Plea for Lanarkshire Yeomanry monument in Lanark

An article from the Carluke and Lanark Gazette by Ron Harris highlighting the efforts to raise a memorial to the Lanarkshire Yeomanry:


Lanark should be the place where our area’s Forgotten Regiment is finally properly remembered.

Although the glorious Cameronians are quite rightly commemorated each year with a ceremony at a monument at their Douglas birthplace, there is hardly any reminder of another locally recruited army unit which made huge sacrifices for our nation – the Lanarkshire Yeomanry.

Now a group of ex-Yeomen and relatives of late members of the mostly Territorial unit disbanded after World War 2 want a proper memorial erected to the memory of the regiment.

And Lanark looks favourite to be the chosen site, it having been the Yeomanry's official base and home.


Indeed, the Royal Burgh still has full status as Lanarkshire's County Town throughout the unit's history.


The push to raise money to have the monument built is being organised by the Lanarkshire Yeomanry Group, formed a few years ago to research and promote the regimental history.


Now it has  written to every local South Lanarkshire Council member to ask for their opinion on a suitable location.


Many in the group favour Lanark as a natural monument site but councillors are being asked for their opinion on exactly where in Lanark it should be erected.


The secretary of the group, Agnes Doogan, says in her letter to them: "The regiment had its origins in the Lanark area of the early 19th Century and local men saw action in the Boer War, the Great War and in World War 2. Thomas Caldwell of Carluke was a member of the regiment and was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1917 for action on the Western Front.


"In World War 2 the Regiment was the nucleus of the 155th and 156th (Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiments of the Royal Artillery. Both units were in the heat of battle."


She went on to tell fo the sacrifices Yeomen suffered, particularly those in Japanese captivity, working as slaves on the infamous Death Railway.


She goes on: "It it our aim to have a permanent memorial to the men of the regiment sited in the Lanark area as this was the regimental base and the heart of the regiment.


"We are not seeking finance from the council but would appreciate its help in locating a suitable site for a memorial. Lanark Loch comes to mind as the regiment regularly exercised there and spent leisure time in this area.


"In addition, we wonder wether there would be a place for naming a street or some other public feature in South Lanarkshire - possibly in Lanark - after the Yeomanry?

"We believe that there is now considerable local sympathy for the sacrifice made by so many brave men from this area to be properly commemorated."

The Gazette will report on the response the Yeomanry Group receives from local councillors.