Remembering Mull’s fallen
Hundreds of people are expected to pack Tobermory’s Ledaig Car Park on Saturday to take part in Mull Remembers.
This will be the event’s second year in which islanders and visitors of all ages have gathered to pay their respects.
It starts at 7pm on November 9 and will see pictures of Mull people who went to war being projected on the wall of the harbour building as part of the emotional evening.
Pupils from Tobermory High School will take the lead and it will also feature their pipe band. Ex-marine commando AJ Mcleod will read war poem The Fallen and at the end of each verse the phrase We Shall Remember Them will be read in seven different languages, including Gaelic and Italian, paying tribute to all the fallen.
The high school choir and Còisir òg Mhuile, the young gaelic choir from Tobermory and Salen primary schools, will also be singing.
And retired teacher Jack Degnan will be paying a special tribute to former Bunessan primary and Oban High School pupil, Private Robbie McLaren, marking 10 years since his death serving with The Black Watch, 3rd battalion of The Royal Regiment of Scotland in Helmand.
Private McLaren was killed on June 11, 2009, by an improvised device as he charged forward to support his ‘imperilled’ colleagues.
There is a plaque remembering Private McLaren at
Oban High School and also one for Royal Marine Gordon MacPherson from Oban who was killed in the Falklands Conflict 37 years ago – they both died before their 21st birthdays.
A member of Tobermory’s young firefighters scheme will also give a reading and Holly MacLean will be singing Going Home, accompanied by a piper.
The event, expected to last around 40 minutes, will end with a two-minute silence and the Last Post.
Aros Hall will be open after for teas and coffees.
Councillor for Oban South and the Isles Mary-Jean Devon said: ‘Last year we had 300 people; this year will be another emotional evening. It will be a multi-cultural and interfaith event for all the community. Everyone is welcome.’
Tobermory’s Dad’s Army will also be remembering fallen heros out at sea this weekend.
The volunteers who fundraise for Poppyscotland and veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress will be casting a poppy wreath into the waves from CalMac’s Kilchoan ferry on Saturday in memory of the Atlantic convoys that left Tobermory during the Second World War.
For the first time, the public is being invited to join in the ceremony.
In previous years the town’s lifeboat and tourist boats have helped with the honours but space has been limited.
The sea-bound ceremony was started 20 years ago by Colonel Ken Walker, now 90.
He said: ‘We are very grateful to CalMac which is helping us this year.
‘If people would like to join us, they would be very welcome,’ said Col Walker, who, along with other volunteers, has been selling poppies for Poppyscotland in Tobermory’s main street this week.
MV Loch Linnhe will leave Tobermory at 1pm. CalMac is supporting the group with a free passage to lay the wreath mid channel, said a CalMac spokesman.