Liverpool Scottish Museum Archive

Rededication of War Memorials

Rededication of the Liverpool Scottish War Memorials

Autumn 2010

The main regimentalWar Memorial is now located at St George's Hall in the centre of Liverpool and is accessible to the public when the St George's Hall Heritage Centre is open. The Colours of the Liverpool Scottish, The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (presented by King Georg VI at Goodison Park in 1938) were marched off parade in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Preston in 2009 and are now laid up, alongside the Colours of the 1st Battalion of the King's Regiment, in Liverpool Town Hall in Castle Street, where they may generally be seen through enquiry to the attendant on duty (civic functions permitting).

The regimental war memorials of the Liverpool Scottish were relocated from the barracks at Forbes House, Score Lane, to the new Forbes House near Edge Lane, home of the regimental museum in July 2002. This was the result of three years work and was undertaken with the help of many people. The Liverpool Scottish remain grateful to Peter Spinks and Graham Dowling of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside and to David Cato, a very good friend of the Museum and the Liverpool Scottish. Following the death of Major David Evans TD it is possible that some names have not been acknowledged; please contact the webmaster.

The re-dedication took place on Sunday 9th June 2002. It took the form of a short service conducted by the Rev John Williams RD CF, Padre to the Liverpool Scottish Regimental Association in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Jack Spriggs. Members of the Liverpool Scottish element of the King's and Cheshire Regiment were present (forming a guard under the command of Captain in Gordon McConnell) together with about 50 members of the Regimental Association and other friends of the Liverpool Scottish. The standard of the Liverpool Scottish Regimental Association was carried by Mr Frank Pirie, lately Secretary of the Association, and the Museum was saddened to learn of his death in August 2002. The ceremony took place immediately after the AGM of the LSRA which would normally have taken place on Hooge Day, the anniversary of the 1915 battle, but was brought forward because of the regimental visit to Ypres/Ieper in Belgium in the following week.

The Chairman of the Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum Trust, Professor Donald Ritchie FRSE DL, welcomed visitors to the new museum (in the process of refurbishment) during his address. In the picture of Prof Ritchie (left) can be seen the scroll presented to the Liverpool Scottish by the City in 1950 on the 50th Anniversary of the founding and above is the white Liverpool Scottish civic pipe banner with the arms of the city.

Also present at the ceremony were relatives of Sergeant Charles W Ormesher, killed at Hooge in June 1915 with the 1/10th (Scottish) Battalion, the King's (Liverpool Regiment) TF, ie The Liverpool Scottish. Sergeant. Ormeshe was reported missing but his mother refused to accept the news of his death, believing that he might be a prisoner of the Germans. It appears that the result of her prolonged search was that his name was omitted from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's list of the missing and was not inscribed on the Menin Gate, the memorial in Ypres/Ieper to the missing of the Ypres Salient for the first three years of the Great War. Through the research of Major David Evans and Mr. Rob O'Brien, this omission was rectified in 2002 and Ormesher's name was featured in the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate on Sunday 16th June 2002, the reason for the regimental visit on that weekend.

Other Memorials.

More information about the war memorials (including the wooden memorial from St. Andrew's Church, Rodney Street, and the illuminated Roll of Honour contained within the bronze memorial) can be can be found here.

 

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