The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

Adam Brown

Yesterday Spoons posted some photographs of Balmaclellan's Crimean War memorial on the forum.

http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?p=6200&highlight=#6200

I had never seen a Crimean civic memorial before and I don't know if this is the earliest example in Scotland of a community remembering it's war dead.

There were memorials to regiments and officers erected before this one but if this is the first of it's kind in Scotland it deserves wider recognition. It may even be the first in the UK?

It would be interesting to know why Balmaclellan was 45 years ahead of the rest of the country in erecting a civic war memorial.

The UKNIWM entry gives no clues

http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/conMemorial.44345/fromUkniwmSearch/1

Adam

spoons · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:46 pm Post subject:

Merely a conjecture, but Balmaclellan was the home of 'Old Mortality' (Robert Paterson) who was famed for his work on the Covenanter Memorials. Balmaclellan churchyard also contains a statue to Old Mortality, although it was originally situated around the corner. This statue was carved by John Corrie (or Currie) in 1840, so in 1855 (Crimea) the creation of memorials would be very much to the fore locally and it would be my starting guess that the same John Corrie was responsible for the Crimea memorial.
In my posting of the statue of Old Mortality, you can just see the tip of the Crimea memorial above the statues. I think Old Mortality would have approved.