Remembering the 100th Anniversary

The Kirk will be open from 10am to 12pm and 2 to 4pm on Sunday 9th November, and then 10:30 to 11:30am and 7 to 9pm on Tuesday 11th November to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War 1. We’ll have information and photographs relating to as many of the men on the Deerness War Memorial as we’ve been able to track down and welcome everyone to join in remembering these 13 young Deerness men.

There will, of course, also be a service at the Memorial on Sunday 9th, time to be confirmed.

Starting to tell the Deerness’s Story

Posted on 4th August 2014..

One hundred years ago today, on 4 August 1914, at 11pm, Britain went to war against Germany and World War 1 continued in all its horror until 11am on 11 November 1918.

In those years of fighting, and in the aftermath, Deerness lost 13 young men who had been born in the parish. Their names are on the Deerness War Memorial, in the kirkyard of the Lower Kirk, St Ninian’s. 

• Thomas Irvine, Sandside, died March 1915 in Kirkwall
• James Craigie, Breck, died March 1915 at Loos
• Thomas Foubister, Little Grindigar, died September 1915 at Loos
• William Craigie, Breck, died August 1916 at the Somme
• David Ritch, Free Schoolhouse, September 1916, at Pozieres
• John L Mowat, Cellardyke, March 1917, in France
• Robert Foubister, Watermoss, August 1917 in France
• David Cormack, Delday, September 1917, at Ypres
• James Scott, Wood Cottage, November 1917, in France
• David Linklater, Upper Braebuster, January 1918 at Salonika
• John Wick, Cutpool, April 1918 at Warloy
• James Dick, Keigar, September 1919, at Dingwall
• James Cromarty, Little Quoys, December 1919, at Edinburgh

Deerness also lost young men who had lived in the parish, or were married to Deerness girls, but were born and are commemorated elsewhere, and few families in Deerness were untouched by death, injury or simply the fearsome worry of a family member called away to serve in World War 1, by land or sea.

Over the next 4 years we will be remembering those who died and those who served and survived. We will do so in various ways, including an exhibition, telling as many as possible of their stories.

We are in touch with the families of many of Deerness’s World War 1 servicemen but there are a lot more out there who we’ve yet to make contact with. If you would like your forebear’s World War 1 service remembered by Deerness, please get in touch with Ernie Skea 01856 741203, Leslie Foubister 01856 861332, Mabel Eunson  01856 741325 or info@deernessorkney.co.uk

WW1 Commemoration Project Update

Posted 9 April 2016…

The World War 1 Commemoration Project continues and on the of 26 and 27 September 2015 the kirk was open for a display of photographs, memorabilia, and documents connected to two Deerness lads who fought at the Battle of Loos and died from wounds – James Craigie, aged 24, and Thomas Foubister, aged 22, both of the 8th Seaforths.

We had a number of very appreciative visitors including close family. One Orcadian visitor commented that Deerness was doing so much more than other Orkney parishes and the display of information was outstanding and very sensitively done.

This year our commemoration will be on the weekend of 2nd to 5th September to remember the sacrifice of Private William Craigie (younger brother of James Craigie above) of the 8th Seaforths who died at the Somme aged 22 and Sergeant David Ritch of the 16th Canadians who died aged 23 at the Battle of Poizieres, which was also part of the Battle of the Somme.  As before, there will be an exhibition of all the material gathered to date.

Come 1918, there will be a major commemoration for all those Deerness men who died in the Great War, and we’re putting together plans for that so all suggestions for this will be most welcome. 

Anyone with information/memorabilia on any of the men on the War Memorial, or about men who served and survived please contact Anne Mitchell 741300 or Mabel Eunson 741325—photographs particularly welcome. And if you’re in touch with any descendants of David Ritch, please let them know about our commemoration of him in September.

World War 1 Commemorations 2019

The Deerness World War 1 project draws to an end in 2019 when we remember the last two boys on the War Memorial. Firstly, we remember James Clouston Dick who contracted TB whilst in the Royal Navy, and died on 28 September 1919 in the Seaforth Sanatorium, Dingwall and is buried in Mitchell Hill Cemetery there. We have no photo of James Dick, nor do we know much of his story prior to joining the Royal Navy in 1916. We have searched far and wide for a photograph — if you have any ideas where we might find one, please get in touch. He is the only one of the 13 boys on the Memorial for whom we have no picture. 

Then, last of the 13, we remember James Cromarty who died on 19 December 1919, of septicaemia, in Craigleith Hospital,Edinburgh. A wound refused to heal and James, first cousin of three others on the Deerness Memorial,  William and James Craigie and David Linklater, slipped away just before Christmas 1919. 

In the past year we have remembered David Linklater who was killed in Salonika, and John Wick, Australian Army, shot in France. A good-sized group also gathered at 0600 in the dark on Sunday 11 November to remember the centenary of the Armistice, whilst Raymie Peace played the Battle’s O’er. It was a most moving event, followed by another big turn-out for the 1100 service, led by Rev Wilma Johnston. 

The aim is to have the stories of all 13 on the website and in a booklet, to be produced sometime in 2020. In the meantime, join us for a talk about all the boys, and some of those who served and survived, at St Ninian’s at 7.30pm on Wednesday 10 July.

Deerness Remembers – 100 years on…

This poem was written by Huw Gwynn-Jones and inspired by the war memorial in St Ninian’s Kirkyard.

As I was blown down the hill to Ninian’s,
Eastern outpost, land’s end and graveyard, 
shrine to Deerness lads conscribed to die 
in a cause they were told was common,
marching at the beck and call of the times to
a waiting patch of Orkney green,
their death’s forgiving shore,

I passed through sided fields, clustered homecomings
of lapwings, blood red shanks and curlews,
beaks bowed respectfully to the ground, and sensed
the nightly line of old familiars
wake to fill their lungs with damp ground air
and stretch their legs. And I wondered to myself,
“Why are they still in uniform?”

And I wondered what they do down here 
in the night’s ambivalence, in simmer
dim and the sad Remembrance light.
Do they still dream of spent days and lives
and laughter, now set neglectfully
in aspic? Do they dance a while, or feel 
the sting of still salty tears? 

Where do they smoke and suck
their empty pipes now,
play their cards, brew tea and
cast their lots?

Today, as we remember, their Last Post 
is a haunting, the uncaught
song of a lonely seal 
in slow surrender to the waves.