In 2019 Govan THI completed restoration of the Govan War Memorial. The project turned out to be full of unexpected turns and we are delighted that Govan Reminiscence Group decided to organise an event and exhibition to mark the occasion!
Original invitation from Govan Reminiscence
On 13th November we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of the monument, the rediscovery of the Roll of Honour and the brave people of Govan whose lives should be remembered. We would like to invite everyone interested in local history to participate. Please have a look at the message from the Govan Reminiscence group below for details. We hope you can join us on Sunday!
The Govan Reminiscence Group would like to invite you to an event to mark the 100th Anniversary of the unveiling of the Govan War Memorial. The event will take place on Sunday 13th November 2022 at 1pm in the McLeod Hall at the Pearce Institute. (This will be just after usual Remembrance Sunday service at memorial).
At the unveiling in 1922, a silver casket containing a Roll of Honour was inserted into the Govan War Memorial, the 1122 men named on the Roll of Honour all came from the areas of Govan, Ibrox, Cessnock, Plantation, Drumoyne and Linthouse.
In 2019 an opportunity was taken to retrieve the Roll of Honour during refurbishment of the War Memorial, the plan was to copy the names then conserve and re-insert the Roll of Honour back into memorial, however the Roll was completely destroyed due to water damage and no names could be recovered, remarkably the Govan Reminiscence Group managed to track down an exact copy of the Roll of Honour in a barn loft of a croft on the Isle of Skye and we were able to re-insert a copy of Roll back into War Memorial.
The 100th anniversary event is being held thanks to the support of Govan Cross Townscape Heritage Initiative (GCTHI) who commissioned the refurbishment of the memorial back in 2019. At the event we will be telling the story of the unveiling in 1922, the refurbishment of memorial and amazing rediscovery of Roll of Honour, we will also be displaying the names of all 1122 men for the first time and telling the stories of some of these men.
The group also has a list of 754 Govan men and 3 Govan women who are not recorded on the Govan War Memorial Roll of Honour, we will also be displaying their names and telling some of their stories too.
The event will also feature live music from the Glasgow Barons and Pipe and Drums from Govan Schools and Community Pipe Band.
There will also be light refreshments available at the event.