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This site
contains a Roll of Honour, a tabular
listing of each person whose name appears on the war memorials. From that
table you can access all the information that we have about each
individual: photographs, newspaper cuttings and articles.
If
you have any further information about any of these people, or about any
other person from the Parish who was killed in war, please contact us at
the email address below.
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As the years roll on, we take
another step away from the horrors and atrocities of World Wars I and II.
And even though subsequent wars and conflicts continue to take their toll
of precious human life, none are felt as comprehensively as those earlier
World Wars.
The
summer of 2009 saw the end of an era with the deaths of the last
surviving British veterans of the Great War; Henry William Allingham and Harry Patch. With their passing and
those like them, we have lost the last tenuous living connection we may
have had with World War I. A memory bridge that somehow joined us by the
thoughts and words to the Fallen that some of us have only heard about.
My
own relatives who fell in the 1914-18 War were great grandparents and
great uncles. But my parents and their generation knew them and speak of
them still. The only links that survive are memories and stories that
have been passed down or passed on by word of mouth.
It
is a responsibility of each generation to pass on the stories of
sacrifice that wars inflict on every community. And in turn it is the
responsibility of coming generations not to forget the tragic lessons
learned through wars and the sacrifices of those who have gone before us.
The
memorials to the Fallen of the First and Second World Wars at Torphichen
Kirk are reminders to all of us of the folly of war.
We
regularly pay our respects to those named as well as remembering the
other unsung heroes whose names remain unknown.
We
must believe that they did not die in vain, but if such a statement is to
remain true, we need to continue to work hard for more peaceful solutions
to our world’s problems; solutions such as compromise and reconciliation
which help to maintain the peace bought by their ultimate sacrifice.
Rev
Clifford Acklam BD, MTh, Minister of Torphichen and Avonbridge 2000 -
2010
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