NaBloPoMo 2025 - #11

 On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the guns fell silent. Fifteen million lay dead. Just because an archduke got shot in Sarajevo? Because the royal houses of Europe decided to have a family tiff? No, it's never as simplistic as that. But this post is not about the reasons for the Great War. It is about those fifteen million. Servicemen from all sides, civilians from all sides. It was the age of duty, you signed up because you felt it was your duty. Duty towards King and Country. If you didn't volunteer, if you tried to dodge the draft, you were a coward. You could be handed a white feather, oh, the disgrace. But that overlooked the genuine panic and fear that had some 3,000 shot at dawn. Only very recently have these unfortunate souls been exonerated, and their honour restored to them.

I compiled listings of the men from the island of Lewis in particular, and from the Outer Hebrides in general, who went to war from August 1914 until November 1918. When focusing on Lewis, their number stands at roughly 6,200. The number of dead is not set in tablets of stone; I have it at roughly 1,300. It matters not. Of that number, 181 were lost seven weeks after the Armistice, when their transport, HMY Iolaire, sank off Stornoway. Twenty others were Iolaire crew.

We all fall silent at 11 in the morning on November 11th. I have marked the occasion for thirty-fiveyears now, initially listening to the event on BBC Radio 4 longwave, 198 kHz. Not until I came to Stornoway, in November 2004, did I start to actively observe the Armistice. I have photographed the war memorials here, each stating the war to have ended in 1919, unlike everywhere else in the UK, where the end year is 1918. I have photographed over 400 wargraves and war-related gravestones in the island's cemeteries. I have compiled my findings on several websites, for all to see - at no charge. It's not for money that I have done this work. 

Lest we forget.

Remembrance 2025

In November, I observe the two minutes' silence for Remembrance Sunday - to commemorate Armistice Day on 11th November 1918, the end of hostilities in the First World War. In doing so, I remember those from the UK who made the supreme sacrifice in the defence of freedom, in Europe and beyond.

In May, I observe the two minutes' silence for Remembrance Day on 4th May, the eve of the capitulation by Nazi-German force in the Netherlands, at the end of the Second World War, which took place on 5th May 1945.

The focus in the Netherlands tonight will be remembering the victims of the persecution of Jews and others during the Nazi occupation of 5 years, between 1940 and 1945. More than 100,000 Jews were deported to extermination camps like Auschwitz.

In the past, church bells would be rung in times of danger. Although perhaps appearing contradictory, I have always turned to this recording of the St Peter's bell in Cologne cathedral.

Have we learned the lessons of history?

NaBloPoMo 2024 - day 11

 Armistice Day. The day, now 106 years ago, when the guns fell silent on the Western Front, after more than four years of slaughter. The blame was laid squarely at the Germans' door, although it had been more an pan-European royal spat. Years ago, I visited the village of Tolsta Chaolais in Lewis, where the first war memorial was built in the 1920s. A local resident commented to me: "Why did eighteen men from our village have to die, because an Archduke got shot in Sarajevo?" And that summed it up nicely for me. The fact that more wars have followed in Europe says enough.

Tolsta Chaolais War Memorial

NaBloPoMo 2024 - day 10

Today is Remembrance Sunday, when we commemorate the Fallen from two World Wars, and conflicts before and after. Here in Lewis, the focus is quite strongly on the First World War. Out of 6,300 who joined up, more than 1,100 did not survive. Of that number, more than 200 drowned on 1st January 1919, when their ship, HMY Iolaire, sank just outside Stornoway harbour. Although the vessel ran aground on reefs, only 50 yards from shore, the atrocious weather and sea conditions made it impossible for a rescue to be mounted. Seventy-five managed to scramble ashore; the remains of 65 were never recovered from the sea.

This is a picture from an installation which has stood off South Beach in Stornoway since late 2018. Although the lighting has long since failed, and the posts are now decaying, this image of it depicts the outline of the Iolaire. Each of the posts denotes someone on board; the red lights indicate a life lost

April 30

Today is April 30th, the end of the Celtic winter. Tomorrow, May 1st, is Bealltain Bhuidhe, the Yellow Beltane, after the colour of some of the flowers that are out at this time of year. In certain parts of Europe, this day is referred to as St Walpurgis Night, the night that the ghosts and spectres of winter are exorcised and banished. It marks the start, particularly in the north, of the long evenings when darkness never really falls.

Back in 1945, this was the day that Adolf Hitler took his own life. An evil spirit banished from this earth. We must never forget, and never forget that although Hitler was evil, his reign was enabled by political decisions made in preceding decades.

