Glenelg, Scottish Highlands: Allan McAskill

My wife and I visited relatives in the Scottish Highlands and while there, attended a Church of Scotland service at Glenelg Church, overlooking Loch Alsh. The church is set in a striking and dramatic landscape and has a small and warm-hearted congregation. After the service, I was shown a Bible, left on one of the pews' book ledges. That Bible has been there, on the same ledge, in the same place, in the same church, for 106 years. The inscription, carefully written in the inside cover, is from John McAskill, whose son, Allan, died in a French hospital in April 1917, aged 23. The Bible was bought for Allan 'out of the Regimental Pay due to Allan at his death' and is accompanied by a biblical text from John 15.13. A poignant parental request is added: 'Please do not remove bible from his seat.' And so the Bible has remained, an enduring reminder of the raw grief experienced in so many communities in the years following the First World War.