:00:12. > :00:16.Good evening and welcome to Edinburgh.
:00:17. > :00:20.Earlier today, people gathered here at the castle for
:00:21. > :00:32.Scotland's Drumhead Ceremony - held in honour and in memory
:00:33. > :00:38.some fascinating stories of Scottish men and women during the Great War.
:00:39. > :00:48.But first, what does a Drumhead Ceremony involve?
:00:49. > :00:54.A Drumhead service is a religious occasion to service men in the field
:00:55. > :00:59.held for the purposes of ordinary Sunday worship and before going into
:01:00. > :01:03.battle or to remember fallen comrades. They've been in existence
:01:04. > :01:09.for centuries and Jerry the First World War and beyond they were held
:01:10. > :01:13.at home as a fitting way to remember the sacrifices of the men at the
:01:14. > :01:19.front. This rare film footage shows one held in a London park in 1916.
:01:20. > :01:24.By then most of the towns and villages of Britain would have been
:01:25. > :01:28.affected by the losses in the trenches or stop the Drumhead is a
:01:29. > :01:33.neatly piled set of drums with the colours draped over them to serve as
:01:34. > :01:39.a makeshift altar. Historically the drum played a crucial role as a way
:01:40. > :01:51.of communicating orders jarring the chaos of battle. With such an
:01:52. > :01:54.important point to play, drummers were elite soldiers and their
:01:55. > :01:55.important point to play, drummers colours. Drumhead services are
:01:56. > :01:58.important point to play, drummers while the drums that give them their
:01:59. > :02:02.name now have a purely ceremonial role, Drumhead services are as
:02:03. > :02:04.meaningful as ever and remain a fitting way to worship and to
:02:05. > :02:06.remember the fallen. Today?s Drumhead ceremony began
:02:07. > :02:07.at 10am. Among those who gathered here were
:02:08. > :02:10.people who had travelled from every corner of Scotland and
:02:11. > :02:23.from every branch of the military. It began with a march.
:02:24. > :02:30.Her Majesty's Royal Marines led the naval detachment onto the Esplanade.
:02:31. > :02:36.The Navy led the way because they are the senior service. Next came
:02:37. > :02:40.the army, led by the Band of The Royal Regiment of Scotland laying
:02:41. > :02:45.Scotland The Brave. They were followed by the Scots borderers, 1st
:02:46. > :02:50.Battalion Royal Reg and of Scotland, or one SCOTS, and finally
:02:51. > :02:56.the newest service, the RAAF were led on by the central staff band
:02:57. > :03:00.playing the RAF March Past. The First Minister Alex Salmond and the
:03:01. > :03:05.Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael attended, as did
:03:06. > :03:06.senior officers from each branch of the military. Each service was
:03:07. > :03:18.represented by its own powdery. We meet in the presence of Almighty
:03:19. > :03:23.God. We've come together to mark the centenary of the outbreak of war in
:03:24. > :03:30.1914, to reflect on sacrifices past and to look to the future in hope.
:03:31. > :03:36.This year, and throughout the following five years, people in
:03:37. > :03:42.communities across Scotland will gather together and remember the
:03:43. > :03:50.exceptional sacrifice made by their forebears during the conflicts. What
:03:51. > :03:58.became known as the Great War. We commit ourselves today to work in
:03:59. > :04:02.penitence and faith, for reconciliation between people,
:04:03. > :04:13.communities and nations, that all people may live together in
:04:14. > :04:25.freedom, justice and peace. The hymn O God Our Help In Ages Past.
:04:26. > :05:00.# Our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home!
:05:01. > :05:08.Drumhead altars have been set up in many theatres of war, from Flanders
:05:09. > :05:13.in France to Iraq and Afghanistan. This one is being held here to mark
:05:14. > :05:18.the moment 100 years ago when the garrison of this castle went off to
:05:19. > :05:22.war. The colours were placed on the Drumhead in the same order of the
:05:23. > :05:30.Navy, whose colour is called and Benson, then the Army... And finally
:05:31. > :05:39.the air force, to form the alter. This service is all
:05:40. > :05:41.about remembering Scotland?s From the very first days of the war,
:05:42. > :05:45.some truly remarkable Scottish men and women were putting themselves
:05:46. > :05:47.in the line of fire. It all began on Tuesday, 4th August,
:05:48. > :05:51.1914, when German forces attacked Belgium, a country Britain had
:05:52. > :05:57.promised to protect. At 11pm that same day,
:05:58. > :06:01.Britain declared war on Germany. Just four days later,
:06:02. > :06:04.a glamorous Scottish aristocrat - Lady Millicent, the Duchess of
:06:05. > :06:08.Sutherland - set off for the war. Her plan was to assemble and lead a
:06:09. > :06:14.medical team into war-torn Belgium. Scottish crime writer Denise Mina
:06:15. > :06:20.was herself a nurse. She?s travelled to the little
:06:21. > :06:22.Belgian town of Namur to uncover In the August of 1914,
:06:23. > :06:31.Belgium was the last place on earth Despite these massive
:06:32. > :06:45.fortifications, despite a heroic resistance,
:06:46. > :06:47.the Germans crashed violently Historians would come to describe
:06:48. > :07:03.it as "the rape of Belgium". They killed civilians, women,
:07:04. > :07:09.children. And in the first day
:07:10. > :07:20.of the invasion, we count in the whole territory
:07:21. > :07:27.of Belgium 6000 civilians killed. Into this terrifying and chaotic
:07:28. > :07:35.war arrived a Scottish aristocrat. Lady Millicent,
:07:36. > :07:40.the Duchess of Sutherland. And she is the least likely
:07:41. > :07:43.person imaginable here. She is a 46-year-old aristocrat
:07:44. > :07:48.with three kids, houses in London. She's a famous socialite,
:07:49. > :07:51.but she comes here to a neutral country invaded by the might
:07:52. > :07:54.of the German army to do nursing Millicent hired a team
:07:55. > :08:01.of eight British nurses, Together, they travelled to
:08:02. > :08:08.the town of Namur, just a few miles They based themselves in the centre
:08:09. > :08:19.of the town, in the convent school She kept a meticulous diary
:08:20. > :08:34.of her time in Belgium. And she described
:08:35. > :08:36.the precise moment when the Germans On 21st August,
