Perth & Kinross Remembers Project Update One

4 MARCH 2020 

Hello everyone! Welcome to the first blog post for Perth & Kinross Remembers. I am Fiona Hall, Project Officer for Perth & Kinross Remembers, and I’m based in Perth & Kinross Archive, on the first floor of the AK Bell Library, Perth. The project began in September last year and I can’t quite believe we are now halfway through! It has been a busy six months and I have a lot to update you on so here goes… 

Perth & Kinross Remembers Project Officer Fiona sorting through a recent deposit.

About the project

Perth & Kinross Remembers is a twelve-month legacy project that acknowledges the First World War memorial work undertaken by local community groups, schools and individuals during the recent commemorative period (2014-2018). Through the creation of a First World War Legacy Collection, alongside a series of talks and workshops, this project aims to collect and preserve these outputs in Perth & Kinross Archive, making them accessible for future generations.

Getting started 

During the first few months of the project, I spent some time researching and getting to know the memorial groups and learning about what they have achieved over the past five years. From research on local war memorials, fundraising, publications, remembrance events and exhibitions to school curricular activities, these projects have helped to document the story of how Perth & Kinross remembered the First World War. 

What became apparent is that a lot of hard work, thought and organisation went into all the projects, each with fantastic and informative outputs and some with legacies reaching as far as Canada and New Zealand. 

I also spent some time looking through the Archives & Local and Family History resources for existing First World War collections. I enjoyed looking through the photograph albums, one of which shows the AK Bell Library as a Red Cross Hospital during the First World War.  

Photograph of patients outside the Perth Red Cross Hospital, 1917. From an album presented to the former Sandeman Library by the Duchess of Atholl, who was president of the Perthshire Branch of the British Red Cross Society. Perth & Kinross Local and Family History Collection.

Perth & Kinross Remembers First World War Legacy Collection 

So far, the First World War Legacy Collection has received 32 deposits, with more on their way. One of our first deposits was an autograph book that belonged to Janet McIlvride Stewart. Janet worked as a domestic servant in Pitlochry before serving as a Private with the Scottish Territorial Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment No. 32, from 1913-1918. 

During the First World War, she served at Fonab House Pitlochry, which was used as a Red Cross Auxiliary Hospital. Her autograph book contains sketches, poems and notes from the convalescing soldiers that she and her colleagues looked after. It was here that Janet met John Scott Miller, her future husband. 

Poem written by Captain J.F. Milbourn, taken from Janet McIlvride Stewart’s autograph book. Acc 19/54, Perth & Kinross Remembers First World War Legacy Collection.

As well as our existing memorial groups, the First World War Legacy Collection contains material from community groups that had previously slipped under our radar. Last month we received the Roll of Honour for the former Northern District School, Perth. The hand-painted Roll lists the names of former pupils that signed up to serve their country during the Great War. The 23 February 1916 edition of the Perthshire Advertiser states that Dougald Walker, headmaster of the school, was a keen water-colourist and designed and painted the piece himself. 

Roll of Honour for the former Northern District School, Perth. Acc 20/13 Perth & Kinross Remembers First World War Legacy Collection.

Other Activities

October and November were very busy months for the project. We held two collecting days at Strathearn (Crieff) and Breadalbane (Aberfeldy) community libraries which allowed me to meet with some of our Ancestry volunteers and those with an interest and connection to the First World War. 

As part of the Archive and Records Associations’ annual Explore Your Archive initiative, Assistant Archivist Sarah, and I, liaised with local groups to create pop-up exhibitions at community libraries throughout Perth & Kinross. Aberfeldy Museum Group and Kinross (Marshall) Museum produced wonderful displays for the community libraries at Breadalbane (Aberfeldy) and Loch Leven (Kinross). At North Inch Library, Perth, we had the brilliant research by Steve Clayes on St John’s RC Church Roll of Honour, focusing on the wartime experiences of several men from the local Catholic Community. At Strathearn Library, a display by Crieff Remembers documented their project from start to finish. My colleague Sarah also curated a very successful exhibition in AK Bell Library on the role of the Red Cross and the Voluntary Aid Detachment in Perthshire during the war. Here we have a curious wee scamp visiting the exhibition on CPK Libraries Dog-Friendly Friday. 

Little pupper checking out the exhibition last month. 

In November, Perth & Kinross Remembers was invited to Scotland’s Community Heritage Conference at Birnam Arts and Conference Centre. Each year the conference provides the opportunity for community heritage groups to meet, share experiences, celebrate their achievements and learn from each other. I was fortunate enough to be accompanied by representatives from Scone Remembers and Flowers of the Forest, two of the original Perth & Kinross Remembers memorial groups. Peter Olsen from Scone Remembers  and David Dykes representing Flowers of the Forest  both gave fantastic talks that embodied the conference’s theme of Making places. Connecting People. You can view presentations from the conference here . 

Peter and Dave at the Community Heritage Conference, Birnam Arts Centre, 9 November 2019.

In December I helped at the Scottish Council on Archive’s community archive workshop, ‘First Steps in Community Archives’ which took place in AK Bell Library. It was a fantastic day, filled with information and guidance on how community groups and individuals could care for their collections. Topics included cataloguing, digital preservation, digitisation and basic conservation techniques. You can find out more about this and future SCA events here.

I have also put together an exciting programme of talks, covering a variety of subjects, including  archaeology of the First World War, women during 1914-1918 , memorial art and architecure, conscientious objectors and more! This programme will run from January through to August 2020 and you can find out all about it on the project web page.  Our first speaker, archaeologist Allan Kilpatrick from Historic Environment Scotland, delivered a talk titled ‘Not Just Flanders: Scotland during the First World War’.

In his talk, Allan discussed the legacy of the First World War in Scotland. Allan told us that it was thought there were ‘only’ 300 sites relating to the First World War, but following an archaeological audit carried out by Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historic Monuments for Scotland, it was discovered there were 1300! First World War-related sites around Scotland including drill halls, practice trenches, training camps, purpose-built houses for soldiers and much more. You can find out more about these sites around Scotland on Canmore. 

First World War searchlight position on south end of the island of Inchkeith, Firth of Forth. Photograph courtesy of Allan Kilpatrick.

I feel very fortunate to be working on Perth & Kinross Remembers, and I am grateful for the support from all of our funders, and the valuable contributions from memorial projects across the region, as well as my colleagues in Culture Perth & Kinross. Here’s to the next six months!