Mutiny’and the Boer Wars all feature across the many veterans commemorated in its graves.

One of the most poignant memorials (pictured) are for two brothers Robert and John Henderson (their bodies were never recovered) with Bridge of Allan connections, officers of the East India Company’s‘native’ Infantry in India who simply vanished following the Siege of Cawnpour in 1857, which was a key event in what the Indians now call the First War of Indian Independence. A later account, published after the memorial was erected, suggests the two brothers escaped but died before reaching safety.

It is now clear that both sides committed atrocities in this bloody campaign but perhaps we have to ask why a British private army was there in the first place?