:08:37. > :08:50.she's in the town, having dinner with her entire team, and they look
:08:51. > :08:54.up and see a German plane in the sky, dropping a bomb over the
:08:55. > :08:58.city, and they know it's started. They leave everything
:08:59. > :09:08.and rush back to the convent. Down here in the cellar of the old
:09:09. > :09:13.convent, the children are cowering. There is the sound of constant
:09:14. > :09:16.bombardment from up above. It must have been deafening
:09:17. > :09:18.down here. Shored up against the walls are
:09:19. > :09:24.the supplies of flour and everything they need, and
:09:25. > :09:27.above us, the nurses and the Duchess are preparing for the first men to
:09:28. > :09:33.come in from the battlefield. Lady Millicent finds herself
:09:34. > :09:36.tending wounded men. She says in her diary that she is
:09:37. > :09:39.raising dying men up to receive She saw a surgeon cutting off a
:09:40. > :09:45.man's fingers because they were so mangled, and she saw one man die of
:09:46. > :09:50.sheer fright, which you can imagine. She writes in her diary,
:09:51. > :09:52."Until these awful things happen, "no-one can conceive of the untold
:09:53. > :09:55.value of fully trained Two days after that first bomb,
:09:56. > :10:19.the Germans took control of Namur. We count 109 houses on fire,
:10:20. > :10:27.and also 75 civilians shot Working in desperate conditions,
:10:28. > :10:39.Millicent and her team continued to treat wounded French and Belgian
:10:40. > :10:46.soldiers. To guarantee their safety,
:10:47. > :10:48.she marched down into the town to confront the German
:10:49. > :10:58.commanding officer. In her diary, she noted that German
:10:59. > :11:06.soldiers now filled every cafe. In fact,
:11:07. > :11:14.she noted that they sang very well. In his hotel, General von Below
:11:15. > :11:17.assured Millicent that all the All of her patients were
:11:18. > :11:23.made prisoners of war. Some of them had just had
:11:24. > :11:26.operations and had not recovered. They were bundled onto trains
:11:27. > :11:30.and taken back to Germany. Millicent, quite a hardened,
:11:31. > :11:32.middle-aged woman, said it was On 5th September, Millicent
:11:33. > :11:47.was ordered to leave Namur. After a perilous two-week journey
:11:48. > :11:50.across German occupied Belgium, For me, Millicent coming here wasn't
:11:51. > :11:58.just a crazy act of bravery, she just didn't get caught up
:11:59. > :12:00.in the roar of indignation that She came here
:12:01. > :12:04.and started her nursing career, and she carried on nursing
:12:05. > :12:09.in France until the end of the war. So she took that social rupture
:12:10. > :12:12.and turned it I?m joined now by two of Scotland?s
:12:13. > :12:37.leading historians - Trevor Royle If we think back to Scotland of 1914
:12:38. > :12:42.when Lady Millicent arrived back home, what was happening? How did
:12:43. > :12:47.news of war arrived? You're talking about a population that is very
:12:48. > :12:51.reliant on the newspapers. There's no other immediate form of
:12:52. > :12:56.communication. Each newspaper would publish a new addition during the
:12:57. > :13:01.course of the day. These images we have of crowds forming very often
:13:02. > :13:07.crowds forming to get news. If you lived in a more rural area where it
:13:08. > :13:12.might be harder to get the latest edition of the newspaper, rather
:13:13. > :13:16.than concrete news, you were depending on rumour. They need to
:13:17. > :13:21.exchange information, the need to convert and gather in order to find
:13:22. > :13:26.out what was happening becomes very, very powerful. August the 4th,
:13:27. > :13:32.continuing over the fifth and sixth. The other thing to remember is that
:13:33. > :13:37.this is a country which is not expecting it necessarily to be a
:13:38. > :13:41.military response, but expecting a naval response. People aren't very
:13:42. > :13:46.clear what their own roles will be in the war, unless they happen to be
:13:47. > :13:50.in the Royal Navy. All they know is their lives are going to be thrown
:13:51. > :13:54.up in the air, they will be changed forever, but they are not very sure
:13:55. > :14:00.how or where they will be next month, let alone next year or the
:14:01. > :14:05.next decade. Pretty soon afterwards, people did begin to be invited to
:14:06. > :14:19.join up. What was the mood at that time? What was going through
:14:20. > :14:25.people's heads? We know from the evidence there was a great deal of
:14:26. > :14:29.excitement. Huge queues of people gathered, people lined up desperate
:14:30. > :14:32.to get into the Armed Forces. And that breeds a chain reaction,
:14:33. > :14:35.because there is a belief that if your body is going, you want to be
:14:36. > :14:38.part of the excitement, too, and a very important thing is that if you
:14:39. > :14:43.were going into the army, you would probably be going into your local
:14:44. > :14:47.regiment, and this is a great element in establishing unity and
:14:48. > :14:50.cohesion. Friends going off to war together. Nobody really knew with
:14:51. > :14:55.any certainty what they were going off to and if you spoke to any of
:14:56. > :14:59.those young men in August 1914, none of them would have any concrete idea
:15:00. > :15:05.of what life in the army was going to be like, let alone fighting a
:15:06. > :15:11.war. How did Britain go about building up what was at that time a
:15:12. > :15:17.relatively small army? It was a very serious challenge. The base which
:15:18. > :15:21.many people had expected to be the foundation of a larger army was the
:15:22. > :15:25.Territorial Army. The Territorial Army had not recruited as
:15:26. > :15:32.successfully as people had anticipated. It remained a big
:15:33. > :15:37.component for recruiting in Scotland in 1914 and 15, bigger than the rest
:15:38. > :15:44.of the UK. But the major change was to recruit what Kitchener called new
:15:45. > :15:50.arms, thousands of men, and those were the ones who captured people's
:15:51. > :15:53.imaginations, and it was those who provided the understanding that this
:15:54. > :15:57.was going to be a long war. When you enlisted in the new armies, you
:15:58. > :16:01.enlisted for three years or the duration of the war, and Kitchener
:16:02. > :16:06.had turned up at the Cabinet and said, this will be a three-year war.
