University launches WW1 commemoration
Published: 30 July 2014
A simple service in the University Chapel marked the start of a series of events remembering more than 750 men and women from the University community who died in the Great War.
A simple service in the University Chapel marked the start of a series of events remembering more than 750 men and women from the University community who died in the Great War.
Britain's declaration of war on Germany came on 4 August 1914. On Monday 4 August this year a Sundown Service was held to observe the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.
The University of Glasgow's experience of the war mirrored that of communities throughout Scotland, the wider UK and the world. Day by day over the next four years the appalling casualties mounted. The University lost students, staff and alumni and many more returned from France and the other theatres of the war with severe physical and mental injuries.
An extraordinarily high proportion of the University's casualties - approaching 25 per cent - were medics: doctors and nurses who had been training at Gilmorehill. One of the first was Captain Harry Sherwood Ranken, VC. Harry was the son of a minister from Irvine in Ayrshire. He first enrolled at the University of Glasgow in summer 1900 and over the course of his studies he won eight prizes. He graduated in 1905 and joined the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1910.
In September 1914, with the war only weeks old, he was severely wounded at Haute-Avesnes in Northern France. He carried on treating other wounded soldiers, but died of his injuries on 25 September. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest military honour for bravery. The University's Roll of Honour features women as well as men: you will find the name of Margaret W Hutchison and Assistant Surgeon Mary Alexander included in the online register.
The University is planning a host of events and activities over the next four years including major projects by the Scottish Centre for War Studies (College of Arts), a massive open online course (MOOC) with the BBC and other HEIs, and the planting of white crosses in the University's Garden of Remembrance.
"After due deliberation it was agreed, with the consent of all, that their memory, and our gratitude for their devotion, should be associated with the place of our corporate worship, to the end that their example might be enduringly impressed upon Glasgow students in time to come." Preface to the Roll of Honour
The University Chapel, venue for the simple act of remembrance, has its own World War 1 story. The Chapel was dedicated for divine worship on 4th October 1929. The Right Reverend John White led the ceremony to remember the service done for the nation by University staff, graduates and students. The names of the 755 University men and women who fell in the Great War are recorded on the tablets at the east end of the Chapel.
The University is currently taking forward the ways in which it will commemorate the centenary of World War One. A Commemoration Group has been established, and will work to build a programme of events. Details of these events will be publicised here when they are fixed. If you have any comments on the University’s commemorations, please get in touch with Lesley Richmond, convenor of the Commemoration Group.
You can read about all the University's commemoration plans and events here: www.gla.ac.uk/events/ww1/
First published: 30 July 2014
<< August