Recently during this series of ‘On This Day’ we have been comparing events from seventy years ago during the Second World War, and two hundred and sixty five years ago during the ’45 Rebellion.
We have mentioned the landing of some German spies in Banffshire in 1940 and for this ‘On this Day’ I have chosen another day when Germans sailed across the North Sea to land on our shore.
In early 1746 things weren’t going well for King George II. In Flanders his troops were struggling against the French army. In Britain he had limited resources to put down the Jacobites, and to make matters worse for him a force of 6,000 Dutch troops under his command in the UK could not be used in the fight against the Jacobites.
The Dutchmen had been captured at Tournai in June 1745 and paroled by the French on the promise they wouldn’t fight France or her allies again during the current European war.
Neither George II nor the Dutch republic wanted to waste good troops so George hired the Dutch soldiers and swapped them for British troops within the UK which could then be sent to fight the French on the continent.
That meant that when the Jacobites were marching south to Derby they should have been met by a large force of Dutch troops. However the French had formally allied themselves with the Jacobites on 24th October 1745 by signing a Treaty at Fontainebleau. With a stroke of a pen the Jacobite army in Scotland became an official ally of France, and the Dutch troops could not fight against them; they could only stand aside as the Jacobites marched past them.
George now had thousands of foreign soldiers in Britain he couldn’t use. He didn’t want to recall British troops from Europe so he looked around for other soldiers he could hire.
He had the good fortune to find them on his Hanoverian doorstep in Hesse-Kassel in the Rhineland of Germany.
Like the Dutch the Hessians had a large number of paroled troops they couldn’t use. Luckily for George the Hessians had been paroled by the Austrians and not the French, so George was able to hire them to fight against the Jacobites.
And that is why on today’s date in 1746 six thousand German soldiers under the command of Prince Frederick of Hesse arrived at Leith docks to serve in the Duke of Cumberland’s Army.
Showing posts with label Leith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leith. Show all posts
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Monday, 22 November 2010
Some thoughts on Scottish memorial design
It never ceases to amaze me that decades after the end of the Second World War there are still war memorials being erected to that conflict. The latest to be unveiled was in the Port of Leith on Remembrance day and was closely followed by another memorial to the Merchant Navy just last week.
What makes these memorial unveilings special is the fact they are both very distinctive memorials. They could easily have been traditional designs but in both cases they have taken a standard format and given it a twist. The first to be unveiled was the Leith Academy WW2 memorial. Here the list of names follows a rational style but the way it is displayed is distinctive. The names are inscribed on a glass panel and behind that is a stylized map of the British Isles where the land is made to look like the zigzag camouflage applied to ships during the war.
It really is quite a stunning memorial and what makes it even more impressive is that most of the work was done by Leith Academy pupils. The driving force behind it was pupil Glynn Mullen who compiled the list of names; four art pupils designed it and technical pupils made it. It is a credit to them and their school.
The second memorial unveiled was the Merchant Navy memorial. I already posted about the unveiling last week but what I didn't mention was the memorial itself, and what a cracker it is. The artist responsible is Jill Watson. Her latest work takes a traditional memorial obelisk but adds so much detail it makes it unique in Scotland. Earlier commissions of hers such as the Eyemouth Fishing Disaster memorial used small figurines for effect and she has taken this a step further in her latest, and biggest, work.
Between them these two Leith memorials have raised the bar for Scottish war memorial design. Here's hoping future designers look to Leith for inspiration and come up with something new and thought provoking and not just the usual scaled up gravestones or stainless steel plaques which we have seen of late.
What makes these memorial unveilings special is the fact they are both very distinctive memorials. They could easily have been traditional designs but in both cases they have taken a standard format and given it a twist. The first to be unveiled was the Leith Academy WW2 memorial. Here the list of names follows a rational style but the way it is displayed is distinctive. The names are inscribed on a glass panel and behind that is a stylized map of the British Isles where the land is made to look like the zigzag camouflage applied to ships during the war.