The same applies to Vladimir Putin today, as lessons from the 1930s and 40s were patently forgotten. What he can get away with, he will get away with. And that is something that was not properly recognised, something that we will be paying a price for.

Armistice Day - NaBloPoMo #11

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the guns fell silent. Fifteen million lay dead. Just because an archduke got shot in Sarajevo? Because the royal houses of Europe decided to have a family tiff? No, it's never as simplistic as that. But this post is not about the reasons for the Great War. It is about those fifteen million. Servicemen from all sides, civilians from all sides. It was the age of duty, you signed up because you felt it was your duty. Duty towards King and Country. If you didn't volunteer, if you tried to dodge the draft, you were a coward. You could be handed a white feather, oh the disgrace. But that overlooked the genuine panic and fear that had some 3,000 shot at dawn. Only very recently have these unfortunate souls been exonerated, and their honour restored to them.

Over the past 15 years or so, I have been active to compile listings of the men from the island of Lewis in particular, and from the Outer Hebrides in general, who went to war from August 1914 until November 1918. When focusing on Lewis, their number stands at roughly 6,200. The number of dead is not set in tablets of stone; I have it at roughly 1,300. It matters not. Of that number, 181 were lost seven weeks after the Armistice, when their transport, HMY Iolaire, sank off Stornoway. Twenty others were Iolaire crew.

We all fall silent at 11 in the morning on November 11th. I have marked the occasion for thirty years now, initially listening to the event on BBC Radio 4 longwave, 198 kHz. Not until I came to Stornoway, in November 2004, did I start to actively observe the Armistice. I have photographed the war memorials here, each stating the war to have ended in 1919, unlike everywhere else in the UK, where the end year is 1918. I have photographed over 400 wargraves and war-related gravestones in the island's cemeteries. I have compiled my findings on several websites, for all to see - at no charge. It's not for money that I have done this work.

Lest we forget.

Remembrance Sunday - NaBloPoMo #10

Remembrance Sunday across the United Kingdom, when the Fallen from two World Wars and conflicts since are remembered. Two minutes' silence at 11 o'clock in the morning. This marks the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, when the guns fell silent, the end of the Great War. It later became the First World War, because less than 21 years later, the guns fired up again, and for six years, the world became a battlefield again. Even after two atomic bombs, dropped on two Japanese cities, war did not disappear from the face of the earth. Korea, Suez, Vietnam, Afghanistan, the Falklands, the Balkans, Iraq, the Middle East generally - we have to accept war as a fact of life.

I conclude this post with one of the war memorials in the island of Lewis. This one can be found in the village of Breacleit in Great Bernera, which is an island off mainland Lewis, 25 miles west of Stornoway. Its tiny villages haemorrhaged young men during two world wars, remembered here. You may not have heard of Breaclete, Croir, Valasay, Tobson, Hacklete, Kirkibost; or Earshader, Crulivig and Lundale on mainland Lewis, part of Bernera.

Lest we forget

A tale of two Donalds

On 9 June 1888, Annie Macleod, living in the village of Knock, Point (in Lewis), gave birth to another child, Donald. He was the sixth, and not the last child. Two more followed, and by the start of 1894, eight children, varying in ages from 1 to 15 years, crowded into the dwelling. It drove the father, Hector, to distraction, to such an extent that he ended his life in September that year. Three months later, Annie also passed away.

The eight youngsters were taken into the care of the Quarrier Homes in Glasgow, and emigrated to Canada two years later.

Donald signed up for the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Calgary in October 1914, and was injured during the Battle of the Somme. He was transferred to War Hospital at Napsbury, where he passed away on 4 August 1916, at 9.45pm.

Due to an error in the paperwork, his remains were transferred to Benbecula, rather than Lewis, and the next-of-kin notified. The next of kin was thought to be Alex Macleod of Gramsdale, but when Alex came to the quayside at Peter Port in Benbecula, he did not recognise the dead man as his son. Nobody came to claim the soldier's remains, so the authorities interred it at Nunton, Benbecula, after a week. Donald Macleod, son of Alex, was alive, also serving with the Canadian Forces, and under a service number that only differed from the Lewis man by one digit. The Benbecula Donald Macleod was 79119, the Lewis man was 79110. Donald Macleod, Gramsdale, lived until 1952.

It has taken a century for this mystery to be cleared up. Three years ago today, three islanders stood by Donald's grave in Nunton Cemetery, and remembered his sacrifice. I did so from 64 miles away in Stornoway.