The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

jamiemcginlay · Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 930 Location: Glasgow

Hillside - Angus District
The Hillside war memorial is a tapering cairn of rough freestone with the roll of honour listed on grey granite tablets set into the sides. A very unusual feature is that the memorial is surmounted by a trench mortar (apparently its a British 3 inch Stokes Mortar, a weapon introduced in the latter part of the Great War). The memorial was designed by Montrose sculptor Willie Lamb. Lamb's hand was shattered by a piece of shrapnel while serving with the Cameron Highlanders on the Western Front. He never recovered the use of his fingers and had to learn to use his left hand while recouperating in Aberdeen after the war. The fact he reportedly designed and carved the memorials 'single-handedly' at Hillside and also at Farnell is in itself a remarkable feat.
The Montrose Review of 21st May 1920 carried an article about Lamb's design for the Hillside war memorial.
" The Memorial consists of a massive structure of freestone, with a panel of red unpolished granite in the centre. The measurements are eleven feet high, and six feet square at the base. The work of executing the memorial is in the hands of Mr. William Lamb, sculptor, Montrose, who has already completed its design. Mr. Lamb, it is interesting to note, saw service with the Cameron Highlanders and was twice wounded. The memorial is to be erected in the centre of the village at the prominent point at the join of two of the main roads."

If Lamb was actually responsible for the placing of the mortar on top of the memorial then its interesting to ask why. Lamb had experienced trench warfare at first hand, he was a veteran and yet at the same time he was still a young man when he came home and was not yet an established artist or part of the establishment (he never really became part of the establishment). It might be useful to consider what he could have placed at the top of such a memorial, most were crowned with bronze 'Victories', and even if a bronze or stone contemporary soldier was portrayed these often tended to be rather idealized figures. Lamb apparently rejected this in favour of a machine, a symbol of the mechanised, industrial warfare he knew. Its perhaps the kind of 'In Your Face' concept you might expect from an up and coming young artist and is even reminiscent of Sassoons' poem 'The Blighters'. The Edwardian sculptor Henry Snell Gamley was responsible for the sculpture on the war memorial in Lamb's native Montrose and he executed the more traditional figure of a winged victory for the top of the Montrose pedestal. It is interesting to compare the two monuments, Lamb's Hillside and Gamley's Montrose(see above and below) which are only a few miles from one another and are roughly similar in their general design. Although it has to be remembered that all war memorials regardless of design naturally and rightly become objects of respect and affection within their communities it is hard not to feel that Lamb's approach at Hillside has an honesty about it. Certainly the two monuments seem to reveal a considerable generation gap between the wounded ex-veteran and the elderly gentleman sculptor, a gap which was to be found throughout Scottish society in the post war years. One further interesting question which might be asked is why a mortar? A piece of heavy artillery might seem more impressive and the machine gun would more aptly encapsulate the reality of modern trench warfare. If Lamb was responding to Gamley's Montrose memorial then it might just be possible that he chose the mortar for a specific reason. In ancient Greece a victory was traditionally commemorated not by a winged allegorcial figure like Gamley's but by a bronze tripod. Victors of games often set up their tripods on pedestals in the streets of Athens and there were so many that these are referred to as 'Street Tripods'. What is interesting about the mortar is that the legs on which the barrel stands form a perfect tripod. If this was Lamb's idea then he succeeded in creating a monument which was at once contemporary, portraying the realities of the war in a way that Gamley's does not, and also classical in a purer and more historically accurate way than Gamley's 'Victory'.
(unfortunately I don't have exact dates for these two memorials, Montrose was constructed in 1920 but was not completed till 1924, while Lamb started Hillside in 1920, but if the Montrose memorial pre-dates the Hillside monument then perhaps the Hillside memorial might even be Lamb's perssonal response to the Montrose monument and others like it?). Then again perhaps it wasn't Lamb who was responsible for the idea, maybe there was a mortar lying around and someone had a good idea what to do with it! Even if Lamb was making a statement he would hardly have explained this to the war memorial committee which would almost certainly have rejected the idea. Unfortunately there is so little information on many war memorials that this kind of conjecture is inevitable.

Note that the very first name on the memorial is an F.T. Rennie Tailyour listed as killed in 1914 in the WWI roll of honour, and the last name an A. Rennie Tailyour listed as killed in the Korean War.

