Category Archives: Falkirk

On February 20, I paid my first visit to Denny Cemetery. It is located across from Denny High School, an attractive, landscaped Victorian-era cemetery containing various headstones and memorials. The Miller Family memorial is among the grander. It is an elegant granite obelisk in relatively good condition. Siblings Janet and William Miller are commemorated onContinue reading “Remembering Janet and William Miller”

Camelon Cemetery is one of my favourites. The cemetery is a diverse smorgasbord of headstone designs, spanning from the late Victorian era to the present day. James Cowan rests near the Cemetery’s War Memorial. James died at the King George V Military Hospital in Dublin on October 25 1918, aged twenty-eight, from influenza and pneumonia.Continue reading “Remembering James Cowan”

Andrew Aitken rests in a familial lair in Larbert Cemetery. He died from influenza and pneumonia on February 26th, 1919, at 6 Steps Street, Stenhousemuir, at the age of eighteen. Andrew was born on January 22nd 1901, at Carron Hall Row, Larbert, the first child and only son of John, a coal miner, and JeanieContinue reading “Remembering Andrew Aitken”

The Larbert Parish Churchyard is impressive, standing in the shadow of the neo-gothic splendour of Larbert Old Parish Church. The remains of numerous local industrial magnates rest within the Churchyard, their graves marked by grand monuments. Established in the mid-18th century, the nearby Carron Ironworks was at the forefront of heavy industry and industrialisation inContinue reading “Remembering William Kemp”

I recently purchased the book, ‘They Shall Grow Not Old, ‘ by The Men of Falkirk Parish Church and Erskine Church, Who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice in the First World War. Produced in 2014 by researchers for Falkirk Trinity Church of Scotland, this book catalogues the war dead from the congregations of the churches acknowledged in the title.Continue reading “Remembering James Cowan”

A fellow Facebook local history forum member informed me about Thomas Bowes. Thomas is buried in the Montecchio Precalcino Communal Cemetery in Vicenza Province, North-East Italy. He passed away on December 1, 1918, at twenty-one. His obituary in the Falkirk Herald on December 21 cites pneumonia as the cause of death. Given his age andContinue reading “Remembering Thomas Bowes”

Today I paid my first visit to Larbert Cemetery in Stenhousemuir to the east of Falkirk. Among the graves I found was that of Cyril Peel Captain of HMS Amphitrite. The headstone is an elegant Celtic cross in excellent condition, likely cared for by the Commonwealth War Grave Commission. He died on November 8th atContinue reading “Remembering Captain Cyril Peel”