The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

David McNay · Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:58 pm Post subject:

Excellent result Paul, well done to everyone concerned.

Adam Brown · Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:46 pm Post subject:

It's good to see the Forestry Commission going to this effort. I'm glad to see signs will be going up too.

Great result.

Adam

dhubthaigh · Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:48 pm Post subject:

A very commendable effort by everyone concerned, well done.

Mark

spoons · Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 3:43 pm Post subject:

A local man, Robin Hood from the charity Southwest RnR has put an appeal in the local paper for info about this man. He hopes to hold a commemoration at the memorial later this year to feature soldiers who have been injured in service, for example in Afghanistan, as part of their rehabilitation and they will also be involved in cleaning the memorial.

I have given both him and the local papers a lot of info about the man himself.

Incidentally, John Murray was 6 feet and 1.5 inches tall which was considerable back in the day so he would have really stood out in a crowd.

\Paul

spoons · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:30 am Post subject:

The memorial service took place and the following article was published in the Glenkens Gazette Oct/Nov 2014 edition.

stuartn · Joined: 13 Dec 2016 Posts: 2529

This is now WMR, ex UKNIWM, memorial 58339

spoons · Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2021 1:18 pm Post subject:

A member of my writing group (Gordon Hill) wrote the following and has given permission to share it on this site. There are many ways to remember the war dead. Thank you Gordon.

Armistice Day, New Galloway. Join me on a bicycle to go to a peaceful spot and quietly recall the dreadful events that today remembers.
“Here’s the golf club, respectfully silent, we’re going south, now leaving the settlement, it’s a quiet road, just the birds and the unruffled surface of the loch to our left. Mind the wet road today, at least the incessant rain of the night has stopped and it’s not far to go…... Here’s the place. We’ll stop here, put the bikes off the road and work our way gently up the hill here on this just discernable path. Mind the puddles and mud and watch out for the overhanging branches.”
We leave the road well behind and find a tiny piece of white cloth tied round a twig that directs us off the path and there it is, the monument to John Murray of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, killed in action, West Flanders August 1917 age 19. Two minutes to go. We’re on our own. We don’t have to do anything, just silently appreciate the quiet and read the inscription on the monument:

His battle is fought and his march it is ended.
The sound of the bagpipe shall wake him no more.