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Perth Museum

Perth Museum recently relocated to the building which used to be Perth City Hall. It’s slap bang in the middle of the city so a good location.

The new museum’s main attraction is the Stone of Destiny, removed from Edinburgh Castle to be nearer to its spiritual home in Scone a couple of miles north of Perth itself.

Some of the exhibits have been transferred from the old Museum and Art Gallery in George Street, notably the St Madoes stone, which, in its new location, is now lit up to help highlight the carvings:-

St Madoes stone, Perth Museum, Scotland

Side and back views:-

Side of St Madoes Stone, Perth Museum

Perth Museum, St Madoes Stone

I particularly liked, though, the illumintaed map of Perth through the ages where different parts were lit up at different times to show the evolution of the town/city:-

Illuminated Map of Perth, Perth Museum

Perth Museum, Illuminated Map of  Perth

Then of course there was this picture of the famous old Pullars of Perth premises a building which verges on Art Deco:-

https://flic.kr/p/2pQo4ad

Second World War Memorials, St John’s Kirk, Perth

Plaque dedicated to the men of St John’s Kirk:-

St John's Kirk, Perth, Second World War Memorial

Burma Star Association flag and plaque. The plaque bears the Kohima Epitaph:-

Burma Star Association Flag, St John's Kirk, Perth

Upper memorial for the Scottish Area Women’s Royal Army Corps and lower one for the Royal Army Service Corps in both wars:-

War Memorial Plaques, St John's Kirk, Perth

Parachute Regiment and British Special Airborne Forces Memorial:-

Parachute Regiment and British Special Airborne Forces Memorial, St John's Kirk, Perth

Tapestry Memorial to 51st Highland Division:-

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

War Memorial, St John’s Kirk, Perth

War Memorial alcove, St John’s Kirk, Perth:-

War Memorial Window, St John's Kirk, Perth

Great War Memorial (to left above):-

Great War Memorial, St John's Kirk, Perth

Below the memorial are two Rolls of Honour. The first below takes in Perthshire and also covers World War 2 as may the second:-

Perthshire Roll of Honour, St John's Kirk, Perth

 

St John's Kirk, Perth, Roll of Honour

Great War Memorial to men connected with St John’s East Parish Church:-

Congregation War Memorial, St John's Kirk, Perth

Masonic Great War Memorial:-

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

Boer and Crimean War Memorials, St John’s Kirk, Perth

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:-

Boer War Memorial, St John's Kirk, Perth

Crimean War Memorial (flanked by two memorials to individuals who died in earlier colonial endeavours):-

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

Interior, St John’s Kirk, Perth

Chancel and altar:-

Chancel and Altar, St John's Kirk, Perth

There is a stained glass window in a striking blue:-

Stained Glass Window, St John's Kirk, Perth

More usual kind of stained glass:-

St John's Kirk, Perth, Stained Glass

 

More stained glass. In memory of Eliza Jane Macab:-

More Stained Glass, St John's Kirk, Perth

And one to the Black Watch:-

St John's Kirk, Perth, Stained Glass Window

An embroidery, “The Stone Ship Rising”:-

An Embroidery in St John's Kirk, Perth

A chair in  memory of a former Minister of the Kirk:-

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

St John’s Kirk, Perth

St John’s Kirk, Perth, lies in the centre of the city. It is the site of the city’s War Memorial, which I shall feature later. There is a newer, indeed relatively recent, war memorial to the exterior of the Kirk in St John Street.

St John's Kirk, Perth, External  War Memorial

This is dedicated to all who gave their lives in the service of their country:-

External War Memorial at St John's Kirk, Perth

The Kirk had an open day last September so we took the opportunity for a look around. Model of Kirk:-

Model of St John's Kirk, Perth,

Different angle. Pity about the reflections:-

St John's Kirk, Perth, Model

The font:-

Font, St John's Kirk, Perth

This pew had unusual dog-shaped finials:-

https://flic.kr/p/2qFxZ5e

The Hauntings

The Hauntings is a sculpture of a soldier, made from scrap metal. From 1/7/23 to 12/11/23 it was in the grounds of The Black Watch Museum in Perth but has since moved on. (The museum, housed in Balhousie Castle is a regular haunt of ours as it has a very good café.)

