The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

Adam Brown

I’d always felt there was a place for a Scottish Merchant Seamen memorial on the Clyde but it looks like there are now plans for one at Leith. Wherever it is, it’s long overdue (anyone in any doubt please read “The Cruel Sea” sometime soon).

The ‘Edinburgh Evening News’ has an article about it today:

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/Trust-plans-tribute-to-lost.6192912.jp

Trust plans tribute to lost merchant seamen

By MARK McLAUGHLIN

WHEN built it will be an iconic national memorial to 6,500 lost merchant seaman – but exactly what it will look like is a closely guarded secret.

The Merchant Navy Memorial Trust has applied for permission to erect "a memorial of national importance" near Tower Place, at The Shore.

All going well, the £100,000 structure will be unveiled in November. However, the Trust has called for "a degree of secrecy and confidentiality" prior to the official publication of the plans and the launch of a public appeal next month to raise the required cash. The memorial is the brainchild of Professor Gordon Milne, 74, a retired company director from Kingsknowe whose family has a long association with the merchant navy.

He said: "The memorial itself will cost £100,000, funded largely by substantial private donations from benefactors who wish to remain anonymous, but we hope to raise around a quarter-of-a-million pounds through our public appeal for various projects associated with memory of the merchant seamen.

"There are precious few memorials to these brave men in Britain. There is the Tower Hill Memorial in London which commemorates the sailors of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets during the wars, and a memorial to the Arctic convoys recently unveiled in the Orkneys, but there is nothing to mark the loss of the 6,500 Scottish merchant seamen who died in the first and second world wars, the Falklands War and other disasters."

The drawings accompanying the plans show a plinth 4.5 metres high with a cloud obscuring the secret bronze statue at the top.

A series of bronze reliefs will also be attached to the plinth, but the nature of these are also secret.

The works are being designed by renowned Edinburgh sculptor Jill Watson who created the red lion above the door of the Queen's Gallery at Holyrood House.

She also recently completed a series of sculptures in the Borders commemorating the 125th anniversary of the 1881 Eyemouth fishing disaster.

The Trust's directors include John Menzies chairman William Thomson, heir to the company that ran Leith's famous Ben Line vessels which lost 18 ships during the Second World War alone. The directors also include Rear Admiral Roger Lockwood, chief executive of the Royal Lighthouse Board and vice-patron for Scotland of the War Memorials Trust.

Does anyone know about the “memorial to the Arctic convoys recently unveiled in the Orkneys”?

Adam

Adam Brown · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:37 pm Post subject:

You can see some photographs of Jill Watson's Eyemouth sculptures here:

http://scottishmonuments.s2.bizhat.com/scottishmonuments-ftopic13.html

Jim says "Jill Watson herself is of fisherman ancestry" so that may have influenced the choice of her being the sculptor for this memorial.

I can't find anything on the web about The Merchant Navy Memorial Trust but their registered office is the solicitors Archibald Campbell & Harley WS, 37 Queen Street, Edinburgh

Thanks

Adam

Adam Brown · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:40 pm Post subject:

See also here:

http://portraitnation.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/our-first-port-of-call/

Thanks

Adam

kinnethmont · Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1649 Location: Aberdeenshire

A great idea, it will complement the existing memorial within The Scottish National War Memorial.

Surely, it requires planning permission ( as implied in the text), so I fail to see how there can be " a secret bronze statue at the top ", etc.
_________________
Jim

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

www.kinnethmont.co.uk

Adam Brown · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 8:42 pm Post subject:

Jim

If they are hoping to have it ready for this November then I would have thought making the plans available as early as possible would have been the thing to do rather than have a veil of secrecy.

Seems strange. It's quite an exciting prospect with Jill Watson involved though.

Regards

Adam

ADP · Joined: 13 Jun 2008 Posts: 467 Location: Edinburgh

Adam Brown · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:43 pm Post subject:

Thanks ADP. I hadn't seen anything in the news about the Orkney memorial.

Regards

Adam

p.s. I edited the posts above and deleted the extra ones.

DelBoy · Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 1:41 am Post subject:

The Statue is to be unveiled on November 16th by the Princess Royal.

http://news.scotsman.com/news/Strong-backing-for-seamen39s-memorial.6549109.jp