America’s touching tribute to Scotland’s war dead
NEARLY 80 years ago, on a bright Edinburgh day, hundreds of people joined in the unveiling of a new war memorial on the west end of Princes Street Gardens. Like most monuments and plaques that dot the city’s landscape, this particular one has carried additional significance ever since.
The Scottish-American War Memorial is a moving expression of beauty and dignity and captures the essence of the strong bond between the two lands. At its centre the memorial – known as The Call – features a young, kilted soldier representing the First World War fighting spirit of Scotland. At the unveiling ceremonies on 7 September 1927, Alanson B Houghton, the US Ambassador to Britain, said of the seated bronze infantryman gazing toward Castle Rock:
“Today we commemorate the Great War with the figure of a common soldier – one youth separated from the thronging files of recruits pressing on from behind – one youth within sound of the pipes and drums and within sight of the old Castle on the hill – one son of Scotland from a mansion or a manse or a mine, from a farm or a factory, from a Glasgow close or an Edinburgh lane – it matters not. For he came from all of these. He kept lonely company with his own soul in a tank or in a trench, on the sea or in the sky. And he went to his death alone.”
source-The Scotsman
