I never knew my Grandfather Andrew Melrose. I was named after him but he was only ever a framed, black and white picture of a handsome man in a uniform that hung on my Granny's wall. He had been gassed in the first world war, never fully recovered and died in his early fifties when my own father, also an Andrew, was only a boy. My father is not a nostalgic man and never talks about him much (at least not to me) but goodness how the world has moved on in those hundred years since that war. Growing up, I was always aware of both wars. Every village in Scotland has a memorial, commemorating the names of those who never came back and they were always more than just names because everyone had a story. Scotland lost a bigger percentage of its population than anywhere else in the UK, more than twenty percent of those who went to war and it was rare for any family to be excluded from the stories. Startling figures, what is it about the human race, though? Yes there are the good and heroic, in the majority too, so why do we let the minority lead all of us into these situations. Look at Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Libya now, in fact skirmishes all over the world, we are an odd species of animal.Today will draw to a close with a "Lights Out" tribute, with people in homes, offices and public buildings urged to take part by turning out all lights between 10pm and 11pm, leaving on just one light or a candle to mark the exact moment the UK entered the first world war... sigh...
