The Gamekeepers Memorial Fund.

                                                                   The Keepers Memorial.

I am taking this opportunity to introduce to my readers a memorial fund that is collecting money for the commission of a Bronze War Memorial dedicated to all of the Gamekeepers, Stalkers and Ghillies that went to war to serve in the Armed Forces. The most famous being those who served in Lovat's Scouts.

Most people know about what a Gamekeeper is and what he does for a living and if they are asked to explain they will make some sort of comment like: he looks after pheasants, shoots vermin or they think all he does is walk around his shoot with a gun over his arm all day long or some other comment. Well I have another description about the Gamekeeper that not many people outside the profession know about, did you know that we owe our lives to many Gamekeepers, Stalkers and Ghillies.

                                                                 The Forming of The Scouts.

In 1899 on the 12th of December Lord Lovat, 22nd Chief of the Highland Clan Fraser approached the War Office for permission to raise two companies of Scouts, one was to be mounted and the other on foot. Each company was made up of 236 men, eighty of them were selected for Stalking and Spotting skills, some were to be specialist marksmen ( Snipers ) and the reminder to be riders and signallers etc. These proposals were excepted and by January 1900, 1,500 men had volunteered their services to this country and most of them were all Gamekeepers, Stalkers, Ghillies and Shepperd's from many of the Highland estates.

                                                                      Fighting the Boers.

The first contingent of men arrived into South Africa later that month ( January ) and remained there until August 1901, the second and third contingents arrived in May 1901 and remained there until August 1902. They suffered many casualties and hardships but they proved themselves more than a match for the Boers, beating them at their own game.

In August 1914 the Lovat Scouts were mobilised again and went to Huntingdon for training and were then sent to Skegness and Sutton On Sea in Lincolnshire to prevent any invasion form Germany landing on the beaches there. They remained there until 15th of April 1915 before travelling to Hunstanton, Houghton, Harplay and Great Massingham on the Wash. On August 21st they received their orders to set sail to the Mediterranean, landing at Gallipoli on the 26th and 27th of September to fight against the Turks. Again their tracking and spotting skills and the special teams of Snipers took a heavy toll on the Turks, however sickness also took a heavy toll on the Scouts, Dysentery almost killing Lord Lovat himself. The Scouts remained at Gallipoli until their final evacuation with Major Cambell until December 20th 1915. After Gallipoli the Scouts remained in the Mediterranean fighting in Egypt and then in Macedonia until June 1918 when they left to join Lovat Scouts ( Sharpshooters ) on the Western Front in July. Lovats Sharpshooters were most unusual as they were all in advanced years of their lives the youngest being 42 through to the oldest 2nd Lieutenant CB McPherson at 62 years of age, 481 Scouts lost their lives in WW1 their names can be found at Edinburgh Castle.

                                                                               WW2.

Until the start of the Second World War the Scouts remained as a T.A Unit until the 1st of September 1939 when they were again mobilised. They went sent to Sutton On Sea in March 1940 and they were the last Horse Reconnaissance Troop in the British Army.  Later that year they arrived on the Faroe Islands where they remained until June 1942 seeing action several times when the Islands were targeted by the Luftwaffe, it was on one of these air raids on an attack to the harbour they shot down a Heinkel 111 with a Bren gun, the crew from the plane when picked up were convinced that they had been hit by accurate flak.
They returned again to the UK for further training and became part of the 52nd Lowland Division, while also guarding the Royal Family at Balmoral. The Scouts went on to do many more battles around Europe and their many skills used for Top Secret assignments, they hunted down many high ranking Nazi Party Members hiding in Austria trying to escape back into Germany, they taught their skills to the
SAS, the Commandos and other specialist units of the British Army.

                                                                         The Memorial.

With so many deeds carried out by these soldiers I have decided with help from other like minded friends that a War Memorial befitting their service to this country should be commissioned and placed in the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas so that they are never forgotten for the service they gave.

This is an artists sketch of what the memorial
might look like.

Please visit the web site where more information about the Gamekeepers Memorial Fund can be found
at: www.thegamekeepersmemorial.yolasite.com

Spring Time Cometh.

Well at last the weather has changed and it's getting a little warmer and the countryside is slowly drying out. This winter has seen the longest wettest period in over one hundred years or more, it started to rain just before Christmas and with only an odd day here and there we had persistent rainfall until early March. The wet weather has caused many problems for people living and working in the countryside, many farmers will face bankruptcy as a result due to the floods. Many thousands of acres of arable land has been under water for many weeks seed that was sowed last Autumn has been under water for more than three weeks and has died off due to the lack of oxygen and the sun.

My team of stalkers have struggled to get out to carry out our Deer management duties, the rain has kept the deer under cover for most of the time only venturing out for food or to dry out when there has been some sunshine. It has been very difficult but we have managed to reach the cull figures required by our clients in all of the woodland we cover. This is an essential practise that we have to carry out and it is in the interest of the deer as well in that we select carefully the animals that need tone culled after spending many hours observing them.  The selected deer will be a mix of all ages and will include a percentage that has been worked out of the numbers of males and females that are to be culled as well as any infirm or injured deer we come across.

Now that the weather is on the change things will start to grow in the areas that have survived the onslaught of the winds and rain we have suffered with through the winter months. One such example of this is these two fields of oil seed rape in the Winshill area of Burton, I first spotted them in the first week of this month and could not believe my eyes, they were both in full bloom from hedgerow to hedgerow, a lovely and welcoming sight to see.

Oil Seed Rape.

Oil Seed Rape.

The photos I took are not the best but at least they give you an idea of what they looked like. A few days later I was traveling down south through several counties and whilst doing so I was looking for more fields of this crop and I never saw any wherever I looked, these two local fields have done very well. I am sorry for leaving it so long since my last blog but I have been very busy with other things that I will tell you about next time.