Trinity Cemeteries lie on both sides of Park Road, Aberdeen. While I was walking past on my way back to the car after Sons League Cup defeat to Aberdeen at Pittodrie in July last year I noticed the Cross of Sacrifice and the Commonwealth War Graves sign on the gates so had to take a look.

The cemeteries contain the graves of over 170 Great War service personnel and over 100 Second World War graves.

Cross of Sacrifice:-

Further in is a Stone of Remembrance:-

Grave of Private R E Dingwall, Pioneer Corps, 2/6/1944, aged 19:-

Aircraftman W J Deans, RAF, 29/12/1942:-

Sergeant G Brand, Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, RAF, 22/1/1944, aged 20:-

Arbirlot‘s Great  War Memorial is in the form of a stained glass window with a cartouche set into the wall of the church (St Ninian’s.)

Also in the graveyard I found  a Commonwealth War Grave and three gravestone mentions of war deaths.

Catherine E Martin, Auxiliary Territorial Service, 20/5/1944, aged 21:-

Munro Park, killed in action in Crete, 2/6/1941, aged 22;-

Joseph Frain Webster, killed in action, Ypres, 30/10/1914:-

Andrew Turpie Butchart, killed in action, France, 29/7/1918, aged 34:-

Hindeloopen’s church, the Grote Kerk, is hard to miss. It’s dedicated to St Gertrude.

From another angle you can see its spire leans:-

In the churchyard are the graves of eleven Commonwealth servicemen of the Second World War:-

Sergeant B W Palastanga, Observer, RAF, 7/11/1941 aged 21 and an Airman known unto God, a Sergeant in the RAF, 1/12/1941:-

Flight Sergeant W H Chapman, RAAF, 22/1/1943, aged 26; Sergeant A B Springett, Wireles s Operator, RAF, 23/11/1943 aged 23; an Airman known unto God, an Officer RCAF, 29/11/1943. In background – an Airman of the RAF known unto God, 26/7/1944.:-

Sergeant J O Organ, Air Gunner, RAF, 5/3/1943, aged 23; Sergeant R O Fulton, Flight Engineer, RCAF, 5/3/1943; an Airman of the RCAF, known unto God:-

Flying Officer G R Sugar, Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, RAF, 13/6/1943, aged 22; an RAF Airman of the 1939-1945 War, known unto God, 31/8/1943:-

Church interior:-

Organ loft:-

Just across the road from St Martin’s Kirk and towards Haddington town centre lies St Martin’s Cemetery. It had the Commonwealth War Graves sign on it.

On entering I immediately saw the Cross of Sacrifice, which means there are at least 30 war graves within. In fact there are 48.  All for the Second World War .

Flight Sergeant M J Turner, RAAF, 12/8/1944, aged 27, Flight Sergeant J H Barnes, Navigator, RAF, 15/4/1945, aged 28, Flight Sergeant R H Pye, RAAF, 12/8/1944, aged 19, Flying Officer R E Wiliams, Navigator, RCAF, 20/4/1945, aged 20.

Flying Officer H K L Rice, Pilot, RNZAF, 3/5/1945, aged 21, Sergeant W Gourlay, Rear Gunner, RAF, 20/4/1945, aged 22, Flying Officer H A Smith, U/T Pilot, RAF, 21/6/1945, aged 21.

Larger group of graves:-

Some graves were set out singly.

Gunner A Stewart, Royal Artillery, 13/1/1942, aged 37.

Private R Burgoyne, The Sherwood Foresters, 7/10/1940, aged 26.

Captain C S H Wilson, Highland Light Infantry, 13/12/1942, aged 27.

Serjeant A J Macdonald, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineeers, 23/1/0/1944, aged 30.

There were also two gravestone dedications to war dead.

Frank Turner, died on active service in Burma, 7/6/1942, aged 30.

Norman Begg Morrison, killed in action, 7/9/1941, aged 19, interred Western Cemetery, Oslo.

Across the access road from the War Cemetery at Oosterbeek is the civil cemetery. On its gates it had a Commonwealth War Graves sign. These graves were of RAF personnel shot down in earlier years of World War 2 while on bombing missions.

