New memorial to honour the Lovat Scouts

A memorial to Highland soldiers who saw action in the Boer War and both world wars is to be dedicated by the Bishop of Lynn, the Rt Rev Jonathan Meyrick.

Known as the Lovat Scouts they were initially formed of gillies and crofters who were skilled in the art of deer stalking which they put to good use to gather intelligence inside enemy territory in the Boer War in 1899.

The memorial is in the shape of a telescope, their preferred spying instrument instead of their Army-issue binoculars. “They had no time for Army binoculars,” said local historian, Tony Armstrong who, along with colleague John Smith, did much of the research.

The Scouts spent six months in the summer of 1915 in the Hunstanton area and much of their training was in a deciduous woodland, now named Dreamy Hollow, close by the Construction Industry Training Board at Bircham Newton.

They then went on to play a significant part in World Wars One and Two before being disbanded in the early 1950s.

“It is a once in a 100-year chance to remember the Scouts,” said owner, Nigel Day.

He bought the Dreamy Hollow site in 2013 with the aim of creating a camping site. The wood contained zig-zag training trenches.

Then the late Dr Charles Barber, of Docking, revealed he had a family album of photographs of the Lovat Scouts and the mystery of who had dug them was partly solved. The War Relics Research Association then brought in deep penetration metal detectors and First World War small arms ordnance was discovered along with hand grenade parts from the Second World War.

All the research now forms the main part of a new book, Hunstanton’s Highland heroes, by local author, Mary Mackie.

The dedication ceremony at 2pm on Sunday, July 1, will be attended by the Lord Lieutenant of Elgin, one of only two still-living members of the Lovat Scouts Association.

The day will be an attempt to replicate the gatherings the Highlanders and local people had in 1915 when whist drives, concerts and sing-a-longs took place nearly every week.

Tickets are £10 (£4 for children). Email remembering1918@gmail.com for tickets, or buy on the gate via Monk’s Close playing fields.