TWELVE years after the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, the Prince of Wales, ignoring the driving Glasgow rain, paid tribute to the city in a Remembrance Day service in George Square.
“It was most appropriate,” said the Glasgow Herald, “that the great gathering in the heart of Glasgow should have been attended by one who, himself a soldier, could appreciate how much such an occasion meant to the men who had endured the agonies of the plains and woods of Picardy.”
It was the afternoon of Sunday, July 1, 1928, and the sombre ceremony capped the prince’s hectic three-day-long visit to the city.
The Cenotaph gathering included men of many regiments, and among them were two Scottish V.C.s - John Hamilton, of the Glasgow Highlanders, and Harry May, of the Cameronians.
Also present were the women who had served: the nursing sisters in their scarlet and grey, and representatives of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, the Women’s Royal Air Force , and the Women’s Royal Naval Service.
“I am particularly glad,” the Prince began, “that the day which you set apart for your annual service of remembrance should coincide with my visit to Glasgow.” It was a service, he added, that in itself was “just as real and as living a memorial as any building or monument.”
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