Scotland ready to commemorate First World War

Reporter

Sunday 10 March 2013

PREPARATIONS have begun for five years of commemoration and contemplation as Scotland gets ready to mark the centenary of the first world war from next year until the end of 2018.

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exclusive By Ewan Fergus

A 12-strong panel of experts from across Scottish society has been appointed to lay out the framework for the programme of events which Scotland's Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop has said will be "relevant to all parts of Scottish society". The Battle of Jutland will loom large in the commemorations.

The panel will be chaired by former army chaplain Norman Drummond who, since 1993, has been chaplain to the Queen in Scotland. It will also include the Sunday Herald's Diplomatic Editor, the military historian Trevor Royle.Announcing the panel, Hyslopsaid: "This panel brings together 12 remarkable people with an exceptional range of skills, experience and expertise across many fields. "Their wisdom and advice will be extremely helpful in guiding Scotland's approach to commemorations sensitively."Scotland played a key role and paid a heavy price for those sacrifices in the great war. Of the 1.7 million Commonwealth dead in two world wars, 150,000 of them were Scots who fell between 1914 and 1918. More than 5000 war memorials across Scotland provide a poignant reminder of the impact of "the war to end all wars" on every community.Crystalising that momentous collective experience into a relevant and engaging programme 100 years later will be a significant challenge, which Drummond acknowledges.He said: "Scotland's Commemorative Programme must provide opportunities for people of all ages to learn about the war in meaningful ways and so to enable them to explore the resonance of world war one and its aftermath to contemporary life here in Scotland and beyond. "Within the panel, Commodore Charles Stevenson, Lieutenant General Sir Alistair Irwin and Group Captain Bob Kemp from the Tri-Service Veterans community, will help to determine how best to recognise the sacrifice of Scotland's servicemen and women and the appropriate commemoration of the battles in which Scotland played a key role."He added that leading figures from the world of education would play a part – "to help to ensure that the commemorative programme takes full account of how our pupils, students and teachers learn about world war one" – as would local authorities and the media.Drummond said key events such as the Gretna rail disaster, in which 214 officers and men of the Royal Scots were killed in 1915, and the battle of Jutland of 1916 – in which Orkney played an important part – would be suitably commemorated.The historian Professor Sir Hew Strachan, who will work with Royle to ensure the commemoration maintains historical accuracy and perspective, added: "Many of the ways in which we think about the first world war were set not a hundred years ago but 50 years ago. "That anniversary was when the veterans of the war were given their voice by the BBC. It made the first really major historical documentary series for television, The Great War."The war had been understandably pushed from people's memories by the second world war. "If the centenary does not generate new ways of looking at the war, we shall have failed – not only ourselves but those for whose education we are responsible."

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Scotland ready to commemorate First World War

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