A Son of the Rock

This is the War Memorial in Glamis village, near to the entrance to Glamis Castle, a bit north of Dundee. Very dignified and well proportioned.

The main plaque gives the names of the fallen in the Great War.

Noteworthy here is the top name, Captain The Honourable Fergus Lyon. They probably didn’t have room to write Bowes-Lyon. He was the brother of the late Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, wife of George VI, mother to the present Queen Elizabeth. She was brought up at Glamis Castle. His loss is supposed to have affected her greatly and is said to be the reason why she placed her bridal bouquet on the tomb of the unknown soldier in Westminster Abbey as she entered before the ceremony.

The names are given in order of military rank. Glamis is a very small place, for there to be so many names implies the memorial encompasses the surrounding area and emphasises the casualty rates in World War 1.

By contrast the other plaque, for 1939-45, has only five names. (This disparity in numbers is reflected in War Memorials up and down the land. In World War 1 Britain and its empire carried the main Allied burden of the war from approximately mid 1916 up to mid 1918. Certainly after the French Army mutinies of 1917 till the arrival of US troops in earlyish 1918, and arguably after. In World War 2 the bulk of the fighting took place in the USSR and the Pacific, areas where the British Empire presence was less influential.)

Though the order here doesn’t follow military rank (the fourth name is preceded by GNR, presumably a General) it seems to follow the social one but is otherwise alphabetical.

First named is Captain The Honourable John Patrick Bowes-Lyon, Master of Glamis.

The Master of Glamis!

This was a time when we really were all in it together. His status as Master of Glamis didn’t stop him serving, nor being killed in the war.