The Black Watch Association (BWA) has led a poignant pilgrimage to the battlefields of the First World War where thousands of men from Angus, Dundee and Fife perished.
In a trip that led one of the area’s former local authority leaders to pen his own remembrance poem, family ties were also commemorated and tribute was paid at The Black Watch Corner memorial unveiled in 2014 near Ypres to honour the 8,960 officers and soldiers killed, as well as more than 20,000 men of the regiment wounded in the conflict.
Angus BWA branch secretary Tom McCluskey and his wife Anne devised the detailed itinerary that also saw a wreath laid at the emotional Menin Gate ceremony.
The travelling party included retired Black Watch major Ronnie Proctor, his wife Sonia and their teenage grandson Ruaraidh, who played the Flowers of the Forest lament at the famous night-time Last Post ceremony.
The group also included Angus councillor Bob Myles, who was so moved by the experience he wrote the verse Great War? en route back to Scotland.
Although he has visited the fields of Flanders on a number of occasions, Mr Proctor said the latest trip brought special significance for the family.
“We managed to locate my wife’s great-uncle George’s grave in a civilian cemetery.
“He was a Kirrie lad and died of wounds on Hogmanay night 1914.”
At the Menin Gate Mr Proctor said he was “honoured” to read the exhortation and lay a wreath in front of the thousand-strong crowd, before proudly watching Ruaraidh play the famed piper’s lament.
Anne McCluskey located the name of her grandfather Corporal William Moreland on the memorial wall at Dud Corner cemetery and Angus agricultural contractor Ivan Laird found his uncle’s name on the memorial wall at Tyne Cot, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in France and Flanders.
Mr Myles said: “The trip was a moving experience, made very special by the research and organisation of Tam and Anne McCluskey and Ronnie Proctor of The Black Watch Association.
“They were able to track down the graves of relatives of our party and a moving tribute was delivered at each, accompanied by a lament on the pipes by young Ruaraidh Proctor.”