A Son of the Rock

I took these photos on Sunday afternoon (Remembrance Day.) The wreaths from the morning’s memorial service are prominent. Among the wreaths from the local Council and councillor and various military and civilian organisations there was one from the US Marine Corps.

Kirkcaldy War Memorial on Remembrance Day 2009.
This part contains the (huge) list of names for the First World War. The War Memorial Gardens surround the memorial itself and are mostly behind from where this photo was taken.

The central memorial pillar has bronzes on it displaying soldiers, seamen and airmen, ships, aircraft, airships etc. In this respect it resembles larger memorials I have seen such as the one in Plymouth (which is mainly dedicated to naval personnel.)

The building beyond the memorial contains Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery and was built with money donated from the linoleum manufacturer family Nairn as part of the memorial to the dead of WW1.

Built after 1945, this is to the right of the WW1 memorial and lists the names for the Second World War dead.

This is to the right of the WW2 memorial and is a relatively recent addition. It provides a place for individual memorial poppies, as you can see, and also for commemoration of those who have died on active service since WW2. One time I looked there a poppy had been placed in memory of someone who had been killed in Basra.

Some years ago, when skateboarding was a newish fad and before special areas for it had been built in parks etc skateboarders used to use the tarred area in front of the memorial to do their thing. There were several letters to the local paper objecting to this as a mark of disrespect in part disguised by concern that they might be damaging the memorial itself.

I never saw it as disrespect. After all, wasn’t it precisely so that people could go about doing whatever they enjoyed within the law that those commemorated had given their lives for?

I also never noted any damage, even to the tarmac.

It’s mostly quiet these days of course.