This was the big one. I had been to St Petersburg before – when it was Leningrad, on a school cruise back in the heyday of the Soviet Union when we were shown the bullet holes on buildings’ walls still left over from the siege of the city during the Great Patriotic War (as World War 2 is called in those parts) – but my wife hadn’t, and with her interest in Russian history it was a place she had always wanted to see and was the reason we chose to go on this cruise at all.

The city straddles the River Neva (and a bit beyond) which therefore appears in many of our photographs. It is also home to some magnificent architecture, beautiful palaces from the time of the Tsars (in stark contrast to the conditions in which ordinary folk lived, sometimes ten or more to a room in pre-revolutionary days.)

The Winter Palace, St Petersburg, from across River Neva:-

The Winter Palace is part of the famous Hermitage Museum another part of which – along with a couple of ferries – is seen below:-

Other buildings on River Neva frontage-

I got a closer view of the Naval Academy:-

The Peter and Paul Fortress, lies on an island:-

Closer view seen through rainy coach windows:-

I couldn’t get far enough back to get all of this building in. In St Petersburg terms it’s fairly unremarkable:-

A gilded tower in the city centre. (Note saltire flag in blue on white – St Andrew is Russia’s patron saint as well as Scotland’s, besides other countries.)

Riverfront builidings and St Isaac’s Cathedral beyond:-

What with no football to fill your Saturday afternoons with dread or joy or … meh.

What with having to stay at home on a beautiful day.

What with wall-to-wall pieces on the TV cobbled from social media feeds or interviewing their so-called “stars”.

What with being depressed enough by the news.

Then after said news on Channel 4 tonight the announcer said next on was a film starring Vera Lynn! We’ll Meet Again, no less.

We’ve now definitely disappeared down a plughole into a bizarre altered reality.

Just to get it straight, guys. We are not in a real war. We’re not in any sort of re-enactment of the 1940s.

The UK is certainly not being led by people with any of the competence of those in the wartime coalition (even if one them was supposed to have “much to be modest about,” a remark belied by his subsequent achievements.)

This is a pandemic – an inevitable pandemic, one that was coming down the line sometime; they always do – for which leaders obsessed with lowering taxes and balancing budgets failed to prepare.

If you want a Second World War analogy, it is those same politicians who occupy the place of the 1930s appeasers of fascism. I hope the public remembers and doesn’t forgive them. History certainly won’t.

Muckhart is a collective term for two small villages in Clackmannanshire, Yetts o’ Muckhart and Pool of Muckhart. Both of these are near to Cowden Garden but unlike the garden are on the main A 91 road.

I found these graves in Muckhart Parish Church graveyard in Pool of Muckhart, which has a lovely situation below the Ochil Hills.

Serjeant W Cairns, Royal Engineers, 30/11/1918.

Lieutenant J D Cairns, B Sc, CA, 54th L A A Regt, R A, (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) Territorial Army,18/3/1946, aged 42:-

I suppose these may have been father and son.

One of the other gravestones contained dedications to two brothers, Gunner James Petrie, Royal Field Artillery, died of wounds, 5/4/1918, aged 26.
Private David Petrie, Black Watch, killed in action, July 2nd, aged 20.

Kennoway is a village in Fife, a few miles east of Markinch.

Its war memorial is a Celtic Cross above a tapering granite plinth:-

Great War Dedication; in the stone wreath above the plinth, “1914 – 1918” then “Kennoway,” “Erected in loving memory of the men of this parish who gave their lives fighting for their couhtry’s honour.” Names for the Great War:-

Other Wars Dedication; World War 2, “1939 -1945,” Malaya, Korean War, Falklands:-

Reverse; “Other conflicts, Afghanistan, Stephen Walker”:-

Innerleithen’s cemetery is on the left hand side of the road as you go into the town from the direction of Traquair. I found twelve Commonwealth War Graves, eight for World War 2, four for the Great War.

