Family pays tribute after Assynt war memorial is renovated
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Britain’s remotest war memorial – which bears just the names of brothers William and Alistair Elliot – has been restored and re-erected in a poignant ceremony attended by the soldiers’ 81-year-old nephew.
Despite suffering from the lung disease emphysema, Willie Elliot was determined to make sure his uncles’ ultimate sacrifice was not forgotten, even in the loneliest of spots in the Highlands.
So was the Duke of Westminster, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, who paid for the restoration.
The Duke and Duchess were determined to restore the dilapidated memorial, on their 96,000 acre estate, in time for Armistice Day.
Staff had removed it two months earlier and driven it 90 miles to Inverness monumental stonemasons Jon Herach for its first major spruce-up in over 90 years.
In a race against time – thwarted once by the weather – the five feet high marble cross and plinth were only re-erected on Monday last week.
Dressed in his Black Watch ceremonial attire and bearing his own medals from the Korean War and the UN, for which he was once part of a peacekeeping force, Willie boarded a 31-year-old landing craft – itself a veteran of the Gulf War.
Together with his cousins June Elliot and Moira Mackay, both from Bonar Bridge, they made the five-mile journey down Loch Glencoul in west Sutherland.
Along the 30 minute journey he passed the lochside house he was born in and later became a ghillie on the duke’s Reay forest estate for 45 years.
After landing at the end of the stormy loch, Willie and his cousins — together with June’s husband Finlay and Moira’s son David — were driven in an all-terrain vehicle up the steep hill where the monument rests, with Eas a’ Chual Aluinn (at 658ft, Britain’s highest waterfall) cascading in the background.
The party laid wreaths from the Duke and Duchess and from estate staff, as well as single remembrance crosses.
As the clock struck 11am, a moving two minute silence was observed, with a clearly emotional Willie giving a spontaneous salute.
Below the brothers’ names on the war memorial, the inscription reads: “Their memory will ever be cherished by their sorrowing parents and brothers.”
Afterwards, Willie admitted: “I am a bit choked up – this is something I am infinitely grateful for. It is 15 years since I last visited it and I never thought I would get back up here.
“But to pay tribute to my uncles on the day was tremendously moving and emotional.”
Estate foreman Chris Howard added: “The Duke and Duchess were concerned about the state the memorial had fallen into and wanted it restored.
“They were keen that it should be done before Armistice Day. They are very caring people to their staff and we were glad to make it happen for Willie and his cousins.”
The memorial has a special place in the Dukes of Westminsters’ hearts, whose own family suffered their own tragedy in World War I when Lord Hugh William Grosvenor, the son of the first duke, was killed defending makeshift trenches on the Zandvoorde ridge near Ypres.
The brothers grew up in the now empty estate cottage that lies in the shadow of the memorial. Rather than them having to travel miles to school, the then Duke arranged for a small schoolhouse to be built on to the side of their family cottage, including a room for the teacher to live.
The second Duke, a distinguished commander in WWI, was so moved at the brothers’ tragedy that he paid for the memorial, which the present 6th Duke, Britain’s biggest landowner, has now restored.
His son-in-law, the TV historian Dan Snow — who is married to Lady Edwina, the duke’s second daughter — makes an annual pilgrimage to the memorial and in August tweeted a picture of it.
Willie added: “I am very grateful for what they have done to restore it. It means a lot to me. The writing was getting so faded you could hardly make it out, lichen was growing all over it and it was badly cracked.
“The sacrifice my uncles and others made should not be forgotten. Their memorial highlights that the war called people from the remotest parts and many did not return to the glens. The war touched everywhere, even places like here.
“Of five sons, the eldest four were all called up. I still have my uncle William’s silver cigarette case presented to him in gratitude by his men. It is another reminder of his sacrifice.
“My father, John David, was injured and carried a piece of shrapnel in his face all his life. His brother Matthew was gassed and it affected his breathing when the weather was cold. But it was the two older brothers who paid the ultimate price.
“I don’t think the younger generation is forgetting. The internet has helped play its part in that.”
His uncle William was a stalker on the Reay Estate when he was called up to serve as a corporal with the Cameron Highlanders. He travelled to France, later arriving at Gallipoli.
He had been serving with the 2nd Entrenching Battalion, a holding unit for men returning to the trenches after being in hospital, when an influenza outbreak struck.
William died of pneumonia on 29th March 1917, aged 25, and was buried at Longueness Souvenir Cemetery in St Omer, France.
Alistair (24) had left Glencoul and was working as a clerk with the Bank of Scotland in Glasgow when the war began.
He was originally called up to join the Glasgow Highlanders before becoming part of the Highland Light Infantry, where he served as a lance corporal. He died on 12th April 1918, at Neuve Eglise, Belgium.
Although his body was never recovered to be placed in a marked grave, his name is listed on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium.
William and Alistair were the eldest of the five brothers. Their parents, John and Margaret, moved into the two-storey house after shepherd John took a job as a deer stalker on the estate.
Willie, who was named after his uncle, lives in Achfary, the nearest village to the remote cottage.
“I’m going to get my own memorial next March,” he joked. “My local, the Kylesku Hotel, have asked me to open their new extension and they have even called one part the Willie Elliot Suite!”
