REMEMBERING SCOTLAND AT WAR
August 6, 2010
The Museum of the Black Watch will feature in Remembering Scotland At War launched at Edinburgh Castle on Thursday, 24 June 2010.
Remembering Scotland At War is a pioneering online museum with a social networking area particularly aimed at ‘capturing memories’ which has been developed by Museums Galleries Scotland. It showcases and encourages personal accounts from civilians, younger and older veterans, and currently serving military of how conflict has affected them.
The culmination of a three year project led by Museums Galleries Scotland and funded by the Big Lottery Fund, Remembering Scotland At War features over 200 exhibitions, interviews, photographs and footage spanning from the Second World War to more recent conflicts including Iraq and Afghanistan. Accounts include personal stories of individuals, families, local communities, and even the impact on Scotland’s landscapes.
In addition to the online museum’s exhibitions, there is an interactive social media area where personal memories can be exchanged and anyone can create a profile to upload their own reminiscences, photographs and videos, discuss exhibitions and make comments. The museum is free, constantly evolving and fully interactive.
As part of developing the online museum, Museums Galleries Scotland worked with 13 museums and galleries across Scotland to create the thought-provoking exhibitions. These stretch from The Museum of The Black Watch (Perth) and Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and Museum (Lyness) to West Dunbartonshire Council and Highland Council’s museums’ services. Part of creating these stories involved working closely with local schools, youth and community groups to gather emotive reminiscences. A key part of the work involved bringing older and younger generations together to learn from each other.
The exhibitions feature hundreds of moving accounts. Being taken prisoner by the Germans in World War Two, being a child buried in rubble during the Clydebank Blitz and training for deployment to Afghanistan are all examples of how people have remembered a ‘conflict role’.
Thsi Happens in War
Through the exhibition entitled, ‘This Happens in War’, The Museum of The Black Watch has collaborated with the YMCA Perth to gather and record personal emotive and humbling memories from members of the famous 51st Highland Division, the Wrens and National Serviceman. It has also worked with Atholl Country Life Museum and the St Andrews Preservation Trust to find stories, photographs and artefacts from the War on the Home Front. The development of Remembering Scotland At War included intergenerational work which has been inspirational to younger people and created a greater understanding of the impact that war can have.
The Museum of the Black Watch’s contribution covers conflicts from the Second World War to the Korean War and the Kenyan insurgency. Featuring a number of topics from the War at Home, Conscription and National Service to war zones in North Africa, France, Germany, and more recently, Korea and Kenya, these are brought to life through the life stories and memories of veterans from Fife, Perthshire and Angus.
Veterans remember
Veterans from the Museum of the Black Watch featured in the Remembering Scotland At War digital museum include: Ruth O’Riordan (85) from Auchtermuchty, Fife, joined the Women’s’ Royal Naval Service in 1942. She was trained as an electrician and fitted torpedoes to Barracuda bombers at HMS Jackdaw, Crail, Fife.
Harry Ellis (77) from Dundee served his National Service as a piper in The Black Watch in Kenya. His father, a piper in World War One, died in 1940, when Harry was only 8 years old. As well as piping for the Black Watch companies in their outstations, Harry Ellis also went on one occasion to Zanzibar to pipe at the Sultan’s birthday.
George Arnott (87) and his father acted as a voluntary fireman and put out fires in neighbouring houses when Birmingham was bombed. George joined the Royal Corps of Signals. He can still tap out his name in Morse Code. Then George volunteered to go overseas. He joined the Divisional Headquarters of 51st Highland Division in April 1943. He witnessed the defeat of the Germans in North Africa. He then fought his way across to Sicily and Italy. The 51st Highland Division was withdrawn to Britain. George vividly remembers returning to Liverpool and, with his 8th Army Desert Rats ribbon on his chest, being offered drinks everywhere he went. George took part in the Normandy landings in June 1944. George still has French money that was issued to British soldiers. George was in Holland and braved the snow of the Ardennes offensive in early 1945. He was invalided out of action just as the 51st Highland Division entered Germany. George now lives in retirement in Comrie.
Comments
Joanne Orr, CEO of Museums Galleries Scotland said: “We have been delighted to lead this ground breaking project. With advancing technology, there are increasing options for the way museums and galleries tell stories about their collections and – most importantly – how those stories affect individuals.”
Ruari Halford-MacLeod, who led The Museum of Black Watch contribution, said: “Our Remembering Scotland At War project – entitled ‘This Happens In War’ – has been a fantastic opportunity to work with local veterans and young people to gather stories from the Second World War and the Korean and Kenyan campaigns. It’s been a hugely beneficial experience for all involved and we’ve created a remarkable resource for the future.”
“We have all been influenced by Scotland’s involvement in worldwide conflict. From stories told on your grandfather’s knee to emotive images you see on today’s news, this pioneering online museum, enriched by The Museum of the Black Watch’s significant contribution, ensures that our personal stories are never forgotten. By adding our memories and photographs, we can all contribute to a rich collection that benefits and challenges all generations.”
Remembering Scotland At War
Remembering Scotland At War features a dedicated learning resources centre where pupils, teachers and parents can download school-based activities. It will also be available to pupils and teachers through Learning and Teaching Scotland’s new Scottish schools’ intranet, Glow, giving more access to images.
To explore the exhibition or to ‘add a memory’, visit the museum at www.RememberingScotlandAtWar.org.uk
Touring exhibition
The Museum of the Black Watch’s touring exhibition ‘This Happens in War’ is currently at Atholl Country Life Museum from June 1 to September 30 2010 (an admission fee applies).
More information
Museums Galleries Scotland represents 350 museums and galleries across the length and breadth of Scotland. The sector welcomes over 25 million visitors a year, earning over £800 million to the Scottish economy.
Remembering Scotland At War is part of a UK initiative, Their Past Your Future, which is led by a partnership of: the Imperial War Museum; Museums, Libraries and Archives England; Northern Ireland Museum Council; National Library of Wales; and Museums Galleries Scotland. The programme is supported by the Big Lottery Fund.
There are over 50 themes covered in the online museum including: wartime entertainment; illness, injury and medical units; internment of enemy aliens; Scotland in the aftermath of war; the Suez Crisis; genocide; and the Cold War. Each theme is brought to life with filmed interviews with veterans and civilians, often carried out by school children or youth groups, photographs, documents and images.
The 13 museums and galleries and their projects are:
- Aberdeenshire Council, “What’s The War Got To Do With Us?”
- Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Museum, Stirling, “Pull Up A Sandbag”
- The Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen, "Post-War Conflicts and Peace-Keeping Missions"
- Highland Council, “Hidden Highland Histories WWII”
- Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery, Glasgow, “The Glasgow West War Story”
- Kildonan Museum, South Uist, “Proiseact Beinn na Coraraidh”
- McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock, “Waterways and Recovery Bays”
- Museum nan Eilean, Isle of Lewis, “Lewis At War”
- The Museum of The Black Watch, Perth, “This Happens In War”
- Museum of the Isles, “The Crofters and the Second World War”
- Orkney Islands Council, “Fortress Orkney”
- West Dunbartonshire Council, “Singers, Sirens and Silent Heroes”
- West Lothian Council, “West Lothian and The Forgotten War”
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