A remembrance tribute

8.9C calm with some bright spells then cloud arriving later.

Those of you who drop by from time to time to look at my blips and read my journal may recall that in June of this Year Apothecary7 and I went North to the Island of Hoy for a few days. Hoy is the second largest island of the Orcadian archipelago and is the place where my paternal ancestors come from.

I have in recent years developed an interest in family history, and I have built up a fair sized family tree which links me to Orkney which I have visited a number of times, and specifically to Hoy which I had visited once before but now feel a certain contentment in that I have spent some days and nights on the land where my ancestors lived. In June we stayed on one of the farms where my ancestors lived, visited two others, saw the other places I have traced, and visited the graveyard where the families lie. One of these was the farm where my grandfather was born and is still occupied by relatively distant family members. I can trace my family name to the same spot on the North East Hoy back as far as 1541. I am a member of the Orkney Family History Society which holds both hard and soft copies of my research.

In June we visited the old church of Hoy Parish which is now the Hoy Kirk Heritage Centre, where I was able to see and read their family history information and add a little more to my family's story. In due course I intend to provide them with details of the history of my family to add to their resources. Which brings us of the relevance of this story to remembrance day. In the Kirk's vestibule we saw and photographed the memorial to the men of Hoy Parish who lost their lives in WWI. You can see this stone as an insert in today's blip. My family name appears on the stone and one of the young men commemorated was born and lived on the farm where we stayed whilst on Hoy.

As we looked at the memorial stone I recalled watching programs in the last major feature on WWI that the BBC had one or two years ago that brought home how hard communities were hit by the loss of their young people. As I have worked on my research over the years I have found it astonishing just how close knit the community has been and that most families are, at some point, interrelated. I couldn't imagine the loss to such a small area on such a small island which had already seen half a century or more of depopulation due to changes in farming with people having to find paid work or even having to leave their families and emigrate. At that moment I determined that my tribute to the service of these young men would be to trace their family trees and, if I could, to welcome each of them into my family however distant a relationships they might have to me. I only hoped that it would be possible.

On this special day of remembrance I can report that since we came home and through the summer of this year I have researched a family tree for each of the men listed on the memorial and made a link within each of their trees to my tree. At this distance in time I hope that this tribute is appropriate. It is most certainly sincere and heartfelt.

I offer my thanks and remembrance to the men of my extended family in Hoy Parish who gave their lives for justice and liberty in the great world war:

Pte. HARRY RITCH 2nd Seaforths, 11th April 1917, age 35.
Smn. JOHN ROBB, M.M. S.S. "Clearfield", 23rd October 1916, age 22.
Pte. JOHN THOMSON (Seaforths) 35th Battalion Machine Gun Corps, 18th April 1918, age 20.
Pte. JOHN MOWAT 1st (Saskatchewan) Mounted Rifles, C.E.F., 5th June 1916, age 30.
Pte. WILLIAM MOWAT 1/4th Seaforths, 20th July 1918, age 21.
L/Cpl. JOHN OMAND, M.M. 7th Seaforths, 25th October 1918, age 21.
Tmr. JAMES SABISTON R.N.R., H.M.S. "Victorious", 24th November 1919, age 26.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Thank you.