:16:07. > :16:11.He did not explain why he thought that but this was a clear indication
:16:12. > :16:16.that this war might be a big undertaking. And just briefly,
:16:17. > :16:21.Trevor, they marched off with a song in their hearts? They did indeed,
:16:22. > :16:25.and very cleverly, the Army decided to build on the regimental system so
:16:26. > :16:28.very few new regiments were raised but regiment is like the Royal Scots
:16:29. > :16:32.and the light infantry just developed large numbers of
:16:33. > :16:37.battalions so they kept the badge and the sense of collection to the
:16:38. > :16:42.community. And this was a great age in recruiting and raising these
:16:43. > :16:48.armies. Thank you. I will come back to you later.
:16:49. > :16:50.Back in 1914, it was often said that everyone knew
:16:51. > :16:55.And many of these volunteers first saw action at one the major battles
:16:56. > :16:57.of 1915, the Battle of Loos, in the September of that year.
:16:58. > :16:59.Amongst them was a 20-year-old Scottish Officer.
:17:00. > :17:02.His name was Charles Hamilton Sorley and today he's considered Scotland's
:17:03. > :17:05.The Scottish novelist Andrew O'Hagan has travelled to Loos to uncover the
:17:06. > :17:26.story of the battle and the young poet who would immortalise its dead.
:17:27. > :17:29.Several generations of British readers got
:17:30. > :17:33.their introduction to poetry at school by studying the war poets.
:17:34. > :17:35.Many of these names are very familiar -
:17:36. > :17:42.Charles Sorley is less well-known, which is a surprise,
:17:43. > :17:46.not only because of the quality of his poetry, but because he was
:17:47. > :17:50.ahead of the others in understanding how the First World War would be
:17:51. > :18:09.When Charles Sorley arrived here, almost a century ago, these fields
:18:10. > :18:16.and mineworks were at the very centre of the Battle of Loos.
:18:17. > :18:19.For three weeks 100,000 allied soldiers attacked well-defended
:18:20. > :18:27.Amidst the fear, and noise and hell of the trenches, Sorley wrote
:18:28. > :18:40.This is the very spot where Charles Sorley was leading an attack
:18:41. > :18:44.against the German lines and, on the 13th of October 1915, was caught
:18:45. > :18:51.When they opened his kitbag after his death,
:18:52. > :18:55.they discovered the manuscript of what I think is the great poem
:18:56. > :19:02.of the First World War - When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead.
:19:03. > :19:07.It lacks jingoism, it lacks patriotism, it lacks
:19:08. > :19:17.This is a poem about a young man facing his own death, but seeing
:19:18. > :19:29.When you see millions of the mouthless dead Across
:19:30. > :19:34.your dreams in pale battalions go, Say not soft things as other men
:19:35. > :19:42.For, deaf, how should they know It is not
:19:43. > :19:51.Their blind eyes see not your tears flow.
:19:52. > :20:07.Then add thereto, "Yet many a better one has died before."
:20:08. > :20:13.Then, scanning all the o'ercrowded mass, should you
:20:14. > :20:22.perceive one face that you loved heretofore, it is a spook.
:20:23. > :20:38.Great death has made all his for evermore.
:20:39. > :20:42.the feel of the wind coming off the North Sea.
:20:43. > :20:49.His father was Professor of Moral Philosophy at Aberdeen,
:20:50. > :20:58.That would really be the place of his childhood.
:20:59. > :21:01.He wrote this poem, Stones, when he was merely a teenager,
:21:02. > :21:11.This field is almost white with stones That cumber all its thirsty
:21:12. > :21:17.crust And underneath I know are bones And all around is death and
:21:18. > :21:24.dust And if you love a livelier hue Or if you love the youth of year
:21:25. > :21:33.When all is clean and green and new Depart There is no summer here.
:21:34. > :21:36.It's hard to think of another British poet who not only foresaw
:21:37. > :21:42.his own death, but the death of an entire generation.
:21:43. > :21:44.Even in the earliest poems, which were written around
:21:45. > :21:47.about 1912, in other words when he was still at school, even then,
:21:48. > :21:54.It is that sense of scepticism towards authority,
:21:55. > :21:57.whether it's divine authority, or school authority, I think,
:21:58. > :22:01.that then goes on to inform his writing about the war.
