The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

stuartn · Joined: 13 Dec 2016 Posts: 2551

Hello,
I am Stuart Nicholson, a remote volunteer for the War Memorials Register (WMR)-formerly known as UKNIWM.

I officially cover Cumbria and certain fringe areas.

I just want to thank this project for its in depth research. I have been extensively using these records amongst other sources to totally upgrade the WMR records for Shetland (where we have located some memorials not on this forum) and for most of Argyll and Bute (ditto), with citations to the smrg project.
Currently I am working on Dumfries and Galloway, as far west as Dumfries.
My thanks to 'Spoons' for the huge amount of work he has undertaken, and for pointing out clearly our past errors and omissions.
I must apologise that it has taken so long for many of these to be actioned, for a whole variety of reasons.

It is now possible for anyone to register with WMR as a remote volunteer and to input records directly ie-it is no longer necessary to send submissions into the Office. This has totally transformed the turn-round times on records from sometimes years to 24 hours.

spoons · Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 5:05 pm Post subject:

Hi Stuart

A very belated welcome to the project and thanks for all the work you have been doing in getting WMR records updated.

It's great to see that the work done here is being used elsewhere as we always intended.

Regards

Paul

Kenneth Morrison · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 12:51 pm Post subject:

Stuart - I'm really glad that you are doing what you are doing (if you see what I mean Rolling Eyes

)

In following your work in D&G I'm discovering memorials that I hadn't looked at before and am re-discovering memorials that I had forgotten.

Great stuff!
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Ken

stuartn · Joined: 13 Dec 2016 Posts: 2551

Kenneth,

Thanks,

With the exception of mopping up when I have to check the individual forums against the indexes I am now complete in D & G except Moffat. I was hoping to do Moffat this weekend but the IWM has a major internal computer failure (not affecting the public site).
Although not posted on the forum the memorials from Gretna to almost Dumfries are ll on the IWM system-but were done before I joined the forum.
Even every single record which was on the IWM system has been updated in some way, especially with adding names into our database. I have not usually put that on the pages of this forum.

I thought I knew D & G well but have "visited" many unknown places through this forum. My hats are off, especially to Spoons, for the huge breadth of research, leaving absolutely no stone unturned.

I will then be moving up to complete Arran and Cumbrae which was abandoned half way through about 5 months ago for technical reasons, and then to the Outer Hebrides as the Inner Hebrides were comprehensively covered last Summer and Autumn.

anne park · Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2017 6:06 am Post subject: Shetland info

I would be interested in anything regarding Shetland but that maybe a long way off. Anything you give would be great to have.
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Researching WWI info from Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Kincardineshire & Morayshire.

stuartn · Joined: 13 Dec 2016 Posts: 2551

Anne,

I am happy that the IWM War Memorials Register now has on every Memorial there is in Shetland, and has removed the duplications and even non-existent memorials it previously had on.
There are many details yet to add, but it is a valuable starting point.

Unfortunately at the time I did that I was not a member of this forum, although I extensively used it along with a number of other sources.

I plan to be in Lerwick for Up Helly Aa next January when I will be concentrating on the poorly documented Lerwick Church memorials and on the Zetland County memorial-I can't read all the photographs provided on this forum, so will be starting again with that.

Meantime this is a link to a digital copy of Manson's Shetland Roll of Honour WW1 which is the definitive record of all Shetlanders-those who fell, and those who returned. (biographical details and photos of all who fell)
https://ia801700.us.archive.org/21/items/shetlandsrollofh1920shet/shetlandsrollofh1920shet.pdf

The Zetland County Memorial is record WMR 6070 which has a number of other reference sources on.

The County Archives have indexed the local newspaper, which is on their catalogue. However it has been done in a manner which is very user unfriendly. I did approach them to see if it was in an excel spreadsheet, which would be far more useable, but they have proved unwilling to engage with me. To re-index it would be an estimated 4 week full-time project, which is totally unviable for me.

Kenneth Morrison · Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2017 1:03 pm Post subject:

Stuart - can you note the new memorial at Buittle, Dumfries & Galloway.

http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?p=82302#82302
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Ken

stuartn · Joined: 13 Dec 2016 Posts: 2551

Kenneth,

Thanks. It is WMR 72365