Soldiering on...
And now I have liv’d—I know not
how long,
And still I can join in a
cup and a song;
But whilst with
both hands I can hold the glass steady,
Here’s to thee, my hero, my sodger laddie.
This week was a week of travel and
enlightenment. Travel in relation to the places my committees were
sitting this week and travel in the sense that personally I moved
some things along in this working week.
I was back in the austere and grand city
chambers in the great city of Glasgow. The equal opportunities
committee met there this week to continue on with our inquiry into
migration and trafficking. We met with people who have come to
Scotland from the European union and people who had come as refugees
seeking sanctuary and we met with people who had come as part of an
organised work programme. The evidence was both disturbing and
warming, disturbing in that in some cases people have experienced
discrimination and warming in that they felt welcomed, supported and
part of the community. We heard some very disturbing evidence about
the exploitation of migrant communities by some private landlords.
Infested properties, with little or no amenities and exorbitant
rents seemed to be an experience of quite a few of our participants.
I am proud to be a member of a party who in Government are tackling
some of these issues and with Alex Neil taking on these concerns as
Housing Minister I am sure we will have a system of support to be
proud of. One of the best things I hear was from a man from Estonia
who said he was drawn to Scotland because it believed in old style
democracy, I think we believe in new style democracy too.
Tuesday I was up in Clackmannanshire with the
education committee as part of our inquiry into education spend in
local government. We had a very in-depth contribution from the chief
executive Angela Leitch about the budget concerns they have, which
was both interesting and informative. But I was concerned that she
did not know how much liability she had with regard to PPP/PFI she
said she thought it was about £6 million. Now maybe I am being a bit
hard here but I think a £6 million chunk out of my overall budget
before I can buy a pencil or employ a teacher would be something I
would be very aware of. The legacy left to us by the last labour
executive has meant that across Scotland councils need to take £244
million out of their budgets to pay fro the privatisation of our
school estate……I think that’s shocking!
You may have heard that curriculum for
excellence is a disaster, especially from the opposition however if
there is one main thing that I have learned in our visits across
Scotland as part of the education inquiry is that schools, councils
and teachers are embracing and actually enjoying the new curriculum.
I think the doom sayers are very wrong when they say otherwise
because that to me is a sleight on all of Scotland's teachers who do
a wonderfully professional job.
You will see above that once again I have
quoted Robert Burns, My hero, My Soldier Laddie is the name of a
wonderful book written by Larkhall man Duncan Brown. I was so
completely enthralled by the book that I thought it merited a
parliamentary motion and I was delighted to get cross party support
which enabled it to be debated in parliament last night. I said in
my speech;
When I say that Duncan Brown is an amateur
historian, I mean that in the absolute best sense of the word – he
is someone who pursues his passion for Scots history out of sheer
love and an unshakeable belief in its importance, not for income or
recognition. He is not attached to any academic institution, but has
undertaken his research under his own steam, with painstaking
dedication.
Duncan was lucky enough to count as a personal
friend the late Nigel Tranter, whose books opened the eyes of so
many of us to the endless thrills and excitement to be found in the
tales of Scottish history and he continues to work in that tradition
today. He’s also a very talented artist and a piper, by the way – I
get exhausted just thinking about it!
There has been a long tradition of chroniclers
like Duncan in Scotland, in local history and archaeological groups
or just beavering away on their own, adding layers and nuggets of
fact and detail to our nation’s story, sometimes small, sometimes
monumental, but all enhancing our understanding and our enjoyment of
Scottish history.
Often it has been these amateur historians who
have provided us with the tales of the ordinary lives in towns and
villages across the land – the farmer, the weaver, the rent striker,
the dominie or the soldier – which bring the real depth, richness
and colour to Scotland’s story.
I realise it’s a bit unorthodox to plug things
in the Chamber, but I hope you won’t mind if I recommend Duncan’s
book to you all. My Hero, My Soldier Laddie – the title comes
from Robert Burns – is in the best tradition of the type of history
I’ve been describing, and half of all the proceeds go to the Erskine
veterans’ charity.
Duncan’s search for Scotland’s Victoria Cross
recipients began by chance when he was playing the pipes at a
wedding in Cheltenham, of all places, and a guest mentioned that she
believed she had a Scottish ancestor, a David MacKay who had been in
a Highland regiment and awarded the Victoria Cross. Duncan has
painstakingly pieced together MacKay’s life story: he discovered
that MacKay not only took part in the famous Thin Red Line during
the Crimean War, he then, having been nominated by his fellow Argyll
& Sutherland Highlanders for the honour. went on to be among the
first group of men ever to be awarded the VC for the heroism he
displayed during the Siege of Lucknow in 1857,
MacKay was badly wounded but survived and
returned to Lesmahagow, where Duncan eventually traced his remains
to an unmarked pauper’s grave. It was discovering that sad fate of a
man who should still rightly be recognised as a Scots hero –
regardless of our feelings now about the role of the British Empire
in India – that prompted Duncan to go on to uncover the details of
172 Scottish VCs. Among those, he found that no fewer than fourteen
hailed from the towns and villages of Lanarkshire.