:22:02. > :22:05.It's very striking, though, how early Sorley was
:22:06. > :22:09.in his understanding of what a terrible disaster the war could be.
:22:10. > :22:12.He says in the poem, it is easy to be dead.
:22:13. > :22:19.Reducing it almost to the simplest of phrases.
:22:20. > :22:22.You can see in your imagination, the lines of men,
:22:23. > :22:27.hands on one another's shoulder, blind, deaf, dumb, ruined by war.
:22:28. > :22:30.Heading off into a death which, in Sorley's view,
:22:31. > :22:33.is not off to Valhalla, it's not off to some kind of reward
:22:34. > :22:47.When you see millions of the mouthless dead Across
:22:48. > :22:52.your dreams in pale battalions go, Say not soft things as other men
:22:53. > :23:03.One of the things that led me here is a sense of pity, not only
:23:04. > :23:06.for the millions of young men who died, but for Sorley himself.
:23:07. > :23:09.The way he's been slightly forgotten as a poet.
:23:10. > :23:12.To me, he's right at the forefront of the poets who
:23:13. > :23:17.If it was up to me, I would put his great poem, When You
:23:18. > :23:39.See Millions of the Mouthless Dead, in every classroom in Scotland.
:23:40. > :24:32.# Death of death, and hell's destruction
:24:33. > :25:17.We give thanks to all those who have served in the name of the Crown,
:25:18. > :25:25.enabling us to live in peace and security. And those who are in
:25:26. > :25:30.operations around the world, on land, in sea and in air. Protect
:25:31. > :25:36.them from all danger and give to them courage to meet all occasions
:25:37. > :25:47.with discipline and loyalty. To the honour of your name. Lord, in your
:25:48. > :25:51.mercy, hear our prayer. This hymn for those in peril on the sea pays
:25:52. > :26:12.tribute to the different branches of the military.
:26:13. > :27:15.During this hymn, the altar was dismantled and the colours returned.
:27:16. > :27:17.By 1915, people at home in Scotland were
:27:18. > :27:20.coming to realise that this war was unlike any they had known before,
:27:21. > :27:25.Every town began to hear of the casualties and one city - Dundee
:27:26. > :27:30.Ricky Ross has returned to his native city to uncover how
:27:31. > :27:39.Dundee came to terms with the loss of so many of her young men.
:27:40. > :27:42.In 1914, when the recruiting officers came to Dundee, they found
:27:43. > :27:55.Both my grandfathers fought in the Great War, like
:27:56. > :27:59.so many men from Dundee, but it is the 4th Battalion, The Black Watch,
:28:00. > :28:10.Dundee's own, that came to symbolise the sacrifice made by the city.
:28:11. > :28:12.The 4th was a territorial battalion and many men were already
:28:13. > :28:24.We are currently standing outside the City of Dundee
:28:25. > :28:28.This was where at the outbreak of the First World War,
:28:29. > :28:31.local Territorials, men from the 4th Black Watch, men from
:28:32. > :28:34.the local units of the Engineers, the Artillery, the Medical Corps,
:28:35. > :28:43.The 4th Black Watch really represented Dundee society
:28:44. > :28:49.So you have a good number of men from the textile jute works,
:28:50. > :28:52.a good number from the engineering factories and shipyards.
:28:53. > :28:59.The Officer Corps really reflect the great and good of Dundee society.
:29:00. > :29:02.Was this an attractive proposition, to sign up?
:29:03. > :29:10.The minute war was declared, people took the opportunity to
:29:11. > :29:13.enlist, obviously in a patriotic spirit to do their bit for King and
:29:14. > :29:18.This was an opportunity for men who probably had been no
:29:19. > :29:28.further than Dundee to go abroad with their friends.
:29:29. > :29:31.On February 23, 1915, the 4th Battalion Black Watch left
:29:32. > :29:37.The farewell was a great event in the city, and families lined
:29:38. > :29:40.the streets to say goodbye, not knowing whether they would ever
:29:41. > :29:51.Getting news from the front became a priority for those at home.
:29:52. > :29:54.In Dundee, if you need to know what's going on, it's all here
:29:55. > :29:59.in the local papers, and it was exactly the same during the war.
:30:00. > :30:04.This is where people came for the news from the trenches.
:30:05. > :30:06.Lisa Giffen is opening the archives of publisher DC Thomson
:30:07. > :30:11.to show me how the Dundee Courier reported the war.
:30:12. > :30:14.It printed not just news, but also the soldiers' own letters
:30:15. > :30:20.and accounts sent home from the battlefield.
:30:21. > :30:23.One example of that is here, when you see this article -
:30:24. > :30:29."Dundee's own in trenches sends private letter to parents".
:30:30. > :30:32.So people are actually writing to their families directly
:30:33. > :30:35.from the trenches, and then the families are bringing it to the
:30:36. > :30:39.Courier so that it can be published and others can read the letters.
:30:40. > :30:45.And here, you see the battle of Neuve Chapelle.
:30:46. > :30:48.This is Private James Forbes of the 4th Black Watch referring to
:30:49. > :30:53.the battle of Neuve Chapelle as "three and a half hours' hell".
:30:54. > :30:55.It's the men's direct experiences, simply being set in type
:30:56. > :31:00.Almost a parallel to the modern-day bloggers.
:31:01. > :31:05.By early 1915, the Courier itself had over 100 members
:31:06. > :31:12.Among them was illustrator Joseph Gray.
