Kettins

Overall View - Taken by Mark Duffy 01 Jan 2007

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WW1 names - Taken by Mark Duffy 01 Jan 2007

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WW2 Names - Taken by Mark Duffy 01 Jan 2007

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Reference WMO/160348

Address:

School Road

Kettins

PH13 9JN

Scotland

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Status: On original site

Type: Freestanding

Location: External

Setting: Within a garden/park/churchyard/enclosure/Marketplace

Description: Stone of remembrance

Materials:

Stone Stone (any)

Lettering: Inscribed on a plaque

Conflicts:

First World War (1914-1918)
Second World War (1939-1945)

About the memorial: Contemporary description [amended for WW2]-The memorial takes the form of a rest garden constructed in the [Public] school garden rockery. The central feature consists of a monument of red granite, resting on a base of hammered dressed rubble work, and built on a level terrace, bounded by a circular parapet wall. The monument bears a polished [red granite] panel with the names of the fallen inscribed. Pockets for rock plants provided in the base of the monument and in the retaining wall. [Within this retaining wall is the red granite tablet for WW2] Encircling the central terrace is another lower level, with suitable seating accommodation, and surrounding this second terrace there is built a circular retaining wall to support the side rockeries, with their backgrounds of shrubs. On either side of the entrance gateway are two substantial stone pillars of hammered dressed masonry, with flat coping, surmounted by rough-hewn stone balls. In the background, forming an entrance to the school garden proper, a stone archway of artistic design completes a scheme of architecture appropriate in its simplicity and imposing in its general effect. Behind the archway leading into the garden is a pergola, over which will be trained rambler roses.

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BLAIRGOWRIE ADVERTISER: 7 August 1920-WAR MEMORIAL UNVEILED AT KETTINS-The parishioners at Kettins paid befitting honour to the memory of the 23 men belonging to the parish who were killed during the Great War.
In the presence of a very large gathering of people from Kettins and Coupar Angus districts, the unique War memorial which has been erected at the entrance to the Public School garden was dedicated by the Rev. Dr Archibald Fleming, St. Columba’s Church, London, nephew of Rev. Dr James Fleming, the late revered pastor at Kettins.
The relatives of the fallen soldiers were conducted to seats immediately in front of the memorial, while the other spectators stood in the bright sunlight of the village green to pay their respectful homage to the memory of the glorious dead. The proceedings were of a simple and deeply impressive nature.
The memorial takes the form of a rest garden constructed in the school garden rockery, from designs by Sir Robert Lorimer, architect, Edinburgh, extended and amplified by Mr L. K. Reid, Elmslie, Coupar Angus.
The central feature consists of a monument of red granite, resting on a base of hammered dressed rubble work, and built on a level terrace, bounded by a circular parapet wall.
The monument bears a polished panel with the names of the fallen inscribed. Pockets for rock plants provided in the base of the monument and in the retaining wall.
Encircling the central terrace is another lower level, with suitable seating accommodation, and surrounding this second terrace there is built a circular retaining wall to support the side rockeries, with their backgrounds of shrubs.
On either side of the entrance gateway are two substantial stone pillars of hammered dressed masonry, with flat coping, surmounted by rough-hewn stone balls.
In the background, forming an entrance to the school garden proper, a stone archway of artistic design completes a scheme of architecture appropriate in its simplicity and imposing in its general effect. Behind the archway leading into the garden is a pergola, over which will be trained rambler roses.
With the exception of the red granite monument, all the masonry for the memorial came from Leys Quarry, on the Halliburton estate. The mason work was done by Messrs D. Reid & Son, Coupar Angus; the iron work by Messrs J. S. Fraser & Son, Rattray; and the sculptural work by Sir James Taggart, Aberdeen.
The proceedings opened with the singing of the hymn, ‘Our God, our help in ages past’, followed by Prayer by rev. C. M. Kerr, minister of Kettins.
While the gentlemen of the company stood with bared heads, Rev. Mr Kerr read the 23 names of the men whose lives were sacrificed for their country’s sake.
The inscription and the names on the monuments are:-

OUR GLORIOUS DEAD, 1914-1919

LIEUT. ALASTAIR GRAHAM MENZIES, SERGT. WM. BLACKLEY, CORPL. GEORGE M’LEISH, LANCE-CORPL. PETER S. SMITH, LANCE-CORPL. CHARLES STRACHAN, D.C.M., LANCE-CORPL. GREGOR YOUNG, PRIVATES JOHN CROSS, THOMAS DONALD, ALEXANDER GARDINER, JOHN HARRIS, CHARLES HOOD, JAMES HYND, THOMAS KIDDIE, FRANK M’LEISH, WILLIAM M’VINNIE, JOHN MARTIN, JAMES PATTERSON, HARRY REID, CHARLES RENNIE, GEORGE SMITH, THOMAS K. SMITH, THOMAS WHITTET, GEORGE WOLSLEY.

Their name liveth for evermore.

