Liverpool Scottish Museum Archive

The Centenary Year

The Centenary Year

The 100th anniversary in the year of 2000 was marked by a Centenary Ball at St. George's Hall in May. The Museum organised the sponsoring and planting of 'Scottish Wood' at Altcar Range north of Liverpool and the dedication of this was to have taken place in May 2001 but was postponed until 2002 as a result of Foot and Mouth disease (Donations towards the cost of trees were made in memory of family members who served in the Liverpool Scottish).

Additionally, the Museum was closely involved in the arrangements for the relocation of the stone Liverpool Scottish badge (10th King's) which was originally the keystone to the entrance at the Liverpool Scottish HQ at the Fraser Street Barracks in the centre of Liverpool. In the early 1970s this was mounted in a plinth at Forbes House, the HQ of V (The Liverpool Scottish) Company. When Forbes Home in Childwall was cleaned in 1999, the stone was given to the City of Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium to be placed, in their care, on the Hooge battlefield of June 1915  

The Memorial Stone at Hooge

The memorial was unveiled at Hooge by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and the Burgemeester of Ieper. The memorial stone at Hooge is dedicated by the Rector of Liverpool and Fr. Boni Van Looveren. It was placed on the battlefield at Hooge near Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium on July 29th 2000 and was handed over to the town of Ieper by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool during a service conducted by the Rev. Canon Nicholas Frayling, Rector of Liverpool. It serves as a memorial to all Liverpool Scots who have died in the service of their country.

A further visit to Ieper was made during  weekend of 15th/17th June 2002 to mark the Last Post Ceremony on Sunday 16th June 2002 commemorating Acting Sgt. Charles William Ormesher who was listed missing on 16th June 1915 at the Battle of Hooge but had never been listed as 'killed' by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Consequently, there was no memorial to Ormesher. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission accepted the Museum's case and his name has now been inscribed on the Menin Gate in 2002. (Addenda panel on the external SW corner of the Menin Gate)

In June 2005, following extensive research and in conjunction with the authorities of the communities of  Erquinghem Lys and Bois Grenier in north eastern France (near Armentières), a party of serving soldiers accompanied by approximately 100 supporters led by the President of the Officers' Association (and Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside), Colonel Alan Waterworth, visited the area in which the 2nd Battalion of the Liverpool Scottish  [2/10th (Scottish) Battalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment) TF] served with the 57th (2nd West Lancashire) Division in 1917. Colonel Waterworth (now Sir Alan) unveiled a memorial cairn to the men of the 2nd Battalion one kilomentre  south of Bois Grenier near to the start point of their 'Dicky's Dash' trench raid of 1917.

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