In the run up to Remembrance Day, space at Oban’s Rockfield Centre is paying a fitting tribute to the war brave in the form of two poignant exhibitions.
Many of the touching artefacts on display have been donated by families of those who gave their lives in the world war conflicts – and some who did make it home.
On until November 15, the exhibition, curated by a band of stalwart volunteers behind this year’s centenary of the town’s war memorial, is a must-see.
From a 100-year-old rough-clothed tunic, to caps, medals, photographs – including one of the unveiling of the war memorial, and craft models – the exhibition is respectful and emotional.
Heart-wrenching are the stories told in books and letters. One letter in particular is from 18-year-old 2nd Lieutenant Duncan McDougall of the 1st Battallion Seaforth Highlanders.
He writes to his mother and sister Norah on May 5, 1915, that “We are going back into the trenches tomorrow and I hear that we are going to attack, having seen what I have seen since coming to France it may happen that one day I shall not come marching back with the Battalion. I am therefore writing these few lines, which I hope may not reach you after my death.”It ends “Good-bye, God bless you.”
Duncan, from Oban, was killed leading his platoon in an attack on the German trenches at Rue du Bois, near Neuve Chapelle in the early hours of May 9, 1925.
A copy of his letter is on show next to a gold-framed portrait of him, taken from a photograph.
The exhibition also gives visitors a chance to read through three user-copy volumes of stories bringing to life those whose names are remembered on the war memorial. The books are the result of pain-staking research over 18 months as part of the war memorial’s centenary commemorations.
In a small exhibition room next to it, is a display on the memorial’s sculptor Alexander Carrick, one of Scotland’s foremost sculptors in the first half of the 20th century.
He also undertook sculptures and stone carving work for a number of prominent buildings, including the William Wallace statue at Edinburgh Castle, St Andrews House and the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall and Eilean
Donan Castle.
His career began at the age of 15 as an apprentice and in 1905 he won the Queen’s prize of a two-year scholarship studying at South Kensington college in London.
In 1908 on returning to Scotland he completed his training as assistant to another well-
known Scottish sculptor Pittendrigh MacGillivary. After two years he established himself as a monumental sculptor and opened his own yard in Edinburgh. He was also appointed as a teacher at The Edinburgh College of Art in 1914.
But in 1916 at the age of 34 Carrick himself was called up and joined The Royal Garrison Artillery where he was posted to the Western Front near Ypres.
Like so many others this must have been a traumatic experience for him having to leave a promising career, a new wife and a very young daughter to find himself in the midst of a horrendous battlefield.
Oban War Memorial was carved from Doddington Stone from the Cheviot Hills which was Carrick’s favourite stone to work with.
It took four years of fundraising and subscriptions to pay £1,450 for the memorial.
The viewpoint at Pulpit Hill was the site chosen originally but Oban Town Council, on the advice of the architect decided that it would be more accessible and within sight of the bereaved – It would also be less expensive due to the difficulty with transporting it uphill.
Not all names of the fallen are listed – some families chose not to have their loved ones
names displayed on the memorial.
The memorial depicts a scene, which Carrick must have seen many times, of two soldiers carrying a wounded comrade to safety.
“Carrick would have wanted to produce a memorial befitting to those who were less fortunate than himself and lost their lives in the First World War. He himself would have lost many friends and comrades in the war and they would be very much in his thoughts as he was carving his memorials,” said John C Scott, Carrick’s grandson.
Caption; Projected poppy display on the front of Argyll Square Church, Oban
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