Peebles War Memorial

Visited Peebles a few weeks ago and discovered through an archway from the High Street, the impressive Peeblesshire War Memorial which is set in pleasant gardens. This unusual memorial, designed by the architect Burnett N. H. Orphoot of Edinburgh, is a white stone hexagonal shrine, surmounted by a dome sheltering a Celtic Cross of Sicilian limestone with inlaid mosaic. It was unveiled by Field Marshall Earl Haig on 5th October 1922. Those lost in the Second World War are remembered in two tablets on the wall on either side.

The Celtic Cross of Sicilian limestone with inlaid mosaic and behind that the names of those who died in the conflict in Peebles and the other towns and villages of Peebleshire.The bronze memorial tablets are set into the walls at the back of the shrine and these are also framed with Sicilian mosaics.

The memorial carries the names of 541 men and women of Peebleshire who lost their lives in the First World War, amongst them two of my mother's young cousins, so it seemed appropriate to remember them, 100 years to the day since the outbreak of the Great War.