:31:13. > :31:20.He would have done small illustrations,
:31:21. > :31:24.but he would write and send letters back from the front as well.
:31:25. > :31:29.He took it all in and passed it on, and it certainly haunted him.
:31:30. > :31:34.Gray's experiences in the war came to be reflected in his art.
:31:35. > :31:41.One of his pictures still hangs in Dundee's McManus Galleries.
:31:42. > :31:43.I have been in this gallery many times before
:31:44. > :31:46.and I've passed this painting many times before, but today is probably
:31:47. > :31:50.the first time I've realised the full significance of it.
:31:51. > :31:53.It's a scene painted after the battle of Neuve Chapelle,
:31:54. > :31:56.and you can see here, the officers, and on the other side,
:31:57. > :32:05.This is the commanding officer, Harry Walker.
:32:06. > :32:08.Who knows, perhaps at this side, one of these characters may well be
:32:09. > :32:22.By the end of the year, nearly everyone in this painting was dead.
:32:23. > :32:25.After Neuve Chapelle, the 4th Battalion joined
:32:26. > :32:31.the 30,000 other Scotsmen who would fight at the Battle of Loos.
:32:32. > :32:39.It commemorates all those who served in The Black Watch from 1914.
:32:40. > :32:41.You're talking about nearly 9000 men who lost
:32:42. > :32:49.What proportion of that number were at the Battle of Loos?
:32:50. > :32:51.There would be quite a high proportion, actually,
:32:52. > :32:53.because the Battle of Loos involved the majority of
:32:54. > :33:06.The job of the City of Dundee battalion was to act as a feint
:33:07. > :33:10.and to draw the German reserves away from the main battle.
:33:11. > :33:13.They actually succeeded greatly and what they did.
:33:14. > :33:17.Of course, that was at the city of Dundee's cost.
:33:18. > :33:24.The 4th Battalion had come to embody Dundee's hopes, pride and sorrow.
:33:25. > :33:27.As Joseph Gray wrote, "In the 4th, the whole city finds glory "
:33:28. > :33:36.Every year on 25th September, the anniversary of the Battle
:33:37. > :33:40.of Loos, a lantern is lit on top of this memorial in memory
:33:41. > :33:44.of the men who lost their lives during the Great War.
:33:45. > :33:47.63% of Dundee's eligible men joined the armed forces.
:33:48. > :33:50.Of that number, over 4,000 were killed, one of the highest totals
:33:51. > :34:13.As the Drumhead service finished, the military personnel began
:34:14. > :34:23.their processional march down the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace.
:34:24. > :34:32.Massed pipes and bands included groups from the Commonwealth. Many
:34:33. > :34:37.of those who attended the service also joined the parade. It was a
:34:38. > :34:41.spectacle reminiscent also joined the parade. It was a
:34:42. > :34:42.Scottish Greg Eden - regiment a century ago as they marched off to
:34:43. > :34:45.war. There were mixed reactions
:34:46. > :34:46.among those who witnessed their departure then and no doubt
:34:47. > :35:22.many here felt the same today. A drum tap and the Edinburgh city
:35:23. > :35:27.War Memorial. My great-great-grandfather worked in
:35:28. > :35:33.the Adriatic and he was working to trap Austrian submarines with wire
:35:34. > :35:38.nets. On the 15th of May 1917, they were confronted by Austrian cruisers
:35:39. > :35:45.and the Austrians got a munch their drifter fleet and began to destroy
:35:46. > :35:50.them all. 47 crews out there and 14 of them were sunk that day. One
:35:51. > :35:56.house in Edinburgh also suffered a direct hit by a bomb dropped by a
:35:57. > :36:02.German Zeppelin in April 1916. Hamish McLaren's father was a little
:36:03. > :36:09.boy in the house. Everybody was in bed. There were two maids at the
:36:10. > :36:19.very top, they were sheltering under the beds, but the other ones didn't
:36:20. > :36:24.bother to move. My aunt, the wardrobe fell over her bed and the
:36:25. > :36:29.rafters came down. Attending or watching today, it was a chance to
:36:30. > :36:34.reflect and to show appreciation of what the men who marched along
:36:35. > :36:36.streets like this all over Scotland 100 years ago gave to all of us who
:36:37. > :36:38.came after. The second year of
:36:39. > :36:41.the war didn?t go particularly well for the allies, including the Battle
:36:42. > :36:44.Of Loos, where so many young Scots And the blame for that year's
:36:45. > :36:51.failures was in every newspaper. They determined that Britain's brave
:36:52. > :36:53.soldiers had been defeated To win the war, Britain would need
:36:54. > :36:58.to dramatically increase production. The dangerous job
:36:59. > :37:02.of building those shells fell Scottish actor and comedian Elaine C
:37:03. > :37:08.Smith has travelled to Gretna in search of the women who risked
:37:09. > :37:11.their lives to build the explosive Nine miles long and two miles wide,
:37:12. > :37:20.from Eastriggs in the west, stretching past Gretna across the
:37:21. > :37:26.border into Longtown in the east. This was once the biggest factory
:37:27. > :37:30.in the world. This was His Majesty's Factory,
:37:31. > :37:33.Gretna. Virtually all of the buildings have
:37:34. > :37:43.either been removed or buried, but the footprint of the site is
:37:44. > :37:52.still visible ? and is staggering. The site had to be
