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Scotland, Dundee: Their Name Liveth Forever More

St Mary’s Church, Dundee - DD1 4DG

Val Mcdermid and Dr Dr Ann Petrie.explore the famous inscription 'Their name liveth for evermore' on the 4th Black Watch memorial in St Mary's church, Dundee.

On the plates of the memorial are the names of many men who fell at the Battle of Loos in 1915. The inscription has a connection to the battle. Rudyard Kipling's son John was killed there, breaking his father's heart. Contrary to popular myth, this didn't cause Kipling to change his mind about the righteousness of the war, but the grief of losing his son did inspire his work for the war graves commission. Asked to devise epitaphs for their new military cemeteries, Kipling chose this moving phrase from the Book of Ecclesiasticus, which caught the imagination of a grieving nation. Here it poignantly commemorates so many men from Dundee who fell in the same battle as his son.

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5 minutes

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