Thank you, thank you, thank you...

to EVERYONE involved for making our film premiere, held on Remembrance Day, such a fitting and beautiful tribute to the service, sacrifice and lived experiences of local residents of Perth and Kinross during World War 2.

It was a powerful and poignant opportunity to honour two of our Veterans, Walter Smith (105), who was captured in France in 1940, whilst serving with the 51st Highland Division and 99-year-old Dennis Arnold, who served with the Royal Army Medical Corps.

The film also featured part of an archive interview with the late Sir Alan Smith, who trained Spitfire pilots at Balado Bridge in Kinross and was Douglas Bader's wingman.

Mary Cairncross talks about her late husband Alastair's involvement in the Operation Pedestal Convoy to Malta, Rena McRitchie  shares her recollections of Cultybraggan PoW Camp near Comrie and Mair Dixon, from Crieff, speaks about the child evacuees who became her 'wartime brothers.'

These intimate portraits of wartime experiences were given context by retired Lt Col Andy Middlemiss from Kinross, whilst a very poignant perspective to coincide with VJ Day, was offered by Jackie Sutherland who speaks of her parents' story of resilience and hope during imprisonment by the Japanese. 

The film and individual oral histories are being deposited in the Perth and Kinross Archive, where they will be permanently preserved and become a historical resource for future generations. Thanks too, to Dave Dykes and Perth Academy for sharing a wonderful display and resources they have compiled to honour the service and sacrifice of members of the school family in World War 1 and World War 2. 

'Lest we forget'

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