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.

St Martin’s Kirk is a historic ruined church in Haddington, East Lothian. We stopped there on our way back from Dirleton, Tantallon and Hailes Castles. The kirk is in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. It stands in the middle of a field.

Reverse view:-

Interior:-

One of the walls bears a plaque detailing the kirk’s history:-

Side view:-

These were in St Mary’s Collegiate Church yard.

Serjeant A Runciman, Royal Scots, 15/8/1915, aged 37:-

Military Medal recipient Serjeant J H V Suffill, HLI, 14/2/1919, aged 22:-

Sapper J B Cranston, Royal Engineers, 13/5/1916, aged 28:-

The grave of Colour Sergeant L H Hardie, Royal Scots, 28/5/1972, aged 39, being a non-war death, has an amended version of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone with a notch cut either side of the top:-

Another grave had a dedication to Flying Officer James Hubert Craig, RAF, 28/3/1946,in Burma aged 24. Buried in Rangoon:-

St Mary’s Collegiate Church, Haddington is a fine example of church architecture.

Church from approach path:-

The next two photos are stitches:-

The River Tyne flows past the rear of the church and under the Nungate Bridge:-

I assume at one time nuns passed through the Nungate on their way to and from the church.

Haddington War Memorial lies in the grounds of St Mary’s Collegiate Church, Haddington, East Lothian.

Its War Memorial is an embellished stone cross on a tapering column above a square base.

The first picture has St Mary’s Church in the background:-

Great War Dedication (plus some names for World War 1):-

Second World War Dedication and names:-

More Great War names:-

Additional World War 2 names:-

On the way back from Dunbar a couple of weeks ago we stopped off in Haddington, which used to be the county town of East Lothian.

There were a couple of buildings which may have been Art Deco. The fenestration on this is of the period anyway.

Then there was this:-

Again it’s the windows which feel right.

I didn’t find the War Memorial (it was a cursory visit) but there was a nice garden/bower built for the 50^th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

The trees are part of the memorial. The wording on the plaque is below.