Memorial details

Memorial type
Cross
District
Perth And Kinross
Town
Abernethy
County
Tayside
Country
Scotland
Commemoration
First World War (1914-1918), Second World War (1939-1945)
Ceremony
  • Unveiled
    Date: 19 June 1921
    Attended by: Dr R W Seton Watson of Ayton
Lost
Not lost
WM Reference
79659

Support IWM

Donate with Just Giving

Any gift we receive makes a vital contribution to our ongoing work, from conserving our collection to supporting our public programme.

Make a Donation
Current location

Village Square
off the A91
Abernethy
Perth And Kinross
Tayside
PH2 9JN
Scotland

OS Grid Ref: NO 18766 16359
Denomination: Undefined

View location on Google Maps
Description
An ancient merkat cross (dating from at least 1458), which is on an 8 step base, re-used as the war memorial, with a bronze plaque for each war.
Inscription
THIS CROSS WAS ERECTED/TO THE HONOURED MEMORY OF/THE MEN OF ABERNETHY WHO/FELL IN THE GREAT WAR OF/THE YEARS 1914-1919/[names]/FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH WORLD WAR/1939-1945/[names]/THAT YE MAY REMEMBER
Inscription legible?
yes
Names on memorial
Arthur, James
Berry, John
Campbell, Alex
Clark, Charles
Clark, John
Clow, George R
Corrall, William
Dalrymple, M
Davidson, Alexander S
Dobbie, David
See details for all 38 names
Commemorations
  • First World War (1914-1918)
    Total names on memorial: 30
    Served and returned: 0
    Died: 30
    Exact count: yes
    Information shown: surname, forenames, rank, service
    Order of information: surname
  • Second World War (1939-1945)
    Total names on memorial: 8
    Served and returned: 0
    Died: 8
    Exact count: yes
    Information shown: surname, forenames, rank, service
    Order of information: surname
Components
  • Cross
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Stone
  • First World War memorial
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Bronze
  • Second World War memorial
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Bronze
  • Steps
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Stone
  • Steps
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Stone
  • Steps
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Stone
  • Steps
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Stone
  • Steps
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Stone
  • Steps
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Stone
  • Steps
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Stone
  • Base
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Stone
Condition
Trust fund/Scholarship
No
Purpose: Unknown or N/A
Reference
  • warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=401&mforum=warmemscot
  • Perthshire Advertiser 22 June 1921- ABERNETHY’S HEROES HONOURED BEAUTIFUL MERCAT CROSS UNVEILED DR SETON WATSON AND “PEACE MIND” THOUGHTFUL ADRESS The beautiful Mercat Cross, a description of which appeared in Saturday’s ‘P.A.’, which has been erected in the Market Place of Abernethy, in memory of the soldiers of the burgh and parish who fell in the Great War, was unveiled in the presence of a crowd of people by Dr R. W. Seton Watson of Ayton, on Sunday afternoon. Prior to the unveiling ceremony an impressive service was held in the Parish Church, at which Rev. George M’Dougall, the parish minister, officiated. At the conclusion, the large congregation which attended the service adjourned to the memorial, and the unveiling ceremony was performed by Dr Seton Watson. In doing so, Dr Seton Watson said that one sometimes heard criticism on the almost universal practice throughout the country in erecting local war monuments, but surely it was a thoroughly sound and natural instinct to do so, for it was a living proof that the Great War through which they had just passed was different from all other wars in history in that it did not leave a single village or house or family untouched, and still more because its winning was not the work of one district or class or section of the community, but of the whole nation making its supreme effort shoulder to shoulder. And so it was absolutely right that, where they were able, they should commemorate those individual efforts which made up the sum total what for good and for ill was probably the greatest national effort that this or any other country had made. He did not say that in any boasting sense or in order to suggest that it was Britain alone that won the war. On the contrary, to his mind, the greatest thing in the war, perhaps their greatest lesson from it, was