A hero’s granddaughter made the poignant pilgrimage to Angus for a sombre seaside service in his honour ahead of the main Armistice Day commemorations.
In the evocative darkness of Carnoustie golf links, Carol MacDonald from Muir of Ord joined those at a short ceremony beside the floodlit memorial to the Angus town’s two Victoria Cross recipients of the First World War.
The name of her forebear George Samson is carved on the face of memorial alongside that of Charles Jarvis, one of the first soldiers to receive the nation’s highest award for gallantry following the outbreak of war.
Royal Naval Reserve seaman Samson was recognised for his heroism during the Gallipoli campaign when, despite being wounded, he survived a full day under enemy fire working the lighters conveying the Allied invasion force ashore from the landing ship River Clyde.
Jarvis was a former apprentice plumber serving in the 57th Field Company Royal Engineers at the outbreak of the war when he worked for 90 minutes under heavy fire and in full enemy view to demolish a bridge on August 23 1914.
The service organised by the local Legion and Carnoustie golf links is the first floodlit ceremony to be held at the memorial and was arranged as a special addition to the town’s Remembrance commemorations.
In rural Angus, a small memorial in a farm field was the setting for a remembrance of two pilots who lost their lives while stationed in the county.
Sub Lieutenants Brian Honeybun and Arnold Waterhouse perished when the Fairey Swordfish plane they were in on a training flight from HMS Condor crashed at Gask Farm on the outskirts of Letham.
A simple wooden cross marked the scene of the tragedy in February 1943, and although it rotted away the original brass plaque was recovered by a metal detectorist and placed on a new monument.
Figures from the East of Scotland Royal Marines Association and farmer David Lumgair, an Angus councillor, were among those who paid their respects.
