War Memorials

War Memorials in Scotland were generally organised by local committees or private individuals or churches or businesses and were usually funded by private donations or by public subscriptions. Local authorities were not empowered to raise or use funds to support the construction of war memorials, although occasionally, the effort of funding and then commissioning a memorial might be organised by the parish council at the behest of the residents it served.

Following the First World War, parish councils in Scotland generally took on responsibility for maintaining war memorials that had been built by public subscriptions. The War Memorials (Local Authorities’ Powers) Act 1923 enabled local authorities to ‘incur reasonable expenditure’ to maintain, repair and protect war memorials but this Act was only extended to Scotland in 1948.[1] This enabled county councils, district councils and town councils to fund the maintenance of war memorials within their boundaries and to alter existing war memorials to include subsequent conflicts: this, then allowed the local authorities to add lists of Second World War names to existing First World War memorials. War Memorial Committees are sometimes found amongst the sub-committees of Scottish local authorities, and the minutes of these give details of the administration of the memorials under their care.

Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, all local authorities – regional, district or island councils – were empowered to use the 1923 Act to fund maintenance of war memorials and were no longer restricted to those within their boundaries.[2] However, in 1982, regional councils ceased to have these powers and they were restricted to district councils and island councils.[3] Under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 these powers were transferred to the new unitary councils.[4]

Records concerning war memorials are generally held by local authority archives services. The records of Sir Robert Lorimer who designed the Scottish National War Memorial and many local war memorials are held by Edinburgh University Library Special Collections.

The Imperial War Museum has developed a War Memorials Register.

Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2024)

Bibliography

Ferguson, Keith, An introduction to local government in Scotland (The Planning Exchange, 1984)

 

References

[1] War Memorials (Local Authorities’ Powers) Act 1923 (13 & 14 Geo. V c.18); Local Government Act 1948 (11 & 12 Geo. VI c.26) s.133.

[2] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65) s.170.

[3] Local Government and Planning (Scotland) Act 1982 (c.43) s.31.

[4] Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 (c.39) Sch. 13(s.53).