Dufftown at War by Barry Hodge

The parish of Mortlach extends to about 11 miles by 9 miles to the South of Elgin. It comprises 54,283 acres and in the early 20th Century was largely moorland and pasture. There was a little crop farming - mainly fodder crops such as turnips and hay, but the greater part of the land was given to grazing, Dufftown being a not insignificant market for sheep and lambs. The main habitation was and indeed is Dufftown, which was the commercial centre for the area and served just about three thousand inhabitants of the parish with almost two thirds of those living in Dufftown itself.

The origin of Mortlach is to an extent set in the mists of time. Mortlach, in the the valley of the Dullan Water, is probably at least a thousand years older than Dufftown. The earliest parts of Mortlach church date back to at least the 700s, and there has been a religious community here since the middle to late 500s. The oldest part of the church you see today dates to 1200, although much of the building has been preserved and reconstructed several times over the centuries.

There was also a monastery here by 1200, and in 1228 a parish school was in operation.

Mortlach is also known as the site of a battle between the Scots and Danes in the th th 11 Century. There is a deal of confusion about when and where. The 13 century castle of Balvenie still stands today and of course lends its name to a favoured tipple of many. The name derives from the Gaelic for „village of monks‟ which leads one to suppose there may have been a monastery there and indeed there is evidence of a monk known as Walloch living there and dying in the late seven hundreds..

Dufftown itself was built from 1816 onwards and the final phase (the tower) was completed in 1839 or thereabouts. It was built by James Duff, the Earl of Fife. Depending upon whose authority you believe it was an act of self-aggrandisement (he wanted a town named after him) or an act of benevolence. I tend to the idea that he was a philanthropist and the village (originally called Balvenie) came to be known by the name afforded ny the local people in honour of the man who was responsible for providing a great deal of employment and creating dwellings for soldiers returning from the Napoleonic war.

At the outbreak of the Great War Dufftown was a very busy, though small, place. It needs to be seen in the context of travel and movement. Although there was a railway - Dufftown was on the line between Craigellachie and Keith, and indeed had access to Speyside from Craigellachie and to and the south from Keith - much of the railway capacity was for freight and goods. Mail, newspapers, food, and farm products and livestock were moved by rail, but not many people - they tended to stay where they lived. For many young men, who were later to leave for the front, the high point of their year was the twice yearly feeing days when they came to Dufftown from the farms to contract with local farmers for a further six month stint on the farm, from which many might not venture until the next feeing day. Other employers were the quarries and the village itself which was an important commercial centre. Although the population of Dufftown and Mortlach was little more than three thousand in the early 1900s, that population supported three butchers, four bakers, three grocers, several shoe shops and tailors, three banks and a range of hardware and clothing shops.

Of course these were the pre-Tesco days and such travel as took place was slow. On one occasion in the early 1900s a local club went on an excursion to by charabanc. The journey took five hours (an average speed of a little under six miles an hour). There were also, of course, the distilleries. Dufftown is famed as having been built on seven stills - a sideways reference to Rome having been built on seven hills.

Distilling had started at Dufftown in the second half of the nineteenth century and was a more labour intensive industry than it is now. As a result a significant number were employed there.

This was a time when people would holiday in Dufftown when they lived in Elgin. Weekly lists were published of visitors to the village and where they were from. Many of the holidaymakers would be from as far afield as Elgin and Aberdeen. Much beyond that was rare and remarkable.

The village and local area were administered by a town council with responsibility for much of the day-to-day running of the area with committees dealing with finance, streets, sanitation, water, lighting and the slaughter house.

In 1911 Mortlach had a population of 3,021 of whom 1,626 lived in Dufftown. Families in Dufftown numbered 422 and there were 412 houses. The parish as a whole had 702 families.

The parish and village were fairly insular. They were self-sufficient with little need to depart the confines of the parish. Streets were unmetalled, there was no street lighting, sanitation was basic in that ash closets were emptied once a month and the village comprised little more than the four main streets of Balvenie, Conval, Fife, and Church. A serious fire in a house in Fife Street was not effectively dealt with because at first no one knew where the hose was and then when it was found it was not very effective. (A meeting a few weeks later of the town council decided that they needed to buy a new hose and make sure everyone knew where it was). It did have two hospitals.