that no one country could claim the victory for itself, but each ally, in its own way contributed something without which the total effort would have been failure, not success. And just in the wider sense of international politics, co-operation between nations with a common ideal saved them in war, and could alone save them in peace, so at home the effort of the men of Abernethy to whom they were doing honour that day, and their co-operation with many thousands of other small and large communities, were needed to achieve that result, and no one could ever say what turned the final scale, and whose effort could have been left out. There was unhappily a third point in which the Great War differed from all others. It took the very best of the nation’s manhood to an extent unknown before. They, who were only the milk after the cream had been skimmed off it, had a duty to those who were gone, and he would only hope that that memorial would always serve to remember them of that duty. The men who fell paid for the failure of their own generation, and the generation of their fathers, to prepare for war and to forestall it by studying and removing the points of danger. At a hideous sacrifice they won the Great War, and they left to the survivors the far more difficult task of winning the peace, a task which would last for the lives of all of them, however long they might live. They had left to them the solemn obligation of cultivating the “Peace Mind” - for peace, like war, comes by preparation and hard work. By “Peace Mind” he did not mean some vague or sloppy pacifism which was too often in the daily press that only sport mattered. By “Peace Mind” he meant a resolve by each and all of them, in his or her sphere, to fight the state of mind which looked upon war as inevitable and so help towards forming a public opinion which would prevent fresh wars and promote understanding between the nations. They must never shut their eyes to hard facts, they must be ready to fight again if there is no other way, but their dead would have died in vain if they accepted the heathen and essentially anti-Christian view that war was an incurable evil. That was a material view which meant the bankruptcy of the human race. The real hope of today lay with the children and it lay with them to give them a new sense of citizenship, a belief in the possibility of building up a new world, of co-operation between classes and between nations. But they could not build for the future unless they knew something of the past and he hoped he would be permitted, as a student of history, to express the hope that more attention would be paid in the future to the study of history, and of foreign countries, so when the next great crisis came, public opinion would be well informed and vigilant, not ignorant and taken by surprise and paying for its ignorance in blood and treasure. The study would keep them true to their national traditions and yet make them eager for sound democratic progress. These thirty men who made the supreme sacrifice, held true to the old traditions of Abernethy, of Perthshire, of Scotland, of Britain and the Empire. “God save the King and God defend the People” were the closing words of Dr Seton. Thereafter the “Last Post” was sounded by a bugler from the Queen’s Barracks, Perth, and at the end of the proceedings a number of beautiful floral tributes were laid at the foot of the cross be relatives of the fallen and others. The names of the fallen, which were contained on a bronze tablet set in the cross, were as follows:- JAMES ARTHUR, JOHN BERRY, JOHN CLARK, CHARLES CLARK, GEORGE R. CLOW, WILLIAM CORRALL, ALEX. S. DAVIDSON, MICHAEL DALRYMPLE, JOHN DOBBIE, DAVID DOBBIE, WILLIAM DONALDSON, WILLIAM EDMISTON, JOHN GRAY, JAMES HAGGART, DAVID HAGGART, WILLIAM KELLY, ALEXANDER LESLIE, ROBERT MILLAR, WALTER MITCHELL, WILLIAM MACALISTER, HENRY M’NAUGHTON, JOHN REID, HARRY RUTHERFORD, JAMES SANDILANDS, JACK SAUNDERS, JOHN SCOBIE, JAMES SCOTLAND, DAVID SCOTT, PETER SCOTT, WILLIAM G. WRENCH.

This record comprises all information held by IWM’s War Memorials Register for this memorial. Where we hold a names list for the memorial, this information will be displayed on the memorial record. Please check back as we are adding more names to the database.

This information is made available under a Creative Commons BY-NC licence.

This means you may reuse it for non-commercial purposes only and must attribute it to us using the following statement:

© WMR-79659

For queries, please contact [email protected].