Photo taken 1991

WWI ROLL OF HONOUR:
Tailyour F.T. Renny Died 1914
Dickson A.J. Died 1914
Stewart R. Died 1915
Ross W. Died 1915
Mowat G. Died 1916
Stewart J. Died 1916
Milne A. Died 1916
Milne H. Died 1916
Gage W.J. Died 1917
Shields D. Died 1917
Brown W.M. Died 1917
Dalgetty J. Died 1917
Mitchell F. Died 1917
Wright J. Died 1917
Bell R. Died 1918
May A. Died 1918
MacIntosh A. Died 1918
Murray J.C. Died 1918
Milne W. Died 1918
Shields E. Died 1919
Milne E.R. Died 1919

WWII ROLL OF HONOUR:
Brown A.
Coleman F.L.
Currie J.
Durward J.
Fenton W.
Gove R.G.
Gove W.
Pert W.
Simpson G.

KOREAN WAR:
Tailyour A. Renny

Adam Brown · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:55 pm Post subject:

A mortar! How unusual. Maybe it's German?

Adam

jamiemcginlay · Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 930 Location: Glasgow

I'm sure there were some posting about this on The Great War Forum last year Adam.

Adam Brown · Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:57 am Post subject:

From UKNIWM database Ref no: 5666

Plaque in St Mary and St Peter's Church, Montrose:

TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN LOVING MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT ALEXANDER RENNY-TAILYOUR
THE BLACK WATCH (RHR)
BORN 23RD JANUARY 1929
KILLED IN ACTION IN KOREA 25TH JULY 1952
BURIED IN THE UNITED NATIONS CEMETERY AT PUSAN

Adam

dhubthaigh · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:12 pm Post subject:

dhubthaigh · Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:28 pm Post subject:

Name: RENNY-TAILYOUR, HENRY FREDERICK THORNTON
Initials: H F T
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Second Lieutenant
Regiment/Service: Royal Engineers
Date of Death: 11/11/1914
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 9.
Memorial: YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL

2nd Lieut., 5th Field Company, Royal Engineers, yst. s. of Colonel Henry Waugh Renny-Tailyour, of Borrowfield, Forfarshire, and Shrewsbury House, Dublin, J.P., late R.E., by his wife, Emily Rose, dau. of John Wingfield Stratford, of Addington Park, West Malling, Kent; b. Hornebush, Sydney, New South Wales, 31 July, 1891; educ. Arnold House, Llanddulas, and Rugby; gazetted 2nd Lieut. to the Royal Engineers, 20 Dec. 1912; went to France with the 5th Field Coy. R.E. 2nd Division, 1st Army Corps, 15 Aug. 1914; was wounded at the Battle of the Aisne, 14 Sept., but did not leave duty, and was killed in action at Ypres, 11 Nov. 1914, while leading his section against the Prussian Guards; unm. He was mentioned in F.M. Sir John (now Lord) French's Despatch of 14 Jan. 1915, for gallant and distinguished service in the field.

apanderson · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:36 am Post subject:

Name: BROWN, ALBERT
Initials: A
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Captain
Regiment/Service: Royal Army Medical Corps
Secondary Regiment: Gordon Highlanders
Secondary Unit Text: attd. 1st Bn.
Age: 29
Date of Death: 09/01/1945
Service No: 128564
Additional information: Son of James and of Jane Ann Brown (nee Barrie), of Hillside, Angus. B.Sc., M.B., Ch.B.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Near entrance.
Cemetery: HODISTER (JUPILLE) CHURCHYARD

I think this might be the same A. Brown listed amongst the WW2 men.

See: (Sandymount Cemetery): http://scottishwargraves.phpbbweb.com/viewtopic.php?t=541&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=180&mforum=scottishwargraves (Page 13)

DelBoy

Keptie · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:01 pm Post subject: RENNY - TAILYOUR

Lieut Alexander Renny- Tailyour , Black Watch is listed on the St Marys & St Peters Scottish Episcopal Church in Montrose for the Korean and listed on the SWMP forum index under INDIVIDUAL MEMORIALS ..