One was the isolation hospital situated off Balvenie Street and the other was the recently endowed Stephen Hospital, a gift from Lord Mount Stephen a son of the area who had achieved fame in Canada as the builder of the transcontinental railway. Days off were few and far between and a lot of such free time as they had was engaged on all manner of societies - music, theatre, tennis, golf

It was also the major livestock market for the area and a sale of several thousand sheep and lambs was not uncommon. Probably the major event of the year was flitting day when families (all on the same day) would move from house to house as a result of new contracts with new employers. So this will have given you flavour of Dufftown and Mortlach.

This was the community from which, on Tuesday August 4, 150 men of the Territorial Force and were summoned. Postmen worked overnight and it is described that the town crier was also enlisted to ensure the word was passed.

Three days later they set off for Bedford at 06.30 after a banquet and Divine Services at the various churches. A banquet was not necessarily a meal or even (at breakfast time) a bacon roll - it could be anything from a cup of tea, with or without a biscuit, to a full blown meal of several courses.

And off they marched, from the Town Hall on Church Street (where the restaurant is now) down to the station at the bottom of Balvenie Street and Station Road, in the hope if not the certainty that they would be home soon and that it would all get sorted out. It should be reiterated that for many of the men - described very often as farm servants, this was a massive departure from their normal experience. A lot of them would find a day out in Dufftown a rarity.

Many might not have known where France was - although it must be said that Dufftown had a reputation for academic prowess, as did so many places at the start of the 20th Century, before TV, radio and all the 'joys' of modern life. In due course they left Bedford for the front.

There then ensued a period during which everything returned pretty well to normal. There were some signs that we were at war. A committee, including The Inspector of the Poor, was set up to administer a relief fund. The National Reserve paraded weekly on Wednesdays. The Territorial Association began raising subscriptions to supplement the separation allowances paid to servicemen's families.

In William Shand, the Grocers in the Square, you could buy tea in a tin made to look like an artillery shell and the sale of Sanatogen was superseded by the sale of Sanaphoa which, unlike the former, was not German in origin.

Recruitment of local volunteers began and indeed the local regiment - the 6th Battalion Gordon Highlanders was quite specific in its requirements. They required that recruits should:-

 Be 17 - 35 years old  Be at least 5‟ 2” 1  Have a chest size of at least 32 /2 inches  Weigh at least 110 pounds (a little under eight stones)

The first death occurred in October when 27 year old Alexander McBain of the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders died of wounds received in the defence of Zandvoorde chateau and was buried at Ypres. It appears that this event brought the reality of the war much closer and the efforts of the population of Mortlach moved up a step. So far as can be ascertained 483 men from, or directly associated with Dufftown, in that they had been born there or had lived a significant part of their life there, served in more than 50 different units. Most of these were Army units but 13 served in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. At least 15 served in the Royal navy or the Merchant Marine. In addition we should remember the 16 ladies from Dufftown who served in a total of 13 locations - some involved with nursing but many involved with munitions.

Many Dufftown natives returned to the UK to enlist. It is recorded that men returned from Trinidad, Cuba, South America, Hong Kong, South Africa and the Straits Settlements. In addition men from Dufftown and Mortlach enlisted in the Armed Forces of several Commonwealth countries including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India as well as the US Army. By far the greatest number of men from here who enlisted overseas did so in the Canadian Army. 40 local men are known to have joined up in Canada.

Using the 1911 census there were 1,404 men resident in Mortlach of whom some 34% volunteered and served. When we then consider that the initial standard required was ages 17 - 35, then, even allowing for older and already serving soldiers, half of the eligible men served with the other half being reserved or granted exemption on the grounds of their employment - more of that later.

In the meantime Dufftown continued normally or at least as near to normal as was possible.

The Banffshire Territorial Association announced voluntary subscriptions to raise funds to support more adequately the separation allowances paid to families of servicemen who had left for war service.

The Prince of Wales National War Fund was started and subscribers were listed, taking as much as two columns of the paper. Amounts were specified and varied from a hundred pounds to a shilling. This equates, in terms of average earnings, to £34,672 to £17.34. Given this was only a fortnight after the declaration of war this was perhaps remarkable commitment from the general public.

