Welcome

Hello. Welcome. This is the blog of the Scottish Military Research Group.

The Research Group grew out of two projects which have been running for quite some time now.

The first of these, The Scottish War Memorials Project, was started in December 2006, and was a means for individuals with a shared interest in war memorials in Scotland to showcase the photos and information they had. It has grown to cover nearly 90% of al lthe civic memorials in Scotland, together with many hundreds of memorials in churches, schools, and other places.

The Scottish War Graves Project came about a little while later, and follows a similar method, this time covering all military graves in Scotland. We are unique in that we not only cover the burials of the two World wars, but all military graves both before the wars and after.

So what is The Scottish Military Research Group? Well, in a way it isn't really anything at all. It's the name for all the individuals working on these projects, and whatever projects they may do on their own. you might say we're a collective, in that we have no real organisation but we can all rely on the others to assist with research and knowledge. It's a group all working towards similar common goals. There are no membership fees, no committees, no books to balance. We simply help each other out and provide information when another of us might need it. It seems to work fairly well so far.

So why do we have a blog? Well, for various reasons. First among them is to get our name "out there". A little publicity can be useful. We're always looking for new blood, more people who have knowledge of areas we might be deficient in. We're also always looking for new projects to work on, and also volunteers for the projects we have. Our database of war memorials and graves might be getting bigger by the day, but the work goes on, and we always welcome more information on any of the memorials we already have.

Secondly, we thought this might be a good idea to highlight some of the interesting stories and bits of information we come across in our research. It's not uncommon to find a little story that proves to be of interest to others, and we thought it would be good to share these at large.

So...in future postings we hope to bring you some of the things we found in the past. One of our plans is to show just how much information there can be found behind a simple name on a memorial plaque.

We'll also try and highlight stories in the media with a slant towards Scottish military history.

In the meantime, take a look at our existing projects (you'll find links to them above). Feel free to sign up, say hello, and don't be afraid to join in. You'll be assured of a warm welcome.