This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph features the war memorial looking out to sea at Southport, Queensland, Australia.
War Memorials give no more than a name, yet they are one of the most
powerful, poignant and emotive of family history resources, recording
the loss of often young lives under harrowing circumstances. War
Memorials are not only significant features for the family of
individuals they commemorate, but also for the local community who bear
witness to the sacrifice of their people in war.
The war memorial at Oban on the west coast of Scotland is in a most beautiful peaceful setting, with a background of sea and hills over to the Isle of Mull - far removed from the horrors of war.
A Scottish soldier, remembered in the small village of Taynuilt, near Oban.
Another Scottish soldier portrayed on the war memorial at Aberfeldy, in Perthshire.
The War Memorial in the small village of Minto, near Hawick in the Scottish Borders.
The peaceful parkland setting of the war memorial in Clitheroe, Lancashire, England.
The Cenotaph, Britain's national memorial - photograph taken on a visit to London in 2008. shortly after Remembrance Day.
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A Query? I am puzzled! The prompt photograph quotes the date "c.1910". So what war did it commemorate? Did Australians fight in the Boer War 1899-1901?
The South African Boer War is an often forgotten conflict, but below is remembered in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, where in Wilton Lodge Park the memorial was unveiled in 1903 by Head of the British Forces, Lord Roberts, Twenty three men from Hawick and
district died in the South African conflict and are named on the
memorial.
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So many lovely memorials. I wish we had something like these here, but as I said in my post, most memorials here are in the form of buildings and plaques which aren't as eye-catching as statues - especially some of the ones you've shown here! :)
ReplyDeleteA very thoughtful post, Sue. It was only after I first encountered the WW1 memorials in the small villages in Britain that I fully understood the terrible sacrifice this war cost. More sobering still is to find a list of names from 1939-45 on the other side of a monument. To answer your question, I think someone made an error on the theme photos date. The war memorial in Queensland is very similar to the ones you feature. Here is a link with closeup images. >>https://www.monumentaustralia.org.au/display/92536-southport-war-memorial<<
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever seen a monument to soldiers of the Boer Wars. It was not one of Britain's finest moments in world history. Yet despite a long bitter struggle, in 1914 the South Africa under Louis Botha and Jan Smuts joined the British and French in fighting Germany. I've always wondered what would have happened had S.A. stayed neutral.