'In the course of a short address General Sir Francis Davies said : - I beg of you that when you go away from here today that you don't say to yourselves that we have put up this memorial  to these men and have done our duty by them, and now let us think of other things. I do ask you to look on what you are doing here today as just the beginning of a long act of reverence and respect to the memory of those men. Let us forget as much as we can about the war, but never let the memory of these men die in this parish…...these memorials are put up more for the generations to come than for us ... show the memorial to your children for they may have to do the same one day !'

A Report in the Midlothian Advertiser
26th December 1921

The War Memorial in the grounds of the Library (1920s)

The village of West Calder lies on the main A71, about 14 miles to the west of Edinburgh

At the start of World War 1 it was a prosperous and lively place, with good employment prospects in the local mines, oil works and farms

By 1918 over 180 local men - farmers, miners, butchers, bakers - men who in the ordinary course of events would never have enlisted in an army and fought and died on a foreign battlefield - had joined the ranks of the 'fallen'

Use the buttons below to navigate this web site and find out more about the village and its contribution to the Great War for Civilisation

Last
Updated
September
2002