Pat w anderson

DelBoy · Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 12:10 pm Post subject: Lt. Alan James Dickson

WW1
1914
A.J. Dckson

(Glasgow Herald 21st November 1914)
"Mr & Mrs Patrick Dickson, Sunnyside House, Montrose, yesterday received intimation that their youngest son, Alan James, had been killed in action on Novemeber 15. Dickson was a lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion H.L.I., having been gazetted as a second lieutenant only when war broke out. He was 22 years of age and was educated at Altonburn, Nairn, at Fettes College, Edinburgh, and at Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree this summer. He was present in all engagements with his battalion."

Name: DICKSON, ALAN JAMES
Initials: A J
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Lieutenant
Regiment/Service: Highland Light Infantry
Unit Text: 2nd Bn.
Age: 22
Date of Death: 14/11/1914
Additional information: Native of Laurencekirk. Son of Mr. Patrick and Mrs. R. I. Dickson, of Sunnyside House, Montrose.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 38.
Memorial: YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL

Listed on the Fettes RoH.

Name: Dickson, Alan James
House and Year Of Entry: C. 1906
Rank - At beginning of War, or on joining: 2nd Lieut.
Rank - On date of return of Schedule: Lieut.
Regiment Or Ship: 2nd H.L.I.
Casualties: Killed Nov. 14, 1914, near Passchendaele
Honours or Decorations: 1914 Star
Field of Service: France and Belgium

DelBoy · Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 9:54 pm Post subject: Pte. Robert Stewart

WW1
1915
R. Stewart

(Glasgow Herald 14th May 1915)
"Private Robert Stewart, son of Mr James Stewart, roadman, Hillside, Montrose, has succumbed to his injuries sustained by a bullet wound while trench digging at Ypres. Engaged at Charleton as a ploughman, he enlisted in the 5th Black Watch on the outbreak of war. He was 20 years of age."

CWGC
STEWART, R
Rank: Private
Service No: 2459
Date of Death: 04/05/1915
Age: 19
Regiment/Service: Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) 5th Bn.
Grave Reference: F. 2.
Cemetery: LE TROU AID POST CEMETERY, FLEURBAIX
Additional Information: Son of James and Annie Stewart, of Hillside, Montrose.

SNWM
Surname: STEWART
Firstname: Robert
Service Number: 2459
Date Death: 04/05/1915
Place of birth: Montrose
Other: 5th Bn.
SNWM roll: THE BLACK WATCH (ROYAL HIGHLANDERS)
Rank: Pte
Theatre of death: F.& F.

DelBoy · Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 4:19 pm Post subject: Cpl. Alexander May

WW1
1918
A. May

(Dundee Courier 5th August 1918)
"Died
Corpl. Alex May (21) son of Mr & Mrs Wm. May, Hillside, Montrose. Formerly employed with the N.B.R. Company at Arbroath. Died while a prisoner of war in Germany."

CWGC
MAY, ALEXANDER
Rank: Corporal
Service No: 292390
Date of Death: 06/04/1918
Age: 21
Regiment/Service: Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) 1st/7th Bn.
Grave Reference: XIII. F. 29.
Cemetery: COLOGNE SOUTHERN CEMETERY
Additional Information: Son of William and Jane May, of Evanston Cottage, Hillside, Montrose, Forfarshire.

SNWM
Surname: MAY
Forename: Alexander
Rank: Cpl
Service number: 292390
Place of birth: St Cyrus Forfarshire
Date of death: 6 April 1918
Theatre of death: F&F
Cause of death: Died of wounds.
SNWM roll: THE BLACK WATCH (ROYAL HIGHLANDERS)
Other detail: 7th Bn.

Keptie · Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2019 6:44 pm Post subject: hillside

Hillside outside of Montrose war memorial has 1918 and R. BELL

Commonwealth War Graves index :

this is PTE S/ 40981 ROBERT BELL , 7th Black Watch Royal Highlanders AGED 19 years , died 12 April 1918 , son of Mrs D Bell , of Dubton Cottage , Hillside Montrose
buried LILLERS COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENTION , Pas de Calais , France grave B 17

Scottish National War Memorial the castle Edinburgh:

Pre S/40981 Bell Robert , 7th Bn The Black Watch ,
Born Montrose ,
Died of wounds 12 April 1918 France & Flanders .

Note this 1918 War Casualty was born as ROBERT CROCKET BELL but it seems that the Military record on the casualty index only record his name as Robert Bell,

(Patrick w Anderson)