- Type of Memorial
- Composite
- WMR Reference Number
- 86384
- Description
- A memorial garden created in 2010. This commemorates a number of individuals. Most notably, it commemorates Lance Corporal Samuel Frickleton, who won the Victoria Cross for his bravery during the battle of Messines on 7 June 1917.
Frickleton was born in Slamannan in 1891, but the family moved to New Zealand in 1913 after his father was offered a job as a miner there. Frickleton and four of his brothers served in Gallipoli in 1915 with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He was wounded and returned home, but he later re-enlisted and was sent to Belgium in 1916. His actions there led to his award of the Victoria Cross. After the war he returned to New Zealand, where he died in 1971. He is remembered by the date set into gate to the garden, by descriptive plaques, and by a large carved stone Victoria Cross, all beneath the flags of New Zealand, Scotland and the United Kingdom. Included is the government commemorative paving stone.
Samuel Frickleton's memorial is accompanied by a memorial to Corporal Alexander Penman, another native of Slamannan, who was awarded the Military Medal - twice - during the Great War. Another plaque serves as a reminder of the many conflicts and military operations that British forces have been (and in some cases still are) involved in since 1945. At the rear of the memorial garden is a twisted three-bladed propeller. A plaque tells visitors that this serves as a memorial to Sergeant Pilot John Tristram Silvester. He was killed on 14 February 1942, at the age of 22, when the Spitfire he was flying from RAF Grangemouth crashed near Slamannan. The twisted propeller was excavated from the crash site in 2013.
- Inscription
- [unknown]