Remembrance Sunday in Shetland

I doubt that a single person will have got past the last weekend without remembering that it was a 100 years since the end of World War 1

Shetland had one of the highest losses of life in WW1, 1 in 38 compared to the Scottish average of 1:45

Even though the men had left for war, the Shetland women were busy knitting items to send to the front, more than 15,496 items were sent and after the war many letters of thanks were received.

Its interesting to find that Shetland also contributed 300,000 eggs to the `Egg collection for the war wounded', in total 32 Million eggs were sent from Britain to the wounded in France and Belgium.

In August 1917 the Shetland folk took to the hills to collect sphagnum moss, 2,500 bags collect and sent to be used surgical dressings as it had antiseptic qualities. The following year 3,000 bags were sent to the front.

At the end of the war 630 Shetland men had lost their lives out of the 3,600 who served in the forces with nearly 10 million men dead during in the conflict.

Like the whole of the UK various events took place, we went to the Festival of Remembrance at Clickimin where the above information came from.

It was very well attended and organised and then the following day we went over to St Ninian's isle where `Pages of the Sea' had been organised along with many others around the UK

Nearly 800 people attended with many folk taking part on the beach creating images of fallen soldiers, later to be washed out by the sea.