It really is quite a stunning memorial and what makes it even more impressive is that most of the work was done by Leith Academy pupils. The driving force behind it was pupil Glynn Mullen who compiled the list of names; four art pupils designed it and technical pupils made it. It is a credit to them and their school.
The second memorial unveiled was the Merchant Navy memorial. I already posted about the unveiling last week but what I didn't mention was the memorial itself, and what a cracker it is. The artist responsible is Jill Watson. Her latest work takes a traditional memorial obelisk but adds so much detail it makes it unique in Scotland. Earlier commissions of hers such as the Eyemouth Fishing Disaster memorial used small figurines for effect and she has taken this a step further in her latest, and biggest, work.
Between them these two Leith memorials have raised the bar for Scottish war memorial design. Here's hoping future designers look to Leith for inspiration and come up with something new and thought provoking and not just the usual scaled up gravestones or stainless steel plaques which we have seen of late.
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Unveiling of the Merchant Navy Memorial, Leith
Today a debt was partly paid. The merchant seamen of Scotland were commemorated in bronze and stone in the port of Leith.
Some might argue that this memorial deserves to be on the Clyde rather than the Forth but I’m just glad to see it erected anywhere in Scotland.
In this age of global travel and communications; of inter-continental cargo planes; of offshore flags of convenience; and a complete lack of any sort of manufacturing in this country to export, we forget we are an island and we need ships to survive.
Twice in the last century our country was nearly brought to its knees by U-boats sinking our ships. The fact we survive as a free country isn’t just down to the ‘Few’ of the Battle of Britain. It’s down to the men of the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy who kept the lifeline firm.
In 1920 King George V decreed that the Mercantile Marine became the Merchant Navy. That wasn’t a simple change of name; it reflected the fact that during the Great War the hundreds of shipping companies of Britain formed themselves into convoys and into a navy to save the country.
In 1917 the Admiralty even admitted that they had lost the U-boat war and suggested negotiating with the Germans for an armistice on German terms. Luckily for us the British Government under Lloyd George was made of as stern stuff as the one under Churchill in 1940 and ultimately prevailed to win the war in 1918.
In the Second World War the perils were just as great, if not greater, because the threat posed by the Nazis were much worse than those of the Kaiser.
From the sinking of the SS Athenia on 3rd September 1939 to the loss of two merchantmen in the Firth of Forth on 7th May 1945 the U-boats of Admiral Donitz kept threatening our lifeline. They were the biggest threat to our survival and they fought from the first day of the war in Europe to the very last.
Not only did the Merchant Navy face the torpedoes of the Kreigsmarine and the bombs of the Luftwaffe, they also had to face the sea, a crueller a battlefield than any onshore. From the air attacks whilst replenishing Malta, to helping the Soviets by sailing through the freezing Arctic, and the constant round of long gruelling trips across the North Atlantic they made sure the allied armies, navies and air forces could continue the fight against the fascists.
Throughout all this when their ship was sunk their pay was stopped. The minute they ended up in an oil soaked lifeboat they were unpaid civilians. Once home they were treated with contempt by ignorant civilians for supposedly shirking their duties and not enlisting.
Even if they died there was still added insult. On many war memorials the men of the Merchant Navy are found at the end of the list of names as if they were any less worthy of inclusion of those who served in the armed forces.
In 2010 the British Merchant Navy is a shadow of its former self. The shipyards of the Clyde are almost all gone and so are most of the docks the ships berthed at. Even the ships we do see in British ports are likely to have been built in Asia and registered in the Caribbean.
Today’s ceremony reminds us of the debt we all owe to the brave men of the British Merchant Navy past, present and future who do a vital job few of us would relish, even in peacetime.
Some might argue that this memorial deserves to be on the Clyde rather than the Forth but I’m just glad to see it erected anywhere in Scotland.
In this age of global travel and communications; of inter-continental cargo planes; of offshore flags of convenience; and a complete lack of any sort of manufacturing in this country to export, we forget we are an island and we need ships to survive.
Twice in the last century our country was nearly brought to its knees by U-boats sinking our ships. The fact we survive as a free country isn’t just down to the ‘Few’ of the Battle of Britain. It’s down to the men of the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy who kept the lifeline firm.
