ISSUE 2 – The effect of the war on life in Scotland Commemoration & Remembrance

Estimates of Scottish war dead vary from 74,000 to 100,000; the Glasgow HLI alone lost 18,000 men. Few families in Scotland escaped the death of some male relative during the war. Not long after the Great War ended in 1918 war memorials began to spring up all over Scotland, they were more than just a commemoration they were a statement of Scotland’s sacrifice. In another sense the Scots seemed to need a confirmation that the losses of their loved ones had not been in vain. Perhaps some were unconsciously a monument to a Scotland that was gone forever.

Remembering the Honoured Dead Scotland and Britain commemorated the war in a number of ways: The minutes silence began on Remembrance Day November 11th 1919. The British Legion & the British Legion Scotland were set up in 1921 under the direction of retired General Douglas Haig. The Haig Fund Poppy day started in 1921.

The War Graves Commission was set up to care for British war graves throughout the world, over 600 cemeteries in France & Belgium alone.