Hansard

I am grateful for the opportunity to lead this afternoon’s members’ business debate, which recognises both the importance of protecting and conserving Scotland’s war memorials and the positive contribution that local war memorial associations make to communities across Scotland. I thank members from across the chamber for supporting my motion to enable the debate to take place, and I look forward to hearing contributions from members regarding the war memorial associations in their areas.

My constituency takes in a number of the towns and villages of southern, eastern and western Renfrewshire, from the large towns of Barrhead, where I was brought up, and Johnstone, where I live, to the more rural villages of Lochwinnoch and Uplawmoor. Nearly all the settlements in Renfrewshire South have a war memorial and, in my capacity as the constituency MSP, I have the honour of laying wreaths at many of them on each remembrance Sunday.

Although every community in my constituency was severely impacted by the loss of life that was sustained in the two world wars, there is always a particular poignancy associated with commemorations in the villages. Even in today’s highly connected world, with many people regularly commuting to different parts of the country for work, village life is still characterised by a familiarity and sense of place that is unique. Those traits, which are a source of strength, can make the experience of loss particularly acute, so it is understandable that so many of our villages choose to have their own dedicated war memorials.

Although there is much that I would like to say about the war memorials in Renfrewshire South, I will focus my remarks on the war memorial, and its association, of one village in particular: Neilston. Until as recently as 2015, Neilston was one of only a few villages in Scotland not to have a civic memorial to honour its war dead. Residents of Neilston had long contributed funds to support national war memorials, but only the three local soldiers who fell during the Boer war were honoured with a public memorial in the grounds of Neilston parish church.

Neilston lost 164 of its young men between 1914 and 1918, including 16 in one day during the 1915 battle of Loos. That casualty rate is significantly higher than the national average. It was amid growing discomfort at the absence of a fixed memorial, with the approaching centenary of the outbreak of the first world war, that, in 2011, members of the community established the Neilston War Memorial Association.

Many people from the village and beyond soon became involved in supporting the association in its objective of funding and delivering a fitting memorial for the more than 200 Neilston lads who made the ultimate sacrifice in the two world wars and other conflicts, including in Northern Ireland. The war memorial association was supported generously by many local businesses and benefited from many individual donations, as well as from the spectacular fundraising feat of local man Jimmy Higgins, who, along with his cousin John McGuire, walked the 600 miles or so from Neilston to Vimy ridge, in France, which is the site of the battlefield where his grandfather fought in the first world war.

One individual, in particular, who has made and continues to make a huge contribution is Matt Drennan, the secretary of the Neilston War Memorial Association. I am delighted that he has been able to join us today in the public gallery, along with his wife, Jacqueline. It was Matt’s good friend, the writer and photographer Keith Fergus, who first told me about Matt’s key role in the association. I had the pleasure of meeting them for coffee over the weekend, and I was blown away by Matt’s passion and his encyclopaedic knowledge of the impact that the two world wars had on Neilston and the wider area. Forensic in detail and utterly dedicated to his subject as he is, it was a privilege to chat with him.

When Neilston’s unique and moving war memorial was erected, it might have seemed to some as though it was job done, but that was not the case for Matt. He continues his assiduous research to ensure that all who fell are honoured and that the list of names on the memorial is updated as new information comes to light. Matt was instrumental in obtaining a book of dedication for the fallen, which sits in Neilston library, and he was part of the small team that spent hundreds of hours researching the names and backgrounds of those who lost their lives in the wars.

Matt plays a significant role in the organisation and running of Neilston’s annual remembrance service parade, as well as in ensuring that the memorial is well maintained. He has been a key part of the development of the Neilston War Memorial Association into a wider-ranging community organisation, helping to secure lottery funding for bagpipe parades, Christmas lights and, later this year, a community fun day in Kingston park to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the second world war.

Matt is currently working on a special and worthwhile project. This Sunday will mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival in Neilston of 19 Norwegian refugees. Their journey from their native island of Sørøya to the safety of the Kingston park hostel in Neilston is a harrowing and heroic story.

In early 1945, as Hitler’s 1,000-year Reich began to collapse after barely a decade, German forces began the forced deportation of able-bodied civilians from Norway to forced labour camps. The islanders of Sørøya resisted and were met with a brutal German retaliation. There was indiscriminate bombing of civilians, destruction of property and the requisition of food supplies.

An audacious rescue mission was launched by the Royal Navy, which successfully transported over 500 civilians to safety in Murmansk, Russia. The next stage of the mission involved a perilous convoy that skirted the Arctic Circle to transport the refugees to Scotland. Harried by U-boats and one of the final maritime Luftwaffe missions of the war, the convoy also had to contend with atrocious weather.

During the treacherous journey, one of the convoy ships—the American Liberty ship, the SS Henry Bacon—suffered storm damage and became separated from the main convoy. Under heavy enemy fire, the crew valiantly held out for some time, downing several German torpedo bombers. When the vessel was struck, 27 members of the crew went down with the ship, selflessly ensuring that 19 Norwegian refugees found refuge in the lifeboats before reaching safety in Scotland.

To commemorate those American sailors, who made the ultimate sacrifice, Matt Drennan is leading the Neilston War Memorial Association’s efforts to establish a memorial in Kingston park that will consist of 27 native Norwegian trees—one for each life that was lost on the SS Henry Bacon. Those crew members’ lives were given so that the refugees could find sanctuary. We must continuously reflect on their example and remind others of it.

The events of the second world war—indeed, of all wars—must serve as a lesson to us today, as they demonstrate our capacity for both evil and good. The work of the Neilston War Memorial Association and Matt Drennan, in particular, has perhaps never been more important in helping us to remember, understand and learn. I put on the record my sincere thanks to Matt and everyone who is involved in the association for all the work that they do. They are a credit to their community and I wish them the very best in all their future work.