:37:53. > :37:55.so spread out due to the dangerous It was a safety measure to ensure
:37:56. > :38:01.that an explosion in one building The complex had 125 miles
:38:02. > :38:06.of railway tracks, 30 miles At its peak, His Majesty's Factory,
:38:07. > :38:17.Gretna, was turning out over 800 That is more than all the other
:38:18. > :38:27.munitions factories put together. By the summer of 1915,
:38:28. > :38:30.less than a year into the war, Britain was already desperately
:38:31. > :38:40.short of artillery shells. of Munitions, David Lloyd George,
:38:41. > :38:45.commissioned the factory. Two years later,
:38:46. > :38:49.Gretna was at peak production. Two thirds
:38:50. > :38:53.of the workers were women. I'm meeting Dr Chris Brader,
:38:54. > :38:56.a historian who is currently writing So, Chris, tell me, what is it
:38:57. > :39:03.that makes this place so special? I think it's true to say that
:39:04. > :39:06.without this factory and the contribution it made,
:39:07. > :39:09.that Britain might not have won So, Chris, this was obviously
:39:10. > :39:17.a massive operation. Well, the Government issued
:39:18. > :39:25.an open invitation to the women Those that answered
:39:26. > :39:28.the call came from all over Scotland, from Ireland, from Wales
:39:29. > :39:32.and from the north-east of England. You just said it was mainly
:39:33. > :39:35.women that were here. Were they of
:39:36. > :39:38.a certain age or was it all ages? A large proportion of them were
:39:39. > :39:43.actually aged between 16 and 21. And we do know, actually,
:39:44. > :39:45.that girls lied about their age to So there were 15-year-old
:39:46. > :39:48.girls working here. Well, some
:39:49. > :39:52.of it was incredibly hard and some If you worked in the sections where
:39:53. > :39:57.you mixed the nitric acid with the sulphuric acid, you had to work
:39:58. > :40:00.amid those fumes as well. It was also hard,
:40:01. > :40:06.physical work as well. Women cut the cordite
:40:07. > :40:09.into appropriate lengths. They then loaded them
:40:10. > :40:11.into the trucks and pushed those trucks to the drying section,
:40:12. > :40:16.which was a mile away. Sometimes,
:40:17. > :40:18.in the middle of the night, in the middle of the Scottish winter,
:40:19. > :40:23.with rats running around your feet. Now, that's hard physical work
:40:24. > :40:33.by anyone's definition. I want to find out more
:40:34. > :40:36.about the women who toiled Very nice to meet you,
:40:37. > :40:45.I take it you're Jim? Three of his aunts went to work
:40:46. > :40:52.in the factory in 1916. So, your aunts went to work at
:40:53. > :41:06.the munitions factory, didn't they? Was it seen
:41:07. > :41:12.as a good thing to work there? One aunt, my Aunt Margaret, within
:41:13. > :41:17.a few months she was a supervisor. So she became one
:41:18. > :41:21.of the high heid yins? This is a certificate of service,
:41:22. > :41:26.given when she left employment. This is a report card I
:41:27. > :41:32.would never have got. "Her conduct and efficiency during
:41:33. > :41:35.the She is energetic, reliable
:41:36. > :41:42.and has good control of labour." Jim's Aunt Margaret Wilkie lived
:41:43. > :41:50.to the ripe old age of 91. But many munitions workers
:41:51. > :41:57.were less fortunate. Across the UK it's believed there
:41:58. > :41:59.were over 1,000 casualties from At the Gretna factory, seven lost
:42:00. > :42:27.their lives, while many others poor health from handling the
:42:28. > :42:31.hazardous chemicals, though suffered the long term impact of working
:42:32. > :42:36.here has never been fully revealed. the past, when I've thought
:42:37. > :42:38.about Gretna, it has conjured up images of blacksmiths and couples
:42:39. > :42:41.running away to get married. Having been to this amazing place,
:42:42. > :42:45.it feels almost haunted, as well. But it's made me realise that
:42:46. > :42:49.a lot of sacrifice took place here, of the munitions generated here did
:42:50. > :42:58.go on and kill and maim thousands of people, without them go on and
:42:59. > :43:02.kill and maim thousands of people, without them the course
:43:03. > :43:04.of world history would have changed Much of that is
:43:05. > :43:07.down to the women and men of Much of that is down to the women and men
:43:08. > :43:10.of His Majesty's Factory, Gretna. During and after the war,
:43:11. > :43:12.Scottish doctors pioneered life-saving treatments
:43:13. > :43:15.for injuries to the body and mind. To the south of here, Craiglockhart
:43:16. > :43:17.became the world leader On Clydeside, Erskine Hospital
:43:18. > :43:20.would employ shipyard engineers Less well known is the story
:43:21. > :43:24.of a humble family doctor from Ayr. A man who would revolutionise
:43:25. > :43:27.the way injured men were treated on the battlefield, before they had
:43:28. > :43:30.even reached a doctor. And, remarkably,
:43:31. > :43:36.his medical techniques and philosophies are still used
:43:37. > :43:41.by modern-day battlefield medics. Rory Bremner?s great-grandfather was
:43:42. > :43:50.himself a military medic, in Crimea. And Rory has set out to
:43:51. > :43:52.uncover Charles McKerrow?s At the outbreak of the Great War,
:43:53. > :44:02.this house in Barns Street in Ayr was the home and surgery of
