A TEN-year old girl whose father was killed in action in Afghanistan will lay a wreath as part of this year's Remembrance Sunday commemorations in Scotland, which will mark 100 years since the beginning of the First World War.
Meghan Mathews will take part in a wreath-laying ceremony in Edinburgh which will be followed by a service at the city's St Giles' Cathedral, attended by Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond and Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael. Representatives of the German navy will be attending the commemorations in Edinburgh - the first time that the German military have taken part since Remembrance Sunday began in 1921.
Sergeant Jonathan Mathews, Meghan's father, was attached to The Highlanders, 4th Battalion and was killed by a sniper in Afghanistan in 2008 at the age of 35. She will be laying a wreath "in memory of children's lives that were lost or changed forever".
Her mother, Shona, said: "Nothing will ever take away the loss. Meghan will grow up without her father. Every Remembrance Sunday, no matter where I am, I cry for him. Laying the wreath is a great honour for Meghan and I am so very proud of her."
A replica Spitfire will be flown over the Spitfire memorial at Edinburgh Airport by businessman Iain Hutchison, whose company maintains the memorial.
In Glasgow, a Remembrance ceremony is being held at the Cenotaph in George Square with Lord Provost Sadie Docherty, Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and Police Scotland's Chief Constable, Sir Stephen House, attending.
Dundee's Remembrance Sunday testimonial will begin with a parade outside the High School of Dundee and concluding with a wreath-laying ceremony at St Mary's Church Garden of Remembrance.
Aberdeen's service will be held at the War Memorial on Schoolhill.
Kevin Gray, chief executive officer of Legion Scotland, said: "On Remembrance Sunday, our heartfelt tribute will be paid to every single serviceman and woman who has fought and died to keep us safe."
l In London, the Queen will lead the commemorations at Whitehall's Cenotaph, which will also be attended by leaders of the three main political parties, former prime ministers including Tony Blair, and international delegates.
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