Sergeant F T Lay, Flight Engineer, RAF, 3/2/43, aged 21, Pilot Officer W M Smith, RAF, 29/7/1942 and Sergeant A Aldridge, Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, 29/7/1942, aged 20:-

Sergeant J P Harper, Flight Engineer, RAF, 19/7/1943, aged 21, Sergeant C A S Barnett, Navigator, RAF, 15/7/1943, aged 19 and Sergeant H Biggin, RAF Volunteer Reserve, 15/7/1943:-

Sergeant J W Deacon, Air Bomber, RAF, 15/7/1943, aged 20, Sergeant H R Rhodes, Air Gunner, RAF, 15/7/1943, aged 22 and Sergeant G S Cole, Pilot, RAF, 15/7/1943:-

Inside the cemetery by the hedge at the roadside was this structure made of metal hexagons. I couldn’t see a sign indicating what it was:-

Commonwealth War Graves near entrance:-

Three soldiers known only unto God:-

Panorama showing Cross of Sacrifice and back to entrance buildings:-

East edge:-

Panorama towards entrance:-

Jewish Grave. G A Emmanuel, Parachute Regiment, 20/8/1944, aged 28:-

Unusually this headstone has marbling at its top. Private A W Penwill, Parachute Regiment, 18/9/1944, aged 28:-

I couldn’t visit Arnhem without going to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery near Oosterbeek, the place where many casualties of the attempt to capture the John Frost Bridge during Operation Market Garden are buried.

The cemetery is in a quiet location off a side road up a side road.

The path from the car park takes you past the cemetery identifier:-

Beside that is this domed pillar marking local children’s annual commemoration of the battle:-

This plaque beside the entrance informs us that 1754 soldiers or airmen are buried within:-

War Graves Commission information board. More than 90 Polish members of the Parachute Brigade are buried here. I also noted three Dutch graves while walking round:-

View of cemetery from gates, Stone of Remembrance to fore and Cross of Sacrifice behind:-

Cross of Sacrifice. British poppy wreaths with Netherlands wreath on grass:-

As in most Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries the gates are flanked by two buildings which usually contain lists of the buried and the locations within the cemetery of their graves:-

On the wall of one of these were two plaques describing the Arnhem Battle and its place within the wider campaign to liberate Western Europe:-

Kinloss ws the site of an RAF base from 1939 onwards. In 2012 the RAF moved out and the site became a barracks for the Army.

Part of the Kinloss Abbey grounds became a burial ground for war dead. There was already a grave there of a Great War casualty (Lieutenant Percy Strickland, HMS Dublin, 31/5/1916, aged 27.) The remainder are RAF, RCAF, RAAF or RNZAF casualties from World War 2.

There are in total 73 war graves at the site.

Kinloss Abbey ruins and some of the war graves:-

Since there are more than thirty graves the site has a Cross of Sacrifice:-

Reverse view:-

Another set of war graves lies to the right of the above photo; seen here from the Abbey ruin above:-

Reverse view:-

The village of Duffus itself was once called New Duffus, and lies just to the west of old Duffus where only the old church remains.

It has a War Memorial situated in the grounds of the more modern Duffus Kirk.

It is a simple stone cross on a hexagonal pillar above a hexagonal plinth, Duffus Kirk behind:-

Dedications and names:-

Names:-

There is a Commonwealth War Grave in the kirkyard. Private D More, Seaforth Highlanders, 22/4/1918, aged 22:-

Plus a gravestone with a Second World War death dedication to James Grant, killed in Belgium, 1940, aged 19:-

The kirkyard also contains a military grave, that of chief Technician Dennis M Robertson, RAF, 3/8/1992, aged 53:-

In between Ballindalloch and Criagellachie Bridge we turned off the A 95 to find Inveravon Church and its Pictish Stones.

The stones were once in the open but are now kept in a porch:-

Information Boards:-

In the churchyard I found two Commonwealth War Graves.

Private A G Patterson, Seaforth Highlanders, 10/3/1915, aged 18:-

Private J A Cantlie, Gordon Highlanders, 30/5/1918, aged 20:-