Help remember our fallen
Published: 17 June 2015
Between now and 2018 the University will be remembering those from our community who fell in the Great War.
Between now and 2018 the University will be remembering those from our community who fell in the Great War.
Like most communities across the UK, the University of Glasgow sacrificed a significant proportion of its young men and women in the Great War, with 4,506 serving and 761 losing their lives.
On 4 October 1929 Principal and Vice-Chancellor Donald MacAlister opened the Memorial Chapel built in memory of those who fell and served. The Memorial Chapel is an obvious place for the University of Glasgow to focus events to remember and reflect on the impact that WW1 had on the University and its people.
The University’s online Roll of Honour is an extraordinary account of all those who perished in the Great War.
On, or as close to, the centenary of their deaths, we are remembering the men and women who died with a short act of remembrance in the Chapel, which includes a brief account of their life.
After the short remembrance, a cross with a poppy will be placed in the University’s Memorial Garden next to the Quincentenary Ceremonial Gates at University Avenue.
If you haven’t attended one of these short acts of remembrance, you will find them deeply moving.
The services are held at 9am during the summer and at 8.45am during term time and graduation season.
Staff, usually including Chaplaincy and Senate colleagues, gather in the Chapel and oftern there is a representative of the appropriate branch of the armed forces present. Often relatives of those who fell are in attendance.
The aim is to honour and remember every one of the University’s lost.
Next Remembrance:
Today (13 July) we will be commemorating the following 10 individuals:
| 1915-07-12 | 2nd Lieutenant | James | Barnett | "A" Company 4th Bn Royal Scots Fusiliers | Student |
| 1915-07-12 | Major | William Thornton | Bird | 7th The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) | Alumnus |
| 1915-07-12 | Lieutenant | Robert Mitchell Stewart | Boyd | 6th Highland Light Infantry | Student |
| 1915-07-12 | Captain | Samuel Andrew | Cunningham | 5th Royal Scots Fusiliers | Alumnus |
| 1915-07-12 | Captain | Robert Frank | Fergusson | "D" Coy 1st/5th Bn Royal Scots Fusiliers | Student |
| 1915-07-12 | 2nd Lieutenant | Ralph Edward | May | 5th Highland Light Infantry | Graduate |
| 1915-07-12 | 2nd Lieutenant | Alexander | Nicol | 5th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders | Student |
| 1915-07-12 | Major | William | Stewart | 4th Royal Scots Fusiliers | Graduate |
| 1915-07-12 | Captain | George Herbert | Weller | 7th Highland Light Infantry | Graduate |
| 1915-07-13 | 2nd Lieutenant | William Allison | Broadfoot | 6th Highland Light Infantry | Graduate |
This is the largest number of people to be commemorated on one day. These men died at Gallipoli and large groups like this will become more frequent throughout the next year as other major campaigns took their toll on the University community.
Staff and students are invited to meet at the memorial tablets inside the University Chapel at 8.45am next Monday 13 Jul, where a few lines about each of these individuals will be read out
We will then walk to the Memorial Gates at the front of the Gilbert Scott building and plant crosses for them in the memorial garden and observe a minute of silence. All are welcome.
Fallen Commemoration dates 2015
The Roll of Honour - The Fallen - 2015 Summer (pdf) lists those to be remembered during this summer period. Campus eNews, working with Archive Services, will update the list of those to be remembered as we move towards 2018.
All are welcome to attend any of these acts of remembrance.
First published: 17 June 2015
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