Information taken from the commemorative booklet:
UNVEILING CEREMONY
On Tuesday, 6th November 1923, the Memorial was unveiled by the Right Hon. THE EARL OF ROSEBERRY, K.G., K.T., Governor of the Bank.
The Right Hon. THE EARL OF HOME, Deputy Governor of the Bank, presided over a representative company, which included, in addition to relatives and friends of those whose names are commemorated, The Right Hon. LORD POLWARTH, C.B.E.; Sir ANDREW N. AGNEW, Bart; Sir JOHN URE PRIMROSE, Bart., L.L.D.; Mr J R M WEDDERBURN, W.S.; Mr R L BARCLAY, C.B.E.; Mr JAMES TUKE; Mr A L McCLURE, K.C.; and Mr M PEARCE CAMPBELL, D.L., Directors of the Bank; also the principal officials at the Head Office, Glasgow and Dundee, members of the general staff, and the Very Rev. A WALLACE WILLIAMSON, C.V.O, D.D., of St Giles’ Cathedral, who conducted the dedicatory service.
The Right Hon. The Earl of Home said they were there to inaugurate a Memorial to their comrades in the service of the Bank who fell in the War. There were seventy-six members of the staff called up as Territorials in 1914. Altogether 589 men served in different parts of the Services, and of these, a large number gained promotion and honours. No fewer than sixty-eight made the supreme sacrifice. Those whom they commemorated endeavoured to fulfil their duties in days of peace, and they nobly responded to the duties that called them in the days of war, and finally in a righteous cause they laid down their lives for the love of their country and their friends. They might be permitted in that place and on that day to send a message of much sympathy to those near and dear who mourned their loss. That message should be of good cheer, for all that they had they gave to save mankind – themselves they scorned to save. Surely great must be their reward. They must try to follow their good example, and show the same cheerfulness in adversity, the same determination and endurance in difficulty and the same self-sacrifice, helpfulness, and comradeship, so that they might carry on their good work, and, bearing each other’s burdens, might try to make a happy world for their children to live in. In conclusion, the Deputy Governor read some lines from a hymn, written by an old friend of his, which, he considered, expressed in beautiful language their feelings in regard to those whom they had lost.
The hymn, which is by Mr J.S. Arkwright, is entitled “The Supreme Sacrifice”, and the verses are as follows:
THE SUPREME SACRIFICE
1.
O Valiant Hearts, who to your glory came,
Through dust of conflict and through battle flame,
Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved,
Your memory hallowed in the Land you loved.
2.
Proudly you gathered, rank on rank to war
As who had heard God’s message from afar,
All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave
To save Mankind- yourselves you scorned to save.
3.
Splendid you passed, the great surrender made,
Into the light that never more shall fade,
Deep your contentment in that blest abode
Who wait the last clear trumpet call of God.
4.
Long years ago as earth lay dark and still,
Rose a loud cry upon a lonely hill,
While in the frailty of our human clay
Christ, our Redeemer, passed the self-same way.
5.
Still stand His Cross from that dread hour to this,
Like some bright star above the dark abyss,
Still, through the veil, the Victor’s pitying eyes
Look down to bless our lesser Calvaries.
6.
These were his servants, in His steps they trod,
Following through death the martyred son of God.
Victor he rose, victorious too shall rise
They who have drunk his cop of Sarcifice.
7.
O risen Lord, O Shepherd of our Dead,
Whose Cross has bought them and whose Staff has led,
In glorious hope their proud and sorrowing Land
Commits her Children to Thy gracious hand.
Mr R G THOMAS, General Manager of the Bank, read the following note, which had been handed to him by Lord Roseberry:
“I am not able to speak to you, so I have asked Mr Thomas to say a few words on my behalf. You see the names inscribed on high. They are not on our ledgers or our profit and loss accounts; but they remain as a rich inheritance for us – an inheritance of hope and glory and patriotism carried to the death, which I trust may animate and inspire us for all time to come.”
Mr Thomas, having read the names inscribed, Lord Roseberry dropped the Union Jack which veiled the Memorial.
Dr. Wallace Williamson offered the Prayer of Dedication and thereafter pronounced the Benediction.
On behalf of the staff, Mr R W Stevenson, Secretary of the Bank, laid a wreath of lilies, heather, and bay leaves at the foot of the memorial.