A TRENCHING tool used on the Somme during the First World War has been used in a turf-cutting ceremony, initiating a memorial to the dead of both world wars.

The ceremony took place in the east Renfrewshire village of Neilston, where people have spent the last five years raising £70,000. Construction work was expected to begin today and could take between nine and 12 weeks to complete, depending on the weather.

The memorial, which has been designed by artist Tom McKendrick, will list by name the 215 local men who sacrificed their lives while on active service - all but two of them in one of the world wars.

"The £70,000 will allow the community to build the basic structure of the monument, with the finer points such as the landscaping to follow," said Jimmy Higgins, a locally-born author and former schoolteacher.

"I'm glad it is finally being built. It has taken the community five years to get to this stage but at least there will now be something to honour the war dead. The three villages in Scotland that do not have a war memorial have now been reduced to two."

In August 2013 Mr Higgins and his cousin, John McGuire, walked 350 miles to Vimy Ridge in northern France, a First World War battlefield where Mr Higgins' grandfather was gassed, to help raise funds.

The Neilston War Memorial Committee has carried out considerable research into those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Several years ago, when Mr Higgins began work on Milltown, a novel set in a fictionalised Neilston during 1914-1918, the number stood at 96, but it later increased to 140. The current total is 165 from the Great War, with another 48 from the second war.

Also memorialised will be a local man killed on army service in Northern Ireland, and one who won the Distinguished Conduct Medal for heroism in the first world war but died in an accident in Sydney, Australia, while on active service.

Mr Higgins believes Neilston "suffered terribly" in losing so many of its men during the first war, when its population stood at just 3,000.

"The UK population then was 45,300,000, and it lost 703,000 men. Had the country's losses been on a par with Neilston's, per head of population, some 2.5 million men would have been lost - and perhaps the war itself," he said.

The memorial will take the shape of a Celtic cross complete with machine parts reflecting the village's past as a mill town. It will be flanked by walls, on which the names will be recorded.

The original target figure of £40,000 "turned out to be unrealistic," Mr Higgins recalled ruefully.

An anonymous donation of £10,000 had boosted the spirits of the organisers, and another £21,000 had been raised by the walk to Vimy Ridge.

"The community has done a tremendous job in persevering with this project," Mr Higgins added.

"They haven't had much success in attracting funding from external sources. The Heritage Lottery Fund said it could not donate, as losing 164 men in the First World War didn't count as 'heritage'.

"This is quite a small village, so to raise £70,000 is no mean achievement. The committee chairman, Matt Drennan, is to be commended - there must have been many times when he thought it would be easier just to give up."