Mr W. D. Graham Menzies of Hallyburton then said that as Convenor of the Kettins War Memorial Committee he had been asked to express, on behalf of the subscribers to the memorial, their great appreciation of the kindness of Rev. Dr Fleming in coming to join with them in paying homage to their fallen heroes. Very few words of his were required to introduce Dr Fleming to a Kettins audience. Dr Fleming bore a name greatly honoured in that district by reason of his uncle’s long ministry at Kettins and hic cherished memory. Dr Fleming’s own merits and distinctions were known to them all. As a sort of guardian of London Scotsmen, his work in St. Columba’s Church during the war on behalf of soldiers of Scottish regiments was truly remarkable. No other choice than Dr Fleming could have been more appropriate for them that day, meeting as they did to show their love and gratitude for those who gave their lives for King and country.
Rev. Dr Fleming, dedicating the memorial, said:- “It is in response to an invitation I greatly value that I am hear in this dear parish of Kettins again today. I know that I have been asked to come because, as Mr Graham Menzies has said, most of the names which are graven on your memorial were graven - perhaps from their infancy - on the heart of my dear uncle, who was for nearly half-a-century minister of this parish. I remember how dear this school garden, at whose portal you have placed this beautiful memorial, was to him. I have stood in it with him, and I have heard him speak, with that boyish enthusiasm which was his to the last, of its beauties and possibilities. And I am sure that his spirit is with us now. Standing here I recall a text in the Gospel of St. John. You will find it in the 41st verse of the 19th chapter, and it says:- ‘Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus’. I think it is a very suitable text for us today. There are some here - your parish minister is one of them - who have served in the war, and they will perhaps say that these shell-holed, devastated battlefields where so many of the young heroes of Kettins fell were anything but a garden. They were a Golgotha, the place of a skull, of desolation, of hideousness, of devilry. That is true; yet it is also true that wherever the noblest virtues spring they make a garden - whether it be in a desert or a dungeon, on a cross or a parapet, or in no-man’s-land. Wherever the flower of sacrifice grows there it is a garden. And we too, in the place where we keep their memories, there also it is a garden. ‘There’s pansies - that’s for thoughts’ said Ophelia. And we have listened today to the reading of these three-and-twenty names, and at the mention of each there has sprung in some hearts here, as if by magic, a very rosary of remembrance - a garden of beautiful, not sad, things. It is a weeded garden the garden of our memory today. No things that are rank or gross in nature possess it. The delicate crop of remembrance is of the fair graces of their lives - perhaps of their sweet graciousness as little children, whether born to promise of great possessions or to the heritage of honest and honourable toil; or of their innocent, joyous, and promising boyhood or young manhood; or of their maturity, when we saw their gravity and sense of responsibility and capacity for generous love grow ripe; or of the fierce crimson flush of their offering for the war - a garden of proud peonies, as they marched away to death and glory; or the memory of the tender, wistful little notes they sent us from the field, until the last of all their letters reached us - a posy of violets or a bunch of everlastings that we shall cherish always.
Whatever they be, these varied flowers of remembrance form our garden today, with all its variety and tenderness and beauty, our garden of memory growing in a quick, rich crop on the very place where they were crucified, the place where they fell. In such a place - hidden in the virgin recesses of our hearts - we make here today our new sepulchre for them, and there we lay them. And thus their sacrifice takes us back to that great sacrifice on which theirs was modelled - to the ‘Green hill far away, without the city wall, where the dear Lord was crucified, Who died to save us all’. And we remember with a very proud and joyous thankfulness that what they did linked them, not only with the long roll of those who, laying down their lives, laid the foundations of our country’s greatness, but with the Divine Lord Himself, Who taught us that there is nothing in Heaven or on earth more noble or more splendid than the laying down of a life for a friend - the giving of everything, all for love. It is fitting that this memorial should be unveiled by one who, known to and beloved by you all, herself gave her first-born for God and King and country; and so I ask Mrs Graham Menzies to perform for us this gracious service now”.
The Union jack was then withdrawn from the monument by Mrs Graham Menzies, revealing the parishioners’ beautiful stone of remembrance for their honoured dead.
While the veteran family piper at Halliburton, Mr Donald M’Donald, played a lament on the bagpipes, tears were brought to many eyes as Mrs Graham Menzies and the relatives of the deceased soldiers placed wreaths and evergreens at the base of the monument and on the circular parapet surrounding it.
‘The Last Post’ having been sounded on the bugle by Mr James Slidders, Coupar Angus, the Paraphrase ‘O, God of Bethel’, was sung by the company. A touching and unforgettable service terminated with the Benediction pronounced by Rev. C. M. Kerr and the singing of the National Anthem.
A special note of praise is due to Mr L. K. Reid for his invaluable help in formulating the memorial scheme, as well as in carrying it to a successful completion; and to Mr W. Andrew, Schoolhouse, for his untiring services as secretary of the Memorial Committee. His arrangements for the unveiling ceremony were a model of perfection.

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Inscription:

Dedication Tablet-OUR GLORIOUS DEAD/ 1914-1919 Tablet below-(23 WW1 names)/ "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE" Tablet in the retaining wall-OUR GLORIOUS DEAD 1939-1945/(3 names)

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