In fact, one in every 100 VCs ever awarded
went to a Lanarkshire man, an astonishing record for our small
county. Three recipients came from Carluke alone. I wish I had time
to talk about every one of them, but having spoken about the first,
I also want briefly say something about the last VC recipient, Bill
Reid, who Duncan Brown was able to meet and talk to before his death
in 2001. I feel a particular affinity with Bill, because he was
originally a Baillieston native, like me.
In November 1943, the Lancaster Bomber that
Bill was flying across the Dutch coast towards Germany twice came
under attack. Bill’s navigator and wireless operator were killed and
Bill himself was badly wounded and the plane’s oxygen system
ruptured and hydraulics damaged. Instead of turning back, Bill
brought his plane back under control, flew on and completed his
mission.
After recovering from his
wounds, Bill joined 617 Squadron with
Leonard Cheshire
- and on his first flight he fouled up his landing and knocked the
tail off his plane. He had an endorsement put in his logbook and
Bill later joked that he was surely ‘the only pilot to get a
Victoria Cross on one trip and a red endorsement on the next.’
Bill was extremely modest
about his bravery, and didn’t even tell his wife about his VC when
he got married in 1952. Explaining later how he had been able to act
with such heroism, he simply said:
“When you lost people who were
your closest friends, the danger certainly came home to you. If
you’d thought it would happen to you, too, you’d simply never have
been able to fly again.”
It’s reading stories like
Bill’s that really bring home, not just how much we owe men like him
and his fellow VC recipients, but also how important it is that
those of us living in Scotland now and in future generations
continue to read and hear these stories and that we do not forget
the extraordinary contributions that have been made by ordinary
people to secure our freedom and democracy.
If you’re ever in Hamilton, I
would encourage you to visit the memorial to the Lanarkshire VCs in
the town square, which was unveiled in 2005 after a campaign by
Duncan and a public appeal by the Hamilton Advertiser. The poem
inscribed on the memorial, by 12 year old Anna Smith from Our Lady’s
High School, captures the spirit of tonight’s debate for me:
YOU ARE HEROES
IN OUR HEARTS, AND THAT YOU'LL ALWAYS STAY
COURAGEOUS AND HEROIC
IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY.
YOU SACRIFICED SO MUCH FOR US - A DEBT WE
CAN'T REPAY.
YOU FOUGHT FOR US AND BLED FOR US AND WE THANK YOU
ON THIS DAY.
- The full text of the motion is:
S3M-06437# Christina McKelvie
(Central Scotland) (Scottish National Party): My Hero, My Soldier
Laddie, Commemorating Scotland's VC Recipients—
That the Parliament welcomes the publication of
My Hero, My Soldier Laddie
by artist and writer Duncan Brown, the illustrated story of
Scotland’s 172 recipients of the Victoria Cross (VC); notes that the
book tells the individual stories of each of the 14 VC recipients
who came from Lanarkshire, one in every hundred of all VC recipients
ever awarded; further notes that, in 2001, Duncan Brown was
instrumental in securing the raising of the monument that now stands
in Hamilton Town Square to the memory of these 14 men, David Mackay
of Auchenheath, Frederick Aikman and John O’Neill of Hamilton,
William Gardner of Bothwell, Willie Angus, Thomas Caldwell and
Donald Cameron of Carluke, David Lauder and John Carmichael of
Airdrie, James Richardson of Bellshill, William Milne of Wishaw,
John Hamilton of Cambuslang, William Clamp of Craigneuk and Bill
Reid of Coatbridge; believes that the type of oral and social
history found in My Hero, My Soldier
Laddie plays a crucial role in
uncovering, illuminating and preserving Scotland’s past and the
lives of ordinary Scots who made extraordinary contributions, and
congratulates Duncan Brown on his considerable achievement in this
respect.
- Half of the proceeds from sales of
My Hero, My Soldier Laddie
will be donated to the Erskine veterans' care charity.
Check out the contribution from Willie Coffey
MSP it was absolutely wonderful
There was some fantastic
contributions to the debate, you can read it here
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/sp/?id=2010-06-10.27290.0&s=heritage
or watch it on this link
http://www.holyrood.tv/index.asp
The pictures below show the
Strathleven Artizans of which Duncan Brown is a member, supporting
Duncan on the day at the debate in parliament. There is also a
smashing picture of Duncan and Moi at the monument in Hamilton.
Have a wonderfully enlightening weekend.
Christina McKelvie MSP
Central Scotland