The National Reserve Force, those men who had not departed with the main Territorial Force, paraded weekly on Wednesdays. Car drivers would bring men from outlying areas, the evening would be public with a parade behind a pipe band to the Square where drill would be performed.

A recruiting 'demonstration' was held in Dufftown. It was presided over by the provost and well attended by the public. Speakers included MPs, clergymen, local aristocracy and servicemen. Speeches were quoted verbatim and reports printed, a large choir and soloists sang patriotic songs and the proceedings were opened with everyone, including the audience, singing 'Scots wha hae'.

The final speech was by Colonel George of Macduff and even before he finished speaking it is reported that young men started to march to the front of the hall to volunteer their names. They continued to do so as the choir sang 'It's a long way to Tipperary'. The reporter declared the meeting to be the largest and most orderly gathering ever seen in Dufftown.

By October, news of the first casualties was starting to appear in the newspaper. The first three, not forgetting Alexander McBain, were Alex Grant, a private in the Gordon Highlanders and Robert Pirie, also of the Gordon Highlanders, who were both reported missing, and R MacDonald Phillips of the Gordon Highlanders who was listed as a prisoner of war. The first two were subsequently found to be prisoners of war.

Letters were published from officers in various regiments seeking help from the communities they came from for provision of clothing and other comforts for men under their command. These were from men still in the UK who had not yet reached the front line. Items urgently sought were such basics as shirts, scarves and socks. Additionally requests were made for the production of cholera belts for men who were at the front line. Instructions were published in the newspaper, the double thickness belt (of blanketing) to have a liberal dusting of insect powder between the layers. At the same time the needs of soldiers serving at the front or about to go there were being met in part by the efforts of the ladies of the War effort organisation referred to earlier.

Each week lists of what they had sent were published and they were quite substantial. They included shirts, scarves, gloves, mittens, belts, handkerchiefs, helmets, towels, and for the Red Cross specifically such items as bed socks, bed jackets, books, hot water bottle covers, pillows, pillow slips, blankets, nightshirts and many and varied bandages. These were not just the result of efforts in Dufftown, but of Banffshire in general. Specifical to Dufftown, however, sphagnum moss was collected as part of the war effort - to make dressings. In one week alone 41 sacks were despatched.

Private Alex Grant's name was removed from the bureau (list of men for whom comforts were sent). This was because the lucky man had been 'adopted' by two ladies from Dunfermline who had undertaken to supply him with his needs for the duration of the War. It is not recorded why or what he had done to deserve such attention.

There started to appear letters from men at the front line or in prisoner of war camps to their parents or wives. One such letter, sent to a mother in Fife Street, speaks of being able to write two letters a month to her as well as a post card a week. He exhorts her to write short letters in good writing so as to avoid delays with the censor. He asks that she send one tin of cocoa, syrup and a white loaf every week. He also writes a letter to his father, thanking him for the scones "which were lovely" but commenting that the pipe tasted cheesy and the cheese had a taste of tobacco. The postal service was extremely efficient facilitating such carriage of mail and provisions. This was largely done through a 5 acre post office in Hyde Park in employing 2,500 personnel. At that time it was the largest wooden structure in the world.

It was common for shoes, boots and socks to be lost forever in the thick and glutinous mud of the trenches and there was a repeated theme of requests to family for replacements. The Juvenile Society (The Boys' Walk) had a fundraising effort to provide a substantial contribution to the cost of a dining marquee for one of the Gordon Highlander Battalions.

On the 12th of December Reservists were 'called out' in that they had to be ready to go to war or have a very good reason not to. They were notified by mail of the need to "fill out forms A & B, do not give up your job until instructed to do so and to present yourself when required". They were allowed three days' paid leave before departure in order to put their affairs in order.

Flag days were held for both Poland and Serbia. They raised £20.4s.3d and £21.10/- respectively - quite a tidy sum.

A cake, candy and jumble sale was held to raise funds to endow 'The Dufftown Bed' at the military hospital in Rouen.

A detachment of the Gordon Highlanders, headed by a pipe band, marched the 12 miles from Keith to Dufftown as part of a recruiting campaign. They arrived at about 6 pm and were billeted about the town, after being entertained to tea.

