I recently sent off to Parsec magazine my review of Solstice by Ruth Aylett and Greg Michaelson, a book which I picked up* at the first Pictcon in Perth a month or so ago. A very successful first con it has to be said. Pictcon focuses on the Scottish SF and fantasy scene.

Editor Ian Whates has chosen to run it so that review will not appear here for a while.

Meanwhile he has sent me Reality Rift by Fred Gambino, a follow-up to that author’s first novel Dark Shepherd.

*By picked up I mean “blagged with the promise of a review on the blog and the chance of ParSec running it.”

Perth Museum recently relocated to the building which used to be Perth City Hall. It’s slap bang in the middle of the city so a good location.

The new museum’s main attraction is the Stone of Destiny, removed from Edinburgh Castle to be nearer to its spiritual home in Scone a couple of miles north of Perth itself.

Some of the exhibits have been transferred from the old Museum and Art Gallery in George Street, notably the St Madoes stone, which, in its new location, is now lit up to help highlight the carvings:-

Side and back views:-

I particularly liked, though, the illumintaed map of Perth through the ages where different parts were lit up at different times to show the evolution of the town/city:-

Then of course there was this picture of the famous old Pullars of Perth premises a building which verges on Art Deco:-

Plaque dedicated to the men of St John’s Kirk:-

Burma Star Association flag and plaque. The plaque bears the Kohima Epitaph:-

Upper memorial for the Scottish Area Women’s Royal Army Corps and lower one for the Royal Army Service Corps in both wars:-

Parachute Regiment and British Special Airborne Forces Memorial:-

Tapestry Memorial to 51st Highland Division:-

War Memorial alcove, St John’s Kirk, Perth:-

Great War Memorial (to left above):-

Below the memorial are two Rolls of Honour. The first below takes in Perthshire and also covers World War 2 as may the second:-

Great War Memorial to men connected with St John’s East Parish Church:-

Masonic Great War Memorial:-

St John’s Kirk, Perth was restored after the Great War by the architect Robert Lorimer to transform it into a memorial to the Perthshire dead of that war. (Lorimer also designed the elegant and iconic Commonwealth gravestone and over three hundred war memorials in Britain, Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.)

Within its walls are memorials to two earlier wars.

Boer War Memorial:-

Crimean War Memorial (flanked by two memorials to individuals who died in earlier colonial endeavours):-

Chancel and altar:-

There is a stained glass window in a striking blue:-

More usual kind of stained glass:-

More stained glass. In memory of Eliza Jane Macab:-

And one to the Black Watch:-

An embroidery, “The Stone Ship Rising”:-

A chair in  memory of a former Minister of the Kirk:-

St John’s Kirk, Perth, lies in the centre of the city. It is the site of the city’s War Memorial, which I shall feature later. There is a newer, indeed relatively recent, war memorial to the exterior of the Kirk in St John Street.

This is dedicated to all who gave their lives in the service of their country:-

The Kirk had an open day last September so we took the opportunity for a look around. Model of Kirk:-

Different angle. Pity about the reflections:-

The font:-

This pew had unusual dog-shaped finials:-

The Hauntings is a sculpture of a soldier, made from scrap metal. From 1/7/23 to 12/11/23 it was in the grounds of The Black Watch Museum in Perth but has since moved on. (The museum, housed in Balhousie Castle is a regular haunt of ours as it has a very good café.)

The sculpture was commissioned for the centenary of The Great War and made by metal sculpture specialists, Dorset Forge and Fabrication, “a combination of the talents of blacksmith Chris Hannam and artist Martin Galbavy.”

Sculpture with Balhousie Castle in background:-

Side view:-

Reverse view. The memorial in the background here I featured in 2019:-

I noted the jerry can on the soldier’s right hip. Jerry cans were a World War 2 phenomenon. Not that that matters.

Crieff is a town in Perth and Kinross, almost 18 miles due west of Perth.

Its War Memorial is a stone cross on a hexagonal column above a hexagonal base situated on a triangle of land by the A 85 beyond the east end of the High Street.

Circumscribing the stone above where the name plaques are is inscribed, “In proud and grateful memory of those who fell in the Great Wars 1914-1918 1939 1945.”

Names for Great War, Korean War and Malaya:-

Great War name plaques:-

Names for World Wars 1 and 2:-

World War 2 name plate:-

The Great War Graves in Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth, can be found scattered through it, mostly in its older parts.

Boy A A Cowper, RAF, 24/11/1918, aged 17:-

Private J F Michie, Highland Cyclist Battalion, 27/12/1916:-

Private J Macdonald, 31st Battalion Canadian Infantry, 24/1/0/1916, aged 28:-

Canadian Great War Grave. Private J Heron, 52nd Battalion Canadian Infantry, 4/10/1916, aged 33:-

Private W J Martin, The Black Watch, 17/8/1915, aged 53. It’s unusual even in a cemetery in the UK (overseas it would I suspect be impossible) to have other members of the deceased’s family commemorated at the same burial site:-

“Buried in this cemetery” Fireman J King, MMR, HMS No 12, 30/7/1915:-

Private T Birch, The Black Watch, 24/10/1917, aged 18. This also designates the resting place of “His Father, Thomas Birch.” (Same burial site commemoration is not unique then, even in this cemetery.)

Private J Lumsden, The Black Watch, 9/4/1919, aged 31:-

Private H Kennedy, The Black Watch, 31/1/01914:-

Private Andrew Muckersie, Highland Light Infantry, 31/8/1918, aged 37:-

Private D Whyte, 5th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry, 13/4/1915, aged 25:-

A dual commemoration. Lance Corporal A Gray, Gordon Highlanders, 11/10/1915, aged 19. Private T McColl, Gordon Highlanders, 26/3/1915. Commonwealth war dead headstones with more than one name are fairly common in Belgium and France, less so in the UK:-

Private A Rodger, The Black Watch, 7/11/1918, aged 21:-

Driver P Hodge Royal Field Artillery, 18/12/1919, aged 26:-

Private J Campbell, Royal Army Service Corps, 20/9/1919:-

Private C S Robertson, Army Service Corps, 13/11/1918, aged 38:-