We were in Perth at the end of last year and for the first time took a stroll beside the North Inch on the Rose Terrace side.

There we discovered Perth Academy’s Old Building, a fine imposing edifice, used as the school from 1807 to 1932:-

Attached to its wall is this plaque dedicated to those former pupils who fought and died in the Great War:-

On the wall of a building in High Street is this plaque, presented to the people of Perth by the 1st Polish Army Corps in appreciation of the friendship extended to them in the city and county during World War 2:-

Kelty‘s War Memorial stands beside Station Road.

A greatcoated soldier with slung rifle on a square plinth.

Dedication, “To the glorious memory of the men of Kelty who gave their lives in the Great Wars 1914-1918 and 1939-1945,” plus Second World War names:-

East aspect. Great War names:-

West aspect. Great War names:-

Lassodie is a village that no longer exists. When the pits which were its main employment – and reason for being – closed, the land was cleared of housing. A condition of the original granting of mineral rights, apparently.

Nevertheless it has a War Memorial, which lies beside the B912 between the villages of Kingseat and Kelty in Fife, near Loch Fitty.

Dedication. “Erected in grateful remembrance of the men of this village who fell in the Great War 1914-1918,” with below the “grow not old” lines from Laurence Binyon’s For the Fallen.

The Second World War dedication is inscribed on the southern side of the memorial. “To the glory of god and in memory of the men of Lassodie who fell in the 1939-1945 War.”

Situation. In fenced off square by B912 between Kingseat and Kelty:-

We quite often go into Dunfermline.

Late last October the town (Sorry, it’s a city now) was festooned with poppies in the run-up to Remembrance Day.

Carnegie Library, Abbot Street:-

Lower High Street:-

Carnegie Drive:-

On main roundabout

Appin Crescent:-

None of the last tfour photographs was taken by the driver!

This memorial is in the village of Powburn, Northumberland, and is of relatively new construction, dedicated in 2018.

We often stop off in Powburn on our way down to or up from Northeast England as it has an antique centre and a good wee tea-room.

War Memorial from gate:-

From green:-

Flag and memorial:-

Names:-

On the way back up from Peterborough we stopped off at the village of Aldborough in Yorkshire.

There are Roman remains there but the English Heritage site was shut due to Covid restrictions so we couldn’t access them. Maybe another time.

Aldborough is one of those English villages centred round a village green. It’s slightly unusual in that the green still has a maypole.

The other part of the green has a lovely oak tree on it:-

There was the obligatory church (St Andrew’s):-

Another historical hangover is the presence of stocks:-

The memorial you can see beyond the stocks in the photo above was erected on the 50th anniversary of an air crash where due to the skill of the pilot the aeroplane narrowly avoided Aldborough. All seven crew were killed.

This stone is just along from the memorial. It records where MPs for Aldborough and Boroughbridge were elected in the days before the Great Reform Act of 1832. Was Aldborough a rotten borough?

On one of the side walls of Peterborough Cathedral are the colours of the Royal Anglian Regiment (the 2nd Battalion I think.)

In St Sprite’s Chapel are these memorials (left) to members of the King’s School Peterborough (Scola Regia Petraburgensis) who lost their lives in World War 2 and (right) to members of St Peter’s Training College who died in the Great War:-

Rolls of honour:-

There is also a memorial to Edith Cavell, the British nurse executed by the Germans in 1915 for helping Allied soldiers to escape:-

The day after Bletchley Park we visited Peterborough again.

Unlike last time, we managed to get to see the inside of Peterborough Cathedral, my photograph of which is here.

There’s a lot to see there – including a Boer War Memorial:-

I was sad to hear on the news today and read in the Guardian that the Imperial War Graves Commission* failed to ensure that African or Indian servicemen of the Empire in the Great War were accorded the same treatment in death as those from the UK and the Dominions.

I can’t say however that I was very surprised – a clue is in the name: Imperial War Graves Commission.

It’s no excuse for the behaviour of those in charge but the times were different and the attitudes of the powers that were were very unenlightened compared to those that I hope would apply now.

Again, there’s no excuse but it may have been a non-Western Front ruling. There are certainly individual graves of Maori soldiers at Birr Cross Roads Cemetery near Ypres. But New Zealand was of course a Dominion not a colony. (I also remember seeing somewhere a headstone for a Chinese member of the Labour Battalion but not which cemetery his grave was in.)

There are of course collective memorials to Nepalese and Indian soldiers at the Menin Gate as well as names of individual Burmese and Indian soldiers on the building itself.

However, it was and is deplorable that non-white servicemen were at any time not accorded the respect that was – and still is – their due.

*The name was later changed to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission