A LONE fiddler on the sands of Benbecula will be just one of the moving memorials to the war dead on beaches around the UK today.
In Orkney lanterns will be lit as dusk falls and a specially commissioned poem written by Carol Ann Duffy will be read out, while schoolchildren’s art will form part of the commemorations in Fife.
They will all be part of Trainspotting director Danny Boyle’s unique Armistice event which will take place on 32 beaches around the UK, including six in Scotland.
Workshops with members of the public have been held in preparation for Pages of the Sea, which will see images of the dead etched into the sands to be washed away as the tide comes in.
The National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) is leading events north of the Border and a spokeswoman said thousands of people across the country were expected to brave the November cold to take part.
Simon Sharkey, NTS artistic lead for the project in Scotland, told the National he had been “overwhelmed” by the response to the workshops, with many people sharing poignant stories and memories.
“I have been amazed at the way people are coming up with artefacts or research they have done on soldiers from their area,” he said.
“In Ayr, one woman brought a commemoration ribbon which she had inherited from her grandmother who had cried over it every day.
“Another man brought a watch that had belonged to a soldier who died. He had found he was a twin and had signed up when he lost his brother but he died too. They had no sons or daughters to remember them so he took on the responsibility of remembering their sacrifice.”
In Benbecula, one worried mother said her son had just signed up for the Navy and said she knew that a great uncle had served in the Navy during the war.
“She wrote a poem about how this boy was following in his great-great uncle’s footsteps. It was really moving because it brought life and death into the room and here was her son signing up for the Navy too. It fitted in with the sentiment in Carol Ann’s poem that we have learned nothing.”
Sharkey said the response to the poem had been “phenomenal”.
“It’s been translated into Gaelic and will be called into the waves at Benbecula on Sunday. The Western Isles lost more men per head of population than anywhere else in the UK so the workshop there was really powerful.”
In Fife workshops were held in local schools and care homes and he said there had been a “wonderful” moment when Zimeng Chen, who is blind, typed the poem out in braille and read it aloud.
Sharkey said: “I can’t help but get emotional every time I read the poem and every time a community of people commemorates not just the dead but the mothers of the dead, the impact this has had on generations of people and which is still felt.
“These beaches are not the exact places that the soldiers left from but they are dynamic places that connect us by the sea to the rest of the world and the places where these people fought and died.
“I think standing on the beach and knowing you are with your community in this completely unique act of remembrance will be a really powerful event for people to participate in. It will be a part of history in itself.”
For information about times and the beaches involved go to: www.pagesofthesea.org.uk
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