PERTHSHIRE ADVERTISER: 24.09.1930 RANNOCH WAR MEMORIAL DUKE OF ATHOLL AND CELTIC SPIRIT Although twelve years have elapsed since the termination of the Great War it is only now that the Rannoch area has seen the erection and dedication of a public memorial to the 27 men of the district who made the supreme sacrifice. This delay was not due to any lack of feeling on the part of the community, as the project was mooted at the time, but as the Duke of Atholl explained at the unveiling ceremony on Sunday, delay was occasioned by the uncertainty as to whether the site would be affected by work on the Grampian Electricity Scheme which, originally, the heightening of Loch Rannoch was contemplated. The memorial takes the form of a conical pile of rough boulders and towers about 30 feet in height, from a bluff of heather clad moorland by the edge of the road about half a mile south-west of the village; behind the sugar-loaf peak of mighty Schiehallion. The names of the fallen heroes are inscribed on a tablet in the cairn which looks clear over the shining waters of Loch Rannoch and the hills of Glencoe in the west. The unveiling ceremony attracted a gathering of close on a thousand people, many of whom had come a considerable distance to take part in the historic event. Shortly before three o’clock the Kinloch Rannoch Pipe Band, under Pipe-Major M’Master, led a lengthy procession from the village to the memorial, occasional glimpses of sunshine breaking through dark clouds overhead in the peace of a perfect autumn afternoon being symbolic of the aftermath of the world war. At the memorial there were paraded the district ex-service men, brethren of the recently formed Masonic Lodge Schiehallion in front of the large concourse of general public. Captain B. V. Wentworth of Dall, presided at the dedication service, which was in keeping with the simplicity of the memorial. The service opened with a prayer by the Rev. R. Walker, St. Luke’s Church, and the singing of the peculiarly appropriate 124th psalm, “I to the hill will lift mine eyes”, and portions from the Old and New Testaments were read by the rev. W. Scott of the Episcopal Church, and the Rev. W. Dunlop, Braes of Rannoch. The prayer and dedication was given by the rev. A. Muirhead of Old Rannoch Church, after which Mrs Stewart of Bunrannoch, unveiled the memorial by withdrawing the Union Jack which had covered the names of the 27 enumerated on the tablet. A “lament” was played by Pipe-Major M’Master, and a two minutes’ silence observed, rendered doubly impressive by the entire absence of any sound save the soft lapping of the waters of Loch Rannoch on the shingled shore only a short distance from the hushed scene. In his address, the Duke of Atholl, Lord-Lieutenant of Perthshire, explained that the delay in the erection of the memorial had been due to the uncertainty of the Grampian Electrical Scheme. No situation, he proceeded, could have been more happily chosen, looking as it did up a great glen laved with the waters of Loch Rannoch, perhaps one of the most beautiful views in all Scotland - a view which every one of those names they commemorate must have seen and loved, and often dreamed of in the long weary days and nights across the seas. “That the cairn should be composed of stones from the edge of the loch is one of those happy thoughts so Celtic in character and understanding, which form an indissoluble link between those who are here, and those who have passed over, for your thought in building it has been most of all for what they would have liked. “We commemorate the names of the 27 men who came forward at the time of their country’s need, and who never came back to the land they loved, but even more than their names, this cairn will stand for many years commemorative of that spirit of sacrifice, duty, and honour which was given to practically every man and woman in this country at the supreme moment of national existence and national need. “When you pass this monument, rather than the sense of sadness, you will feel one of pride that it was given to you to be of same kith and kin as those whose spirits surround it. “Rannoch has never shown itself wanting in bravery and in service, and it is not surprising that the district which was the cradle of men like Gen. George Duncan Robertson of Struan, General Sir Duncan M’Gregor of Learan, and the MacDonalds of Dalchosnie should be the home of men of the type who served in the Great War TRADITION OF SERVICE “No spot in all the Highlands has breathed more concentrated bravery for generations past than this district of Rannoch, and it is for this generation and succeeding ones to maintain that great tradition of service on behalf of the cause they felt to be just, which was striking a characteristic of their forebears from time immemorial. “Do not let it be said that people of this generation have less sense of duty than those who went before them. It may or may not be given to us to make the great personal sacrifice they made, but we can all help in some small way to maintain those great qualities of the true Highlander - courage, loyalty, and endurance, and, may I say, “goodness” in the full sense of the word”. Captain Wentworth in proposing a vote of thanks to the Duke of Atholl for his presence said he was specially fitted to be there that afternoon on account both of the military record of himself and his family. The National Anthem was sung after which “The Last Post” was sounded by Bugler Andrew Watson of Black Watch, Perth, the clear notes peeling out impressively in the tense silence that prevailed. Many beautiful wreaths were reverently placed at the base of the memorial, these including tributes from the ex-service men, the Pipe Band, and relatives of the fallen.

COL. JOHN MURRAY (IVAN) COBBOLD JP (1897-1944) SOLDIER, BREWER, SPORTSMAN and FOUNDER OF IPSWICH TOWN FC The sixth John Cobbold, grandson of the Earl of Dunmore, must have vexed his parents for he was nicknamed ‘Ivan the terrible.’ It stuck and he was known as Ivan for the rest of his life. He joined the Scots Guards in 1915, was injured but not seriously in France and left the army at the end of the war. A keen sportsman, one of the best shots in the country, it was a pursuit he shared with King George VI. He joined the family brewing business and was present at the 200th anniversary celebrations on 30th July 1923 at Holywells succeeding to the chairmanship on his father’s death in 1929. Following a chance meeting with Sir Samuel Hill-Wood, Chairman of Arsenal and a visit to Highbury ‘Capt.’ Ivan (as he then was) put up the money necessary for Ipswich Town Football Club to turn professional. The amateur club had been founded in 1878 by the boys of Ipswich School under the presidency of Thomas Clement Cobbold MP (1833-1883) his great uncle, with a distinctive Corinthian culture which survives to this day. WWII saw him back in uniform now with the rank of Colonel only to be tragically killed when a doodlebug hit the Guards Chapel during Sunday morning service on 18th June 1944. Ironically it was in that same chapel that he had married Lady Blanche Cavendish who had lived at Chatsworth House, daughter of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire and sister-in-law of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. They had just celebrated their Silver Wedding.

Carter Postcard Collection

Les We Forget, Tessa Dunlop, Published by Harper North, 2025