J MCI Melrose, Royal Signals, 21/3/1944, aged 21:-

W Craig, Ordinary Seaman, RN, HMS Ganges, 14/8/1945, aged 18:-

Private J Strachan, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 13/6/1945, aged 18:-

Corporal G K Brunton, The Royal Scots, 18/2/1944, aged 32:-

Lance Corporal R T Smith, The Royal Scots, 13/6/1941, aged 23:-

Sergeant G Russell, RAF, 6/5/1942, aged 32:-

Trooper R Crosbie, 1st Lothians & Border Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps, 28/12/1940, aged 21:-

Lieutenant R Campbell, 1st Peebles-shire Home Guard, 20/8/1944, aged 55. It’s unusual to see a War Grave for someone who was in the Home Guard:-

Private J Aitchison, 14th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, 15/10/1916, aged 40:-

Sergeant W J Bell, Royal Scots, 27/1/1917, aged 37. (And his wife, Isobel Hislop, died 22/5/1981, aged 87. 64 years after her husband.) I note that, as is the Scottish custom, Sergeant Bell’s wife reverted to her maiden name in death:-

Sapper G Blake, Royal Engineeers, 2/5/1918, aged 46:-

Lance Serjeant Edward Oliver, Royal Scots, 24/2/1916, aged 23:-

Innerleithen is a small town on the A 72 in Tweeddale, the Scottish Borders, in Peebleshire as was.

For a few years in the 1960s my grandfather (the original Jack Deighton) and grandmother Margery, lived in the town. It’s been one of my favourite places ever since.

Innerleithen War Memorial is an erect stone slab set in the grounds of the Memorial Hall off the B 709, at the junction between Leithen Road and Chapel Street. The gate is inscribed Innerleithen War Memorial:-

Dedications. “Pro Patria” inside a wreath flanked by “1914 – 1918,” Great War Names.”1939 – 1945,” and an additional lower plaque for a 1939 – 1945 addended name:-

I posted a single photograph of this war memorial in 2013. A year or so ago I took some more.

Traquair War Memorial from across B 709:-

Dedication, “Lest We Forget” on bar of cross, Great War names on column:-

Dedications and WW2 Name. “To the memory of those who from this part of Traquair gave their lives in the cause of freedom 1914 – 1918.” The lower block is inscribed, “1939 – 1945. Lieut R D Ballantyne, Cardrona, DLI.” Cardrona is a vilage a mile or so from Traquair on the B 7602 to Peebles:-

Great War Names. I see from The Scottish Military Research Group – Commemorations Project that the first name here, Honourable E W Tennant, was one of the war poets.

Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (in two World Wars,) Gulf War 1990-1991, Falkland Islands 1982, Bell of HMS Glasgow 1938:-

Scots Guards Memorial. The plaque commemorates those who died in Northern Ireland or due to terrorist activity. The upper plaque states a nearby window was dedicated in 1950 by the Duke of Gloucester to Scots Guards who died on active service in earlier conflicts:-

I first posted about Falkland War memorial here. In 2018 an extra memorial was added by its side. This takes the form of a green and red cart filled with Memorial crosses. I assume this was placed here to mark the 100th anniversary of the Great War’s end. It lies beside the very recently erected Falkland War Memorial (see link) before which the town’s fallen were commemorated by a plaque housed in various buildings over the years.

Memorial crosses:-

The memorial is in Hope Paton Park. View from side:-

The memorial is a bronze figure of Victory standing on a ball above a stone pedestal, with supplementary pillars. Memorial bench to front:-

Reverse view:-

Great War Dedication. Bronze plaque inscribed, “To the glory of God and in sacred memory of those belonging to Montrose who gave their lives in a great cause 1914 – 1919”:-

Great War Names, A Adam to R Falconer:-

D Fawns to A McKenzie:-

F McKenzie to J Young:-

There are names on both sides of the pillars dedicated to World War 2.

Commemorating the dead from 1939, 1940 and 1941:-

Commemorating the dead from 1941 (continued) and 1942:-

Commemorating those fallen in 1943 and 1944:-

Commemorating the dead from 1944 (continued,) 1945 and 1946:-