Wargraves

It is 4 years ago that I arrived in Lewis, and among the handful of activities that I have engaged in over that period of time is photography of wargraves and war memorials. I have so far located over 330 individual graves of war dead or gravestones linked to these casualties in the two dozen cemeteries in Lewis and Harris. The task is not complete, as I initially focused on the victims of the Iolaire Disaster, later of World War I and this year World War II.

Photographs and additional information can be accessed through this page on the Scottish War Graves Project website.



This is an example of a wargrave in the cemetery at Gravir, South Lochs.







Able Seaman MURDO FINLAYSON

Murdigan Aonghais Alasdair

Last address in Lewis: 10 Calbost

Son of Angus and Christina Finlayson, of Lochs.

Service: Merchant Navy

Date of death: 1 February 1944

Lost on SS Caleb Sprauge, when that ship was sunk at Newhaven by enemy action.

Had served in RNR for 2 years 9 months before war

Interred: Gravir Cemetery

Local memorial: Pairc, Kershader







Last month, I visited the island of Hoy in Orkney to take pictures of all the (named) wargraves in the Royal Naval Cemetery at Lyness. I have now completed the task of putting images and information on a different page of the Scottish War Graves Project. . In this cemetery lie buried the dead from all over the United Kingdom, as well as more than a dozen German service personnel.

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