In 1920 King George V decreed that the Mercantile Marine became the Merchant Navy. That wasn’t a simple change of name; it reflected the fact that during the Great War the hundreds of shipping companies of Britain formed themselves into convoys and into a navy to save the country.
In 1917 the Admiralty even admitted that they had lost the U-boat war and suggested negotiating with the Germans for an armistice on German terms. Luckily for us the British Government under Lloyd George was made of as stern stuff as the one under Churchill in 1940 and ultimately prevailed to win the war in 1918.
In the Second World War the perils were just as great, if not greater, because the threat posed by the Nazis were much worse than those of the Kaiser.
From the sinking of the SS Athenia on 3rd September 1939 to the loss of two merchantmen in the Firth of Forth on 7th May 1945 the U-boats of Admiral Donitz kept threatening our lifeline. They were the biggest threat to our survival and they fought from the first day of the war in Europe to the very last.
Not only did the Merchant Navy face the torpedoes of the Kreigsmarine and the bombs of the Luftwaffe, they also had to face the sea, a crueller a battlefield than any onshore. From the air attacks whilst replenishing Malta, to helping the Soviets by sailing through the freezing Arctic, and the constant round of long gruelling trips across the North Atlantic they made sure the allied armies, navies and air forces could continue the fight against the fascists.
Throughout all this when their ship was sunk their pay was stopped. The minute they ended up in an oil soaked lifeboat they were unpaid civilians. Once home they were treated with contempt by ignorant civilians for supposedly shirking their duties and not enlisting.
Even if they died there was still added insult. On many war memorials the men of the Merchant Navy are found at the end of the list of names as if they were any less worthy of inclusion of those who served in the armed forces.
In 2010 the British Merchant Navy is a shadow of its former self. The shipyards of the Clyde are almost all gone and so are most of the docks the ships berthed at. Even the ships we do see in British ports are likely to have been built in Asia and registered in the Caribbean.
Today’s ceremony reminds us of the debt we all owe to the brave men of the British Merchant Navy past, present and future who do a vital job few of us would relish, even in peacetime.
Saturday, 30 October 2010
First World War Roll of Honour for Leith now online
I heard today from Andrew Grant that Lothians Health Services Archive has today put the Roll of Honour for Leith online. This comprises digital version of the original five volumes, which had previously been thought to be lost for many years..
The Roll can be viewed here, and my thanks and congratulations to LHSA for making this available.
Andrew Grant has been using these rolls as the basis for his research into Leith casualties for the last three years, and he has said that without these rolls, his research would be a fraction of what it is today.
The Roll can be viewed here, and my thanks and congratulations to LHSA for making this available.
Andrew Grant has been using these rolls as the basis for his research into Leith casualties for the last three years, and he has said that without these rolls, his research would be a fraction of what it is today.
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Leith in The Great War
Dedicated researcher Andrew Grant has recently passed his work on Leith's Great War casualties on to Edinburgh City Libraries. Andrew has been working hard for the last few years searching through Leith's newspapers and records to add details to the Roll of Honour complied after the First World War.
In total Andrew has spent about 2000 hours of research on the 2206 casualties listed in the Leith Roll of Honour and a further 351 men and women with a Leith connection who he tracked from other sources.
Andrew's information contains 5000 photographs and images of obituaries noted in the 'Leith Observer'; local and international war memorials with Leith men mentioned on them, and headstones of casualties in Leith cemeteries and overseas.
The two portfolios of work are currently in the Edinburgh Room of the Central Library. When Leith Library has been refurbished they will then be moved to their rightful home in Leith.
If you have a query about a Leith serviceman or woman from the war and can't make it to the Central Library in Edinburgh then Andrew can be contacted through me at scottishwarmemorials@hotmail.co.uk and I will pass your request on.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Scottish Merchant Seamen memorial in Edinburgh
From the Edinburgh Evening News:
Trust plans tribute to lost merchant seamen but details kept secret
All going well, the £100,000 structure will be unveiled in November. However, the Trust has called for "a degree of secrecy and confidentiality" prior to the official publication of the plans and the launch of a public appeal next month to raise the required cash. The memorial is the brainchild of Professor Gordon Milne, 74, a retired company director from Kingsknowe whose family has a long association with the merchant navy.
