An appeal is going out to any Herald readers who served in a legendary Highland regiment, to share their memories and mementos as part of a ground-breaking project.
The call comes from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders’ Museum at Stirling Castle. The museum and the Argyll and regimental association have plans to create a unique “living history” archive. In this veterans and their families and descendants, who served in the regiment since the Korean War (1950-53), can capture the reality of life with the Argylls through oral and video history.
The museum, is making the appeal as it prepares for a major transformation, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), in order to become “a new kind of museum of Scots military heritage for the 21st Century”. It is looking for volunteers to support the project.
The museum wants former soldiers, members of the association and their families to get in contact to tell their stories and to share their letters, memories and artefacts.
With a £4m building and display renewal programme already underway the new museum is set to open in 2019. It will aim to commemorate the history and sacrifice of the great Scottish regiment, whose battle honours include Balaclava in the Crimean War, the Indian “Mutiny” (1857–58), the Boer War, the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War.
These will be presented in the context of the local communities from central Scotland and the Highlands and Islands, where thousands of young men joined the Argylls in war and peace. The regiment's recruiting area stretched from Clackmannanshire, through Stirlingshire, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire to Argyll and the islands.
Rob Layden, chief executive of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum said:
“We want to understand what is out there, what heritage exists within the community that can be used to tell the Argylls’ story, we want to record, give advice, and with the appropriate permission use them to tell the regiment’s story both at Stirling Castle and throughout the regimental heartlands.
“It’s about getting heritage back into the community. Part of HLF funding is about community and people as, heritage, community and people. We want a better understanding of what resources are out there.”
Jim Tilly, Secretary of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Association added;
“We have a superlative collection here at the museum but there are gaps. We want the whole story to be told. For example we don’t yet fully cover episodes like the peace keeping operation in Northern Ireland, the regiment’s longest engagement, which lasted from the 1960s to the 2000s.”
The regiment was formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders, with the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders.
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