They stayed for two days and were entertained in the Town Hall. The result of their campaign was not as good as they had hoped - only seven recruits rather than the 20 - 30 they had hoped for.

The first ten soldiers, injured in France, arrived at the Stephen Hospital. This was the first of many who were nursed there throughout the war. Admission was not confined to local men or even to Scottish Regiments. A typical intake to the hospital in one week included men from the East Kents, the Cheshires, the Manchester Regiment, the Inniskilling Fusiliers, the Gordons and the Hampshire Regiment. The local community became involved and concerts, whist drives and a garden party were typical of the entertainment provided for the wounded.

The courts continued to function and there were three rather curious cases. Peter Burt, an umbrella mender of no fixed abode, was found guilty of stealing between a quarter and a half pound of horse hair, and was sentenced to seven days in prison. A man found guilty of being drunk and disorderly, was advised that should he enlist he might get away with the crime. He declined and was fined one pound with three shillings damages. And in a third case a man was fined for treating a hawker to a pint of beer in the Mason Arms. It was against the law to offer drink to specifically hawkers, although it is unclear why. The retired farm worker admitted, however, that he knew the rules and paid a very hefty 40 shillings.

Thirteen special constables were sworn in under the terms of the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), making 16 in all in Dufftown and the surrounding area. By 31 May 1915 it was reported that the British casualties were 50,300 dead, 154,000 injured and 53,600 missing. Life still continued for those not directly affected by the war and visitor lists appeared as they did each summer, showing who was visiting the area and where they were staying. Generally visitors were from and the north, especially elsewhere in , but there were a number of visitors from London and one from Montreal. Mortlach United Free church had gas lighting installed and Watt Brothers requested a licence for the storage and sale of petrol. The Borough Surveyor decided that 100 gallons should be the limit of what could be kept. The annual outbreak of fever was blamed on old drains and badly attended ash pits (earth closets). This annual event seems to have been spread rapidly through the schools and one solution seems to be to have closed schools, or at least classes.

In September the budget was announced. An extra £107 million had to be raised and ordinary people were affected by an increase in duty on sugar (increased by 5 times), tea, tobacco and dried fruit. The cost of 'motor spirit' was also increased.

Some things never change. There was severe flooding of the Spey, with bridges washed away and several roads impassable. Although the Dullan and the Fiddich were full, almost to bursting, they did not actually overflow and Dufftown was spared much of the devastation experienced elsewhere.

In 1915 revised allowances were published for soldiers and their dependants. The rough present day equivalent is shown in brackets.

A soldier was paid seven shillings a week (£25), and his wife was paid an allowance of 12s.6d (£44). One child increased this to 17s.6d (£62), two to 21/-, and then an additional two shillings a week was paid for each additional child.

Pensions for the dependants of soldiers who died were 10s, increased to 2s.6d at the age of 35 and 15/- at 45. Children under 16 were paid 5s for the first, 3s.6d for the second and 2/- for each additional child. A mother in her late twenties whose husband had died at the front and who had three children under 16 would receive a pension of the equivalent of £73 a week.

A tradition was upheld of collecting fresh eggs for wounded soldiers, and between seven and 11 dozen were collected each week.

.A Volunteer Training Corps was set up for the training of home defence volunteers. 45 men came to the first training session where they were exhorted to be active so that "no Hun shall devastate our country and ruthlessly murder our women and children". "No slackers need apply" was a further announcement.

On May 25th 1916 conscription was announced, seeking to provide between 600,000 and 650,000 men. Hereafter there were regular tribunals held where men seeking exemption from conscription could make their case. Tribunals were held at a number of levels. There was a tribunal at Dufftown which deferred to an Upper Speyside tribunal which in turn deferred to a Morayshire tribunal. If you were unsuccessful at one you could appeal to the next highest and so on. Some appeals were sensibly allowed such as farms where an older man would be the only one left if the last remaining son was conscripted.

Some were not so sensibly allowed such as a case of a chauffeur being deemed indispensable to a local member of the gentry. The case of a salmon fisher seeking exemption was referred to the Morayshire tribunal. The only coppersmith in the area was exempted as otherwise the maintenance of the stills would be at risk. A Cabrach man who owned 56 acres was refused exemption when it was pointed out that none of the land was under cultivation and it was just an excuse. Some men, such as a dairyman, were granted short term exemptions to enable them to get a replacement and train them.