He said: "The memorial itself will cost £100,000, funded largely by substantial private donations from benefactors who wish to remain anonymous, but we hope to raise around a quarter-of-a-million pounds through our public appeal for various projects associated with memory of the merchant seamen.
"There are precious few memorials to these brave men in Britain. There is the Tower Hill Memorial in London which commemorates the sailors of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets during the wars, and a memorial to the Arctic convoys recently unveiled in the Orkneys, but there is nothing to mark the loss of the 6,500 Scottish merchant seamen who died in the first and second world wars, the Falklands War and other disasters."
The drawings accompanying the plans show a plinth 4.5 metres high with a cloud obscuring the secret bronze statue at the top.
A series of bronze reliefs will also be attached to the plinth, but the nature of these are also secret.
The works are being designed by renowned Edinburgh sculptor Jill Watson who created the red lion above the door of the Queen's Gallery at Holyrood House.
She also recently completed a series of sculptures in the Borders commemorating the 125th anniversary of the 1881 Eyemouth fishing disaster.
The Trust's directors include John Menzies chairman William Thomson, heir to the company that ran Leith's famous Ben Line vessels which lost 18 ships during the Second World War alone. The directors also include Rear Admiral Roger Lockwood, chief executive of the Royal Lighthouse Board and vice-patron for Scotland of the War Memorials Trust.
The Eyemouth sculpture by Jill Watson can be seen on Adam Browns' "Scottish Monuments, Memorials and Architectural Sculpture" site - click this link for the page for the Eyemouth, Berwickshire 1881 Fishing Disaster
Trust plans tribute to lost merchant seamen but details kept secret
Published Date: 31 March 2010
WHEN built it will be an iconic national memorial to 6,500 lost merchant seaman – but exactly what it will look like is a closely guarded secret.
The Merchant Navy Memorial Trust has applied for permission to erect "a memorial of national importance" near Tower Place, at The Shore.All going well, the £100,000 structure will be unveiled in November. However, the Trust has called for "a degree of secrecy and confidentiality" prior to the official publication of the plans and the launch of a public appeal next month to raise the required cash. The memorial is the brainchild of Professor Gordon Milne, 74, a retired company director from Kingsknowe whose family has a long association with the merchant navy.
He said: "The memorial itself will cost £100,000, funded largely by substantial private donations from benefactors who wish to remain anonymous, but we hope to raise around a quarter-of-a-million pounds through our public appeal for various projects associated with memory of the merchant seamen.
"There are precious few memorials to these brave men in Britain. There is the Tower Hill Memorial in London which commemorates the sailors of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets during the wars, and a memorial to the Arctic convoys recently unveiled in the Orkneys, but there is nothing to mark the loss of the 6,500 Scottish merchant seamen who died in the first and second world wars, the Falklands War and other disasters."
The drawings accompanying the plans show a plinth 4.5 metres high with a cloud obscuring the secret bronze statue at the top.
A series of bronze reliefs will also be attached to the plinth, but the nature of these are also secret.
The works are being designed by renowned Edinburgh sculptor Jill Watson who created the red lion above the door of the Queen's Gallery at Holyrood House.
She also recently completed a series of sculptures in the Borders commemorating the 125th anniversary of the 1881 Eyemouth fishing disaster.
The Trust's directors include John Menzies chairman William Thomson, heir to the company that ran Leith's famous Ben Line vessels which lost 18 ships during the Second World War alone. The directors also include Rear Admiral Roger Lockwood, chief executive of the Royal Lighthouse Board and vice-patron for Scotland of the War Memorials Trust.
The Eyemouth sculpture by Jill Watson can be seen on Adam Browns' "Scottish Monuments, Memorials and Architectural Sculpture" site - click this link for the page for the Eyemouth, Berwickshire 1881 Fishing Disaster
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