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):-

https://flic.kr/p/2qGopVv

Last May we travelled down through England. We stopped off at Retford in Nottinghamshire to break the trip up.

This, in the Market Square, is the Town Hall:-

I was intrigued by the flags on the building below. It was only when I recognised the figure must be Robin Hood that I realised this is the flag of Nottinghamshire:-

This booty from the Crimean War is the Sevastopol Cannon:-

Plaque on cannon:-

The information board nearby calls it the Sebastopol Cannon, using the modern spelling:-

Dean Cemetery is right next to the former Dean Gallery now known as Modern Two.

On a visit last May we took a stroll through the cemetery and I came across this, which appeared to be a Crimean War Memorial:-

The plaque reads, “In memory of 369 non-commissioned Officers and men of the 79th Highlanders who died in Bulgaria and the Crimea or fell in action during the campaign of 1854-5,” with beow that on the stone steps “Alma” and “Sevastopol”.

Close-up on plaque:-

However, a plaque on the other side of the memorial is dedicated to the East Indies Campaign of 1857-1871:-

On the step below it is commemorated “Lucknow”:-

In St Deiniol’s churchyard, Hawarden, I noticed a sign pointing to a Crimean War grave. Naturally I made my way to it.

Not only was Thomas Ryan, “a native of Kilkenny and late Troop Sergeant Major in HM XVIII Lancers,” present at the Battles of Alma, Inkerman and Sevastopol* he was at Balaklava* and was no less than a survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade!

Whom – as his gravestone has it – “God’s high grace saved from death in the memorable light cavalry charge at Balaklava.”

Strictly speaking this is not a war grave as Ryan came back from Crimea and, “took his final discharge on October 20^th 1908, aged 88 years.”

A wonderful thing to come on out of the blue, though.

*As the spellings were then.

Highland Light Infantry, Indian North West Frontier 1863:-

Memorial to Sutherland Highlanders of the Crimean War:-

Boer War Memorial to Sappers James Hunter and Thomas Money of First Lanarkshire Royal Engineers, February 1901:-

Royal Army Medical Corps Boer War Memorial. Private W Munro, Erlandsfontein, 7/4/1901 and Corporals G G Penman, Bloemfontein, 12/11/1900 and J Howat,Bloemfontein, 1/12/1900:-

Rhu Churchyard contains several graves of historical note.

It contains the grave of the father of steam navigation, Henry Bell.

As befits his historical importance the memorial incorporates a statue of Bell in a seated position.

Then there is the grave of John Motion, late Sgt Major of the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, one of ‘The Thin Red Line‘ at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War.

Detail:-

And this grave, “Erected by the Officers and ex-Officers 1st Dunbartonshire Rifle Volunteers in memory of Col Henry Currie, late commandant 1st Dunbartonshire Rifle Volunteers and formerly of the 24th and 79th Highlanders. Died at Helensburgh 17th March 1899 aged 54 years”:-