A poignant reminder of an Alyth man at Waterloo

Graveyards are not everyone’s cup of tea. A necropolis, however welltended, can seem just too big, too full of mourning, memorials and melancholy, at least for my taste. But in the shadow of an old church it can be a different experience – beautiful and peaceful.

It’s something to do with being undisturbed. There are not so many places like that in what planners call the “built environment”. Modernity sweeps over all.

However, not over St Ninian’s Church in Alyth. I went there on a cold May afternoon, killing time. You can do that in a churchyard. All around are reminders of the random shortness of life. And of an acceptance that this is our natural state.

In a corner, under a spreading copper beech, lies a simple slab of pink marble. The inscription seemed longer than usual, so I puzzled through the grime and verdigris-like smudge to make out the weathered letters.

Passers-by (not many I would guess) learn that it is the last resting place of Captain The Honourable William Ogilvy of Loyal. Unusually, there is a resume of his career: He entered the 52nd Regiment of Foot, was engaged at the storming of Badajoz, in the battles of Talavera, Vitoria, Fuentes De Onoro and Toulouse. He also served at Waterloo, where his regiment “was one of those that repulsed the Imperial Guard”.

There will be a lot said about that horrendous, gallant engagement during the bicentenary this week. Who remembers that one of the actors in that drama lies besides the flaking red sandstone church in Airlie Street?

However, that is not the end of the story because the inscription continues: “He has left behind him the memory of a brave soldier, a good neighbour, a kind landlord and a Christian gentleman.” If it were not for the memorial stone, who would have the chance to know of this man, outside his family?

We hear so much of the brutality of war and of its brutalising effect. Accounts of the carnage at Waterloo spare us nothing. Yet here was one soldier who was apparently not embittered, nor made unmindful of his peaceable duty to others.

Will someone lay flowers on his grave today? I would like to think so.

Will someone lay flowers on his grave today? I’d like to think so

Dudley Treffry