They even differentiated between different types of baker decreeing that a bread baker should be exempt but a confectioner should not. A minister applied for exemption from the draft as the presbytery had "refused to let him go". By now a great deal of space was given to verbatim reporting of applications for exemption from conscription. A temporary exemption from service in the Army was granted to a gamekeeper from Auchlinkart whose rabbit kill each year averaged 9,000 or 11 tons and this was cited as a valuable food supply which needed to be maintained.

Free gift sales were held periodically. These generally consisted of donations, mainly of farm produce for auction to raise funds. At one, donations of eggs, potatoes, venison, rabbits, chickens, oats and a sheep were sold to raise £162.3s.4d (£11,599) Other donations were items such as travelling rugs, blankets and a litter of English terrier pups. Donations from the proceeds included £10 for the Gordons, £15 for Belgian refugees, £15 for Serbian refugees and £7 for the Glen Rinnes War Fund.

In 1915, 34 men stayed for between ten and 98 days at the Stephen Hospital.

There was concern that distilleries were to be taken over for the production of 'strong spirit' in connection with munitions manufacture. In the event. Speyside and Dufftown escaped the move and it was distilleries in the south of which were adapted.

In one afternoon the Dufftown Boy Scouts collected between 3,000 and 4,000 glass bottles and jars, to be recycled as part of the war effort. Provost Stewart received, in apparently good condition, ten dead springbok, a gift from George King (formerly of Dufftown and now resident in South Africa). They were distributed to hospitals throughout the area.

What was by now the 86th Volunteer Regiment paraded on the golf course, and were inspected by Army hierarchy. These were the equivalent of the Local Defence Volunteers, they had no uniforms or equipment but it was planned that they would be eventually. They drilled in Dufftown and Cabrach on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays.

A street collection was made in aid of the "Christmas puddings for the troops" fund and £15.12s.7d was raised.

There were regular notices of casualties and deaths. These included an occasion when men had been injured by gassing. There were also notifications of decorations. In 1917 Dufftown men earned, amongst other decorations, four Military Crosses and four Military Medals.

Tea was in short supply and what amounted to a national stocktaking was commenced, with all shops having to submit returns. Sugar became rationed and people had to register for a supply of sugar which had to be with a specific shop. In the classified column of the Dufftown News there was advertised for sale, among other things, carrots at 1s.6d a stone (eight pence for about seven kilos), and barley meal at 40 shillings a boll. (A boll was a measure of volume rather than weight and varied according to what was being measured. For barley a boll equated to about 211 litres. Other Scots measures included lippies or forpets, pecks, firlots and chalders)

At the end of 1917 pay was increased for soldiers and sailors. For soldiers pay was increased by a penny a day (less than half of one pence) for each year's war service. They were now to be paid whilst in hospital (previously no pay for wounded men), provided that the reason for their stay was not self-inflicted. For sailors things were more generous. After three years service their pay was increased by three pennies a day (just over one pence) and they no longer had to pay for their own kit.

Changes in taxation increased allowances. A man with four children could now earn £245 a year before being liable to tax. (This is equivalent to about £10,000 now)

Sister Smart from Dufftown was added to The War Honours List.

In the Imperial Challenge Shield Rifle Competition, Dufftown Boy Scouts came 35th in the UK, out of an entry of 354. Amongst Scouts they were third in the UK. In Scotland they were first.

People were encouraged to eat potatoes and vegetables rather than bread as wheat was becoming in short supply.

On January 6th 1918 a snowstorm began which was to last for three days with extensive drifting. Snowfall persisted that year until the end of February when it became more infrequent. Of course, there was no council clearing of roads - they depended on the good will of local farmers to come in to the village with their tractors. Naturally their stock took first priority and the village could be in the grip of the snow for lengthy periods.

War Savings Certificates were on sale, costing 15s.8d for a £1 certificate. The parish of Mortlach raised £5,193 during January 1918 in this way.

