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Epitaph - The First Day of the Somme

Cathy Macdonald and Dr Ann Petrie recording our epitaph in Old St Pauls Episcopal Church

This vaulted chapel is the war memorial of Old St Pauls, a church hidden down a close, in what was once the heart of Edinburgh’s old town slums. It gave up many of its men to the local regiments. Five of them died on the 1st July alone. The Congregation’ s research group has identified them.

In the 16th Royal Scots McCrae’s battalion were: David Newton Smart, the eldest of three brothers to die in the war. Edward Anderson, the 19 year old son of a type founder, and William Tait, a plumber’s apprentice. In the 15th Royal Scots: John Rosenbluth the son of a Russian book binder and William Arthur Hole, the son of the artist William Hole who made the frieze in the entrance hall of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. William was always known by his middle name - Arthur.

With an interview between Cathy and Professor Sir Hew Strachan of St Andrews University.

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