GLASGOW is to create a permanent memorial to recognise the impact at home of the tumult of the First World War.
The city council is proposing placing a plaque in Glasgow Green recognising the contribution made by working people not only in the war effort, but also their campaigning for economic, social and political change.
Think-tank and advocacy group the Jimmy Reid Foundation made representations to the council last year on the subject of the creation of a Great War memorial, with the authority now expected to formally back the plans.
A report on the proposal said: "Events in Glasgow in this period led to lasting changes in sectors such as housing, but also more generally led to great shifts in the political and economic life of our land, well beyond our city's boundaries".
Councillor Matt Kerr, chairman of the council's Memorials Working Group, said: "After much careful consideration on a cross-party basis, and deliberation with the Jimmy Reid Foundation, the Memorials Working Group is of the view that we, as a council, should support the creation of such a memorial.
"The purpose of such a memorial is clear; to complement the official commemoration by widening and deepening understanding of the impact of the war at home."
The city will be a focal point for many across the globe during the commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of First World War in August.
Leaders from across the Commonwealth are expected to stay an additional day after the conclusion of the Glasgow 2014 Games to mark the event.
Meanwhile, the life stories of millions of people who served during the First World War are to be preserved in a permanent digital memorial run by Imperial War Museums (IWM).
Lives of the First World War will use information from the public over the next five years to piece together the stories of more than eight million people from across Britain and the former Empire who served abroad and on the home front.
The project is launched today with the records of more than 4.5 million men and 40,000 women who served with the British Army overseas.
While details are known about the lives of many, the IWM said it was still looking for various extra details about others. It said many people in the project were still just names, leaving organisers appealing to the public to help piece together their life stories.
Use of the site is free, including uploading pictures and adding family stories, and IWM said it was not looking for original copies or letters, photographs or diaries, but was encouraging people to keep them in family collections for future generations, instead uploading images on the site.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article