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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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