Kirriemuir’s War Memorial is right at the top end of Kirriemuir Cemetery. It takes the form of a kilted Scottish soldier with raised rifle surmounting a square stone, elaborately capped block with columns at its corners containing WW1 names resting on a larger plinth with inscriptions all set on a stepped base.

The base is inscribed with the word “France.” The dedication reads, “This monument is raised to perpetuate the memory of the youth and manhood of the parish of Kirriemuir who fell in the service of their king and country in the Great War. It stands a tribute of homage to the fallen and an abiding inspiration to posterity. ‘Their name liveth for evermore.'” The panel holds names for the Great War:-

Each side of the memorial contains Great War names and that of an area of conflict, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli and Belgium:-

In front of the older memorial is a further granite plinth commemorating the dead of World War 2 with the dedication, “To perpetuate the memory of those who gave their lives in the World War 1939 – 1945” and names from the Black Watch, the Royal Navy, the RAF and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force:-

On one side of the plinth are commemorated soldiers of the Gordon Highlanders, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, Royal Scots and Royal Engineers:-

On the other the Royal Army Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Scots Guards, Seaforths and Royal Corps of Signals:-

Nearby is a War memorial bench:-

As well as the grave of J M Barrie, Kirriemuir Cemetery contains several Commonwealth War Graves.

Private W P Brown, RAF, 26/6/1918, aged 17:-

Private N Clark, RAMC, 29/1/1919, aged 25:-

Private D Lindsay, The Black Watch, 23/9/1919, aged 36:-

In addition this family gravestone had a commemoration of a war death, Robert MacKay Young, killed by enemy action, 28/1/1942. Interred at Reichswald Forest, Cleve:-

Kirriemuir, in Angus, Scotland was the birthplace of playwright and creator of Peter Pan, J M Barrie.

It’s a nice wee town, north of Dundee and a few miles away from Glamis and its Castle which was the childhood home of the late Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. (I posted a photo of the War Memorial for Glamis village, on which is the name of her brother, as the Honourable Fergus Lyon, here.)

Many of its buildings are constructed from red sandstone:-

In the centre of the town there is of course a statue of Peter Pan:-

Barrie’s birthplace is now in the hands of the National Trust for Scotland. The family lived in a room and kitchen on the first floor.

In a house like this the kitchen is a largish room with a cooking range of some sort and usually what is called a bed recess, which is an alcove designed to fit a box bed into. Probably all the kids in a family would have slept in that bed. Today a kitchen like that would be described as a ‘family room’ as it was multi functional. The ‘room’ usually had a bed recess too and the parents slept in that one. Sometimes the ‘room’ doubled up as a sort of parlour during the day. There were eight children in the Barrie family and what with all of them and the noise of the weaving looms on which his father worked, it must have been a bit lively.

The entrance doorway is round the back:-

Just across form the entrance is a washhouse which was J M Barrie’s inspiration for the Wendy House in Peter Pan.

There’s not much light in there but you can see the tub, basket and washboard:-

Barrie never forgot his origins. One of his brothers died young and he used this as the genesis of the idea for the ‘boy who never grew up.’ Barrie’s mother could not get over her loss and he himself felt pressure to live up to her perfect memory of his dead brother. Despite his subsequent fame and fortune he was buried in the family plot in Kirriemuir Cemetery (which is up a fairly steep hill from the road leading east out of the town.)

Barrie’s grave. The plaque saying ‘J M Barrie Playwright’ is reasonably new. When I first visited there the grave’s surroundings were much plainer:-