Key dates for WW1 commemorations 22/7/14
The Scottish Commemorations Panel has selected the following key dates to mark during
the centenary of the First World War. Full details of the events to be held will
be announced in due course.
10 August 2014 The Drumhead Service will take place on the esplanade of Edinburgh
Castle, followed by a Procession down the Royal Mile to a Memorial in Holyrood Park
in the style of a Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery.
25 April 2015 Gallipoli: The allied naval and military operation to force the Dardanelles
and to secure entry to the Black Sea and to the then capital of Turkey, Istanbul.
The 52nd Lowland Division, including many Scottish battalions, left Stirling on 4
June 1915 and took part in the later stages of the campaign.
22 May 2015 The train crash at Quintinshill, near Gretna: The Leith-based 7th Battalion
Royal Scots, Territorial Force were on their way to Liverpool for Gallipoli and lost
214 officers and men; 246 people, mainly soldiers, were injured.
25 September 2015 Battle of Loos: Part of the first Allied offensive in Artois and
Champagne. Half of all casualties were Scottish and 5 VCs were awarded to Scots,
including an award to piper Daniel Laidlaw, who braved poison gas and gunfire to
play his company forward.
31 May 2016 Battle of Jutland: The only time that British and German dreadnought
battleships came to blows. Both sides claimed victory - the Germans lost fewer ships
and men but the British claimed victory as Germany never again seriously challenged
British control of the North Sea during WWI.
9 April 2017 Battle of Arras: A concentration of 44 Scottish battalions and 7 Scottish-named
Canadian battalions attacked on the first day in the largest concentration of Scots
to have fought together during the war. One-third of the 159,000 British Expeditionary
Force casualties were Scottish.
11 November 2018 - Armistice Day and Celebration of Peace.
1 January 2019 - Loss of HMY Iolaire: The Iolaire was carrying many naval personnel
returning home to Lewis when she struck rocks half a mile from Stornoway with the
loss of 204 of the 285 men aboard.