:44:03. > :44:08.Dr Charles McKerrow. He'd inherited the practice
:44:09. > :44:11.from his father, George. In January 1915 Charles married
:44:12. > :44:15.his wife Jean. and in the June
:44:16. > :44:17.of that same year he enlisted The young doctor was appointed to
:44:18. > :44:24.the 10th Battalion Arriving in France,
:44:25. > :44:30.he began to train the medical team around him, and in
:44:31. > :44:36.particular his stretcher bearers. At that time,
:44:37. > :44:37.these men were selected for their strength and bravery,
:44:38. > :44:47.not their medical experience. The stretcher bearers are not
:44:48. > :44:49.Royal Army Medical Corps, We could equate it to scoop
:44:50. > :44:57.and run ? just put a dressing on, put them on a stretcher
:44:58. > :45:00.and get them out the firing line. So along comes Charles McKerrow,
:45:01. > :45:04.this physician surgeon from Ayr, McKerrow wants to make sure that
:45:05. > :45:10.his regimental stretcher bearers are more highly trained than is
:45:11. > :45:12.normally required. He wants to make sure that they
:45:13. > :45:16.can stop haemorrhage that they can splint limbs, and they can do lots
:45:17. > :45:20.of other basic medical chores. Not only does this help him,
:45:21. > :45:23.as the regimental medical officer, from a morale point of view the men
:45:24. > :45:29.in the battalion will be more than satisfied knowing, if they are
:45:30. > :45:33.wounded, the chance of them having their life saved is a lot
:45:34. > :45:36.better than would normally be. So, in a sense, he's almost like
:45:37. > :45:40.the father of the modern paramedic? McKerrow's strategy
:45:41. > :45:49.of getting trained medics to front But, in its day,
:45:50. > :45:55.it represented a new way And, today, McKerrow's techniques
:45:56. > :46:03.are still taught to a new generation The first ten minutes,
:46:04. > :46:16.we call it the platinum ten minutes, that's the most important time for a
:46:17. > :46:19.combat medical technician to really be on the ball, get in there and
:46:20. > :46:22.treat the casualty straight away. The first thing that we deal with
:46:23. > :46:27.in any port of call is catastrophic haemorrhage and we've got lots
:46:28. > :46:30.of different things that we can use The role played by Charles McKerrow
:46:31. > :46:50.in developing these techniques is The legacy that he provided
:46:51. > :46:54.certainly lives on today, and the idea of pushing medical care
:46:55. > :46:57.as far forward as possible. Because we realised, as he did,
:46:58. > :47:00.that theres no point in having a wonderful hospital or casualty
:47:01. > :47:02.clearing station if the casualties Late
:47:03. > :47:16.in 1916 Charles was posted here, to the village of Vlamertinghe,
:47:17. > :47:20.a few miles West of Ypres. On the 19th
:47:21. > :47:23.of December he wrote to his wife "You say that this is our longest
:47:24. > :47:31.separation so far. I shall tick off each day carefully
:47:32. > :47:34.in my diary when it arrives. The very next day,
:47:35. > :47:44.McKerrow was here, at Maple Copse, returning from an early morning
:47:45. > :47:48.tour of the front line. A shell exploded nearby and Charles
:47:49. > :47:56.was gravely wounded. As a medical officer, he would have
:47:57. > :48:01.known how serious his injuries were. He was taken to a local dressing
:48:02. > :48:04.station and spent the rest of the day conscious, asking after
:48:05. > :48:07.the state of his pulse, even asking At half past eight
:48:08. > :48:12.in the evening he lost consciousness Charles McKerrow is buried here,
:48:13. > :48:25.in Lijssenthoek military cemetery. In the weeks and months
:48:26. > :48:27.after his death, Jean received dozens of letters
:48:28. > :48:31.from men of all ranks who had known For me, the most moving was one
:48:32. > :48:44.written by the Regimental Chaplain, He wrote,
:48:45. > :48:47."Your dear husband yielded up his life nobly and grandly, ministering
:48:48. > :48:51.to the wounded and the dying, that mothers might have their sons
:48:52. > :49:10.back, and wives their husbands." For the final part of the day,
:49:11. > :49:12.people assembled in Holyrood Park, where a memorial
:49:13. > :49:15.of over 1,000 headstones has been built in the powerful form
:49:16. > :49:32.of a Commonwealth War Cemetery. It was erected yesterday. I think
:49:33. > :49:37.visiting a Commonwealth War Graves is a profoundly emotional and moral
:49:38. > :49:41.moment. It is incredibly humbling and each grave carries its own
:49:42. > :49:44.story, and I rather hope this particular Memorial here will
:49:45. > :49:51.stimulant people into wanting to go to France and Belgium to see the
:49:52. > :49:53.graves where the scale frankly dwarfs this. I think this should
:49:54. > :50:06.simply be a catalyst. I'm joined here again by
:50:07. > :50:16.Trevor Royle and At the end of the war, many, many
:50:17. > :50:22.did not come back but some did. What kind of Scotland did they come back
:50:23. > :50:26.to? Well, they came back to a Scotland that was of course divided
:50:27. > :50:30.as the rest of the country was about whether this was a victory or moment
:50:31. > :50:37.of mourning and reflection, and of course it is both of those things.
