Frank Ross, the Right Honourable Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, led a special group of wreath-layers at the annual Opening Ceremony of the Edinburgh Garden of Remembrance, at the Scott Monument in Princes Street Gardens yesterday.
Members of the Armed Forces community, including veterans, attended the poignant event which marks the start of the traditional two-week Remembrance period. This year it has added significance as it concludes on the day 100 years ago that saw the signing of the Armistice that brought about the end of the First World War.
The service was organised by Legion Scotland and provided the chance to remember those who have fallen in the Great War as well as the many subsequent conflicts. More than 30 wreaths were laid at a service which was also attended by around 500 members of the public.
Among those that joined Edinburgh’s Lord Provost to lay a wreath was Elspeth Ewan (above), whose Father, David A.M. Watson, fought in several arenas during the First World War, including Arras, Passchendaele, the Somme, Beaumont-Hamel and High Wood.
Lance-Corporal Watson, who was born in the Borders and lived to the age of 96, tried to sign up at the start of the war when he was 18. At the time, he was working at the Inland Revenue and had to wait until a replacement could be found for his role.
LCpl Watson, who was just five-feet, three inches tall, played a frustrated waiting game for a year before he was eventually dispatched to the trenches of Arras in 1915. According to Mrs Ewan, her Father’s “first serious engagement” was at High Wood on July 23rd 1916. She said: “My Father was only one of 11 in his Company that survived.”
Mrs Ewan added: “He was first wounded on November 12th that same year – and on the occasion of his 21st birthday to boot! While fighting at Beaumont-Hamel, he was hit by a baseplate of an eight-inch shell. It struck him on the knee, but, luckily, it hit a tree first, otherwise it would have taken his leg off. He was left with a niggle on his knee for the rest of his life.”
Undeterred, Watson returned to the front-line, and, in April 1917, fought at the Battle of Arras. By now, he was a fully-trained signaler. After surviving the horrors of Arras, he travelled to Peron. While there, he was doing his best to evade the unwanted attentions of a sniper, who had been after him for several days, when he slipped down a railway embankment and fell into barbed wire.
Mrs Ewan takes the story on: “He hurt his previously damaged knee on the barbed wire. It started to turn black, so he was sent to Birmingham for treatment. He was about to lose the leg, but a young doctor tried what was then a new treatment at the time and it was saved.”
Watson went back to war for a third time, in 1918. By now, he had learned to operate the cumbersome trench radios; a role he fulfilled with aplomb at Passchendaele. Thereafter, he went into Germany with the Army of Occupation and only returned home in Easter 1919. When he got back to Scotland, LCpl Watson made the decision to never speak about the horrors he had experienced.
Mrs Ewan explains: “It was so awful. No-one at home had any idea what they had been through or the horrors that they had witnessed. Soldiers like my Father could only talk to other people that had been there; not those who had stayed at home. The conditions were unbelievable. So many of them shot themselves, or asked to be shot.”
It took Watson more than 50 years until he was prepared to talk about his experiences in the First World War, and, even then, much of what we know about his incredible years of service has been pieced together by his family. Another symbol of Cpl Watson’s dedication to his country was the fact that he even tried to sign up again in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War Two. By then, as a man well into his forties, he was respectfully turned down; a decision that infuriated him.
Mrs Ewan, 86, laid a wreath (below) and it was a moment of great pride for her: “Laying the wreath meant a lot to me as I was representing my Father. Only in his later life did his thoughts turn to the horrors he and so many others had experienced. It was at that point he wanted to go back to visit the sites of where the fighting took place. He did that until he was 96 years old.”
Commenting on the service, Legion Scotland National Chairman Charlie Brown said: “This was a wonderful occasion which was very well attended by representatives from all three Services. It was heart-warming to see so many people connected to the Armed Forces community in Scotland as well as a fantastic turnout from the public as well.
“While this Centenary year is particularly poignant as we pay tribute to those who fell in the First World War, it is important to remember all of those who served in the many conflicts that have followed since. Today is an opportunity to say ‘Thank You’ to those that gave so much in the service of their country.”
Following the opening of the Garden of Remembrance, guests and members of the public alike then moved into Poppyscotland’s Field of Remembrance. A sea of 8,500 stunning memorials has been created from thousands of Remembrance symbols that have been returned to the charity from supporters across the country and beyond.
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