In 1918, The Ministry of National Service announced in February that it required a further 420,000 to 450,000 men to serve at the front. At about the same time the local tribunal dismissed 150 appeals against conscription as procedurally incompetent and ordered that the men concerned should be enlisted in the army.

It was proposed to ration certain food stuffs. Specifically mentioned was an allocation per head of one and a half ounces of tea per week and four ounces of butter or margarine. The Red Cross had a penny a week collection whereby people would pledge to try and give a penny each week. Typically £2.3s.8d a week might be raised (524 pennies)

The Royal Commission on Sugar Supply announced that the 'soft yellow sugar' which had not been well received was "perfectly safe to use".

Scottish War Weapons Week raised £15,000 in the parish of Mortlach. This was about £5 for each person in the parish.

Postage was increased. Letters cost 1½d, postcards 1d, letters to the USA and British possessions overseas cost 1½d per ounce. A letter posted in Dufftown by 7.25 am would be delivered in Aberdeen the same day.

The supply of whisky in the spring of 1918 was halved and the price doubled. Whisky production was suspended as there were 120 million gallons in bond (nationally). The price became between 8 and 10 shillings a bottle. The strength of beer, which cost between 8d and a shilling a pint, was halved by the simple expedient of dividing a barrel between two barrels and topping up with water.

In 1918 German Prisoners of War were brought to the area to assist with harvesting. Many had been farm workers before the war. An article appeared reassuring the local population that they would not pose a threat.

To illustrate the impact of the war at the front on Dufftown, in one week later in the year of 1918, eleven men from Dufftown were listed as killed, missing or wounded.

Coal shortages were starting to loom. This was not because of coal being used for the war effort but because, with 75,000 miners serving at the Front, there was a shortage of labour to extract it.

The Town Council met to discuss ways of saving coal and electricity. It was agreed that one economy which could be made was for shops to close early. The agreed times were that they would close at 6 pm on Mon-Fri and at 8 pm on Saturday.

In the local press of November 9th there were the first references to the German Armistice Delegation. At the same time it was announced that recruitment for the armed forces was suspended.

On November 30 it was reported that of the 500 men from Mortlach who went to war only eight were taken prisoner and of these, three had already returned home.

Collections were made by the Red Cross in Dufftown to provide clothing and comforts, not only to returning soldiers but also to German prisoners of war who were billeted locally. A separate appeal was made for clothing for French men, women and children left destitute by the war.

It was reported that 10,000 American soldiers married French girls.

All in all there were 175 deaths in the Great War associated with Dufftown. Of these 11 Canadian volunteers were killed - the third greatest attrition rate after the Gordons and the Seaforths. Of the men who had enlisted in other Commonwealth and US forces there are no recorded casualties. Because some of the men listed on the War memorial and the Roll of Honour have been difficult to identify or ascertain the circumstances of their deaths, it is not easy to be accurate once again but we do know that of the men from Dufftown and Mortlach who died 42% have no known grave. A number of men died in hospital in the UK. Most of these died from diseases such as scarlet fever.

By far the greatest losses occurred in the Gordons. 141 men enlisted in the nine Battalions of the Gordons and of these 51 died. The 6th were the worst affected with 32 dying out of the 82 who joined up.

The Seaforths were also affected badly, with 14 of the 44 who joined them dying. As already mentioned the Canadians also suffered with 11 out of 40 being killed.

Any loss of life in a small community would be hard. The scale of the losses in Dufftown and Mortlach was considerable. On top of that there was even more grief to bear in a number of quite poignant instances.

The youngest to die were six eighteen year olds. One even had his previous occupation listed as a schoolboy having joined straight from school.

James Stuart of the 6th Gordons lived in Balvenie Street in Dufftown. In March 1915 he was killed at Neuve Chappelle at the age of eighteen years, leaving behind a younger brother who was fifteen. Three years later that brother, Peter, who was now eighteen, had joined the Black Watch and he too was killed at La Bassee canal.

There are other instances of brothers - the Watt brothers were both killed, as were the Gardiner brothers. The McDonald family of Balvenie Street had five sons serving and of these three were killed (one was injured and one returned unharmed).