The sculpture was commissioned for the centenary of The Great War and made by metal sculpture specialists, Dorset Forge and Fabrication, “a combination of the talents of blacksmith Chris Hannam and artist Martin Galbavy.”

Sculpture with Balhousie Castle in background:-

The Hauntings Sculpture, 2

The Hauntings Sculpture

Side view:-

The Hauntings Sculpture 4

Reverse view. The memorial in the background here I featured in 2019:-

The Hauntings Sculpture 3

I noted the jerry can on the soldier’s right hip. Jerry cans were a World War 2 phenomenon. Not that that matters.

Crieff War Memorial

Crieff is a town in Perth and Kinross, almost 18 miles due west of Perth.

Its War Memorial is a stone cross on a hexagonal column above a hexagonal base situated on a triangle of land by the A 85 beyond the east end of the High Street.

Crieff War Memorial

Circumscribing the stone above where the name plaques are is inscribed, “In proud and grateful memory of those who fell in the Great Wars 1914-1918 1939 1945.”

Names for Great War, Korean War and Malaya:-

Crieff War Memorial, Names for Great War, Korean War and Malaya

Great War name plaques:-

Name Plaques, Crieff War Memorial 3

Names for World Wars 1 and 2:-

Crieff War Memorial, Names for World Wars 1 and 2

World War 2 name plate:-

https://flic.kr/p/2p8S6yP

Great War Graves, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

The Great War Graves in Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth, can be found scattered through it, mostly in its older parts.

Boy A A Cowper, RAF, 24/11/1918, aged 17:-

Great War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Private J F Michie, Highland Cyclist Battalion, 27/12/1916:-

Great War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Private J Macdonald, 31st Battalion Canadian Infantry, 24/1/0/1916, aged 28:-

Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth, Great War Grave

Canadian Great War Grave. Private J Heron, 52nd Battalion Canadian Infantry, 4/10/1916, aged 33:-

Canadian Great War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Private W J Martin, The Black Watch, 17/8/1915, aged 53. It’s unusual even in a cemetery in the UK (overseas it would I suspect be impossible) to have other members of the deceased’s family commemorated at the same burial site:-

Great War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill CemeteryPerth

“Buried in this cemetery” Fireman J King, MMR, HMS No 12, 30/7/1915:-

Commonwealth War Headstone, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Private T Birch, The Black Watch, 24/10/1917, aged 18. This also designates the resting place of “His Father, Thomas Birch.” (Same burial site commemoration is not unique then, even in this cemetery.)

War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Private J Lumsden, The Black Watch, 9/4/1919, aged 31:-

War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Private H Kennedy, The Black Watch, 31/1/01914:-

Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth Great War Grave

Private Andrew Muckersie, Highland Light Infantry, 31/8/1918, aged 37:-

Great War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Private D Whyte, 5th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry, 13/4/1915, aged 25:-

Great War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

A dual commemoration. Lance Corporal A Gray, Gordon Highlanders, 11/10/1915, aged 19. Private T McColl, Gordon Highlanders, 26/3/1915. Commonwealth war dead headstones with more than one name are fairly common in Belgium and France, less so in the UK:-

Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth, Grave for the Great War

Private A Rodger, The Black Watch, 7/11/1918, aged 21:-

Great War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Driver P Hodge Royal Field Artillery, 18/12/1919, aged 26:-

Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth, Great War Grave

Private J Campbell, Royal Army Service Corps, 20/9/1919:-

Great War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Private C S Robertson, Army Service Corps, 13/11/1918, aged 38:-

Great War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Individual War Graves, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Four of the individual war graves in Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery commemorate World War 2 dead.

Serjeant J Walker, Royal Engineers, 23/1/0/1944, aged 28:-

Commonwealth War Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

Private J Logan, The Black Watch, 24/8/1944, aged 42:-

Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth, Commonwealth War Grave

Private H Clark, Royal Army Service Corps, 12/11/1942, aged 32. Another inscription tells us that Private H Clark’s nephew, John Macdonald, of HMS ‘Matabele’ was lost at sea 17/1/1942, aged 20:-

Commonwealth War Grave,

Flight Sergeant J B Forbes, Air Gunner, RAF, 1/2/1946, aged 33:-

World War 2 Grave, Jeanfield and Wellshill Cemetery, Perth

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