AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN
&
IN THE MORNING WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
Stand in Carluke Market Place and you cannot fail to see that it is home to several memorials to those who have served in our armed forces.
Standing tallest is the memorial that was unveiled in 1931. Look closely and you will see that no names are etched on it. Instead, you can read some of the far-flung places that our local lads found themselves – Egypt, Mesopotamia, Zeebrugge, Givenchy, East Africa, Gallipoli, Somme, Ypres, Italy, Palestine, Falkland, Cambrai, Jutland. This is not a memorial only to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. It is a memorial to ‘all those who fought and endured’.
In 2015 and 2018, two special slabs were laid at the foot of this memorial. They marked respectively the centenary of the actions that saw William Angus and Thomas Caldwell each receive the Victoria Cross.
Both these men along with Donald Cameron who earned his VC in 1943 are also commemorated on Carluke Rotary Club’s 2000 Memorial to the ‘Famous Military Men of Carluke’. In 2018, alongside this memorial, CPHS laid a special slab remembering Arthur Ramage, Carluke’s Most Decorated Soldier.
At the other end of the Market Place stands yet another memorial stone. This one, erected by the Lanarkshire Yeomanry Group, remembers the men from the Lanarkshire Yeomanry ‘who faithfully served their country over the years’.
It is not only in the Market Place that such memorials are to be found, however. Almost all the churches in the district as well as many organisations display a Roll of Honour naming those who served in both World Wars.
Unveiled in 1920 and paid for by local subscription, the memorials in Carluke Old Cemetery and on Lawhill Road, Law name all those who paid the ultimate sacrifice during World War 1. The Law Memorial also names those gave their lives during World War 2.
The people of Braidwood decided on a different way of honouring those from their community who had served. The Braidwood Institute, which opened in 1925, stands as their memorial to World War 1 while a brass plaque within it identifies the Braidwood men who gave their lives during World War 2.
( If you have a relative who is linked to the Carluke area who served in any of the conflicts of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and you would like their name to be included in our military databases, please contact us via our email address hello@carlukehistory.com with as much information as possible. )
