another commemoration

I know that most people have been focussed on HM the Queen this weekend, but today in Dunscore we remembered another woman - Jane Haining. Jane was not rich or priviledged by birth - she had an ordinary upbringing on a farm in Dunscore and then worked for a threadmakers in Paisley. But she went on to become extraordinary, leaving Scotland to become matron of a Jewish girls' home in Budapest in 1932. When war broke out, Jane stayed with the children she had come to love, and ultimately she died in 1944 in Auschwitz.

Today in Dunscore Church, her family and many people from far and near gathered to celebrate her life and to unveil the "Heroes of the Holocaust" medal which she was awarded posthumously by the government in 2010. Children from the primary school sang a song and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, David Arnott, preached a sermon.

Jane would probably have not liked all this fuss being made in her memory, but in these days of easy celebrity, she is someone who deserves to be honoured.