:50:38. > :50:41.Throughout the 1920s, those two emotions, if you like, were in
:50:42. > :50:47.competition. The notion that this was all about waste and futility
:50:48. > :50:53.took time to becoming drenched. I think most historians would date it
:50:54. > :50:56.from the late 1920s. But in the early 1920s, people had many
:50:57. > :51:00.competing responses to this war. Remember, particularly for Glasgow,
:51:01. > :51:06.this has been an Iraqi industrial boom. The shipbuilding and munitions
:51:07. > :51:18.facility is thrived on the back of the war. -- and industrial boom. It
:51:19. > :51:22.brought people back home. In 1919, 1920, there was a lot of uncertainty
:51:23. > :51:27.about which direction people were going to, just as there was
:51:28. > :51:36.uncertainty at the beginning of the war. Is your place going to be in
:51:37. > :51:41.Scotland or outside Scotland? Things over a much remembered about the war
:51:42. > :51:47.in shorthand. Much trenches, massive loss and a portrait of the war
:51:48. > :51:50.poets, of course. To what extent was that a uniform experience and to
:51:51. > :51:56.what extent is it right that the shorthand should be what dominates
:51:57. > :52:00.our view? We have to be very careful when we bring forward the war poets
:52:01. > :52:04.and novelists as witnesses. As important as their work is, one of
:52:05. > :52:08.the things that has happened because of the writing, a lot of it very
:52:09. > :52:13.fine and observational, heartfelt and passionate, is that every day of
:52:14. > :52:19.the war becomes the first day of the Battle of the song, with huge
:52:20. > :52:23.courtesies, or every battlefield is not all around you. The war wasn't
:52:24. > :52:28.like that. But it was for some people and it was in doses, so to
:52:29. > :52:31.speak. But it wasn't like that all the time. But for those coming back,
:52:32. > :52:37.I think the principal feeling was one en route -- of relief, because
:52:38. > :52:40.we have to put it into context. These are young people who have come
:52:41. > :52:44.back and they are alive and certainly reading the letters of a
:52:45. > :52:51.lot of soldiers of the First World War, relief is their utmost feeling
:52:52. > :52:58.in 1918, 1919. Behind the programme of commemorations that begin today
:52:59. > :53:03.in Scotland, is the idea, what can we learn from this? The centenary,
:53:04. > :53:08.because it is a five-year programme in Scotland, it is a real
:53:09. > :53:12.educational opportunity, a wonderful opportunity. And I think it is very
:53:13. > :53:18.important that we don't rush to the end, that we don't rush to
:53:19. > :53:22.remembrance, rushed to commemoration. Because if we do
:53:23. > :53:29.that, first of all we will reproduce what we do already. And secondly,
:53:30. > :53:33.what we won't do is go through the war as they did. They were not all
:53:34. > :53:38.dead at the beginning of the war and most of them were not dead at the
:53:39. > :53:42.end of the war. 88% of the UK population came back and there is
:53:43. > :53:48.good reason to say that applies to most Scots in the same proportion.
:53:49. > :53:49.So there is time and we should use that time. Thank you very much
:53:50. > :53:54.indeed to both of you. For almost 100 years since the first
:53:55. > :53:57.war memorials were built, the people of Scotland have come together to
:53:58. > :54:02.remember their fallen sons. This living memorial in Holyrood
:54:03. > :54:05.Park is only the most recent. And it's a Scotsman who wrote some
:54:06. > :54:08.of the finest songs in memory From his home town of Adelaide,
:54:09. > :54:11.this is Eric Bogle. # Well, how do you do
:54:12. > :54:14.Private Willie McBride? # Do you mind if I sit here
:54:15. > :54:17.down by your graveside? # I wrote No Man's Land
:54:18. > :54:23.after a trip to Flanders in 1975. You can read all the books you
:54:24. > :54:29.like and see all the pictures you like, but to be there walking among
:54:30. > :54:32.the gravestones, walking in the old battlefields, seeing the monuments -
:54:33. > :54:37.that's when it really hits home, # Well, how do you do
:54:38. > :54:49.Private Willie McBride? # Do you mind if I sit here
:54:50. > :54:56.down by your graveside? # And I'll rest for a while
:54:57. > :55:03.in the warm summer sun # Been walking all day long
:55:04. > :55:12.and I'm nearly done # And I see by your gravestone
:55:13. > :55:19.you're only 19 # When you joined
:55:20. > :55:26.the glorious fallen in 1916 # I hope you died quick
:55:27. > :55:32.and I hope you died clean # Or, Willie McBride,
:55:33. > :55:40.was it slow and obscene? # Did they beat the drum slowly?
:55:41. > :55:46.Did they sound the fife lowly? # Did the rifles fire o'er ye
:55:47. > :55:55.as they lowered ye down? # Did the bugles sing The Last Post
:55:56. > :56:03.in chorus? # Did the pipes play
:56:04. > :56:19.the Flowers Of The Forest? # And I can't help but wonder
:56:20. > :56:25.Willie McBride # Do all those who lie here
:56:26. > :56:32.know why they died? # Did you really believe them
:56:33. > :56:39.when they told you The Cause? # Did you really believe that
:56:40. > :56:48.this war would end wars? # Well the suffering, the sorrow
:56:49. > :56:54.The glory, the shame # The killing, the dying
:56:55. > :57:01.It was all done in vain # For, Willie McBride
:57:02. > :57:08.It's all happened again # And again, and again
:57:09. > :57:15.And again, and again # Did they beat the drum slowly?
:57:16. > :57:23.Did they sound the fife lowly? # Did the rifles fire o'er ye
:57:24. > :57:31.as they lowered ye down? # Did the bugles sing The Last Post
:57:32. > :57:39.in chorus? # Did the pipes play
:57:40. > :57:48.the Flowers Of The Forest? # Did the bugles sing The Last Post
:57:49. > :57:55.in chorus? # And did the pipes play
:57:56. > :58:09.the Flowers Of The Forest? # Eric Bogle with
:58:10. > :58:11.his personal tribute to one fallen soldier on a truly remarkable day
:58:12. > :58:16.when we've seen tributes to tens