The Strath brothers were the sons of William and Helen Strath of Berryleys in Dufftown. John, who was serving with the 47th Battalion Western Ontario Regiment, was killed on 13 May 1917 at Souchez Avion. The telegram to advise his parents was received in Dufftown on the Monday. They learned two days later that their other son, Robert, who was with the Seaforths had been killed on the same day as his brother.

65% of the men who died were under 29 years of age - this would have a significant effect on the efforts of the area to get on with life after the end of the War. In Balvenie Street alone 20 men did not return.

The oldest to die in action was the aforementioned John Strath who was serving with the Canadians. The oldest listed on the War Memorial was Sergeant Major George Sellar who was not on active service but was the janitor of Mortlach school but more importantly was involved in training of local volunteers. He died of natural causes at the age of 48.

Finally the last to die was Peter who was a trooper in the Scottish Horse attached to the Black Watch who died on the 17th October 1918 at the crossing of the Selle. 97 men from Dufftown are buried in 63 different cemeteries - mainly in France but also in Belgium, Italy (at Magnaboschi), Greece (at Dorian), Tanganyika (as it then was - Dar-es-Salaam) and other parts of the UK - not forgetting Bedford.

67 men have no known grave but are commemorated on 13 memorials - the most being at Arras where 17 names are recorded. Other significant ones are Loos, Le Touret, Menin Gate, Tyne Cot and Thiepval. They are recorded at Tower Hill and Plymouth .

Some of the names are simply that - we haven't been able to find out anything further. There is a mismatch between the Roll of Honour and the War Memorial.

We can say that Dufftown and Mortlach acquitted itself well in the Great War. The Dufftown tally of decorations included two Conspicuous Gallantry Medals, two Distinguished Service Orders, five Distinguished Conduct Medals, two Croix de Guerre, seven Military Cross and Bar, ten Military Medal and Bar. There is anecdotal evidence of men who returned from the war, most particularly men who had suffered gas attacks, who were never the same again and whose lives were in ruins.

When the Armistice was eventually announced the reaction was fairly low key. It was agreed that triumphalism was inappropriate - not least because of the many men who had died. As a result there was little flag waving, although the Union Flag was flown and the town bell was rung to mark the occasion. A high point was the return of the three prisoners of war by November 30 which was celebrated, although again in a low key manner.

In February 1919 a public meeting was held to discuss suggestions for a fitting memorial. The debate continued in the press for several weeks.

Various suggestions were proposed. One was for an obelisk to be placed on Little Conval - the hill opposite where the memorial was finally placed. Another was for a monument in the churchyard, another for a non-denominational mortuary in the churchyard. A further idea was for a cairn in the park to be surrounded by a circle of trees - one for each of the fallen.

In the best traditions a committee was formed to further consider the problem.

In the meantime - on May 16 1919, when all of the men had returned the Town Council, which had kept £10 in hand for the event, entertained 80 servicemen to supper and entertainment in the Town Hall.

Later in the year, on July 19 formal Peace celebrations were staged, when the town was adorned with flags and according to reports, a grand ball was held on the previous evening and on the day itself a grand procession made its way to the field where sports, and dancing took place before a grand bonfire and a 'magnificent pyrotechnic display' was staged from the top of the Clock Tower.

In October the committee completed its deliberations and a decision was made for a memorial in the Square and a second at Northcote on Balvenie Street. The trustees of the late Duke of Fife contributed £50 and offered the land at the Northcote site and George King from South Africa (of springbok fame) sent £25. As the latter site was the cheapest quote at £1,025 (about £35,000) the decision was made to use Mr A Marshall Mackenzie from Aberdeen to design the memorial and the foundation stone was laid on April 24 1920. An additional reason given for not having the memorial in the Square was because it "would be subject to drunken and loutish behaviour not fitting".

Prior to that a further memorial to four soldiers was unveiled in St Mary's RC Church on October 12 1919.

A memorial was also unveiled in the school showing the Roll of Honour to mark the events of the previous years and it is there to this day.

The Banffshire Herald reported that the Armistice day of 1919 was not well observed and they were disappointed that traffic had not been stopped.

The War Memorial was finally unveiled six days later on 17th November 1920 by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon.

Dufftown meant a great deal to the people who lived there and who made sacrifices for the war effort, both in and out of uniform, but it is only one of tens of thousands of communities throughout Britain that made exactly the same sacrifices.