Events at The Black Watch

The poignant ‘D-Day: Soldiers of Sacrifice’ sculpture will be visiting The Black Watch Castle and Museum from Saturday 6th June until Sunday 12th July; the first time the sculpture has visited Scotland.

Funded by the Heritage Lottery and commissioned by The D-Day Story museum in Portsmouth the sculpture commemorates the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings and provides a lasting tribute to the lives lost in the first 24 hours of the Normandy landings.

Renowned artist Alfie Bradley created the statue to represent Lieutenant Den Brotheridge who served with the 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry during the Second World War. Lieutenant Brotheridge is widely believed to have been the first Allied serviceman killed on D-Day.

The structure is made from steel rods, steel sheets, welding wire, resin and 4,413 replica bullets. Each bullet representing his comrades in arms who fell in battle later that day. The soldier’s form is crouched down as if to throw a grenade, but instead he is releasing a dove; symbolising peace and acknowledging that these soldiers’ deaths were not in vain.

Due to recent government advice and to protect our staff and visitors we have made the decision to postpone this event until next year.

Admiral Bertram Ramsay has acquired almost mythical status in the history of the Second World War, firstly as the principal organizer of the Dunkirk evacuation and then as naval commander of the Allied invasion of Normandy. Dr Andrew Gordon, Naval Historian, will talk about Admiral Ramsay and the evacuation of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo. Also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, it was the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week Battle of France. In his speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this “a colossal military disaster”, saying “the whole root and core and brain of the British Army had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured”. In eight days, 338,226 troops were rescued. Churchill hailed their rescue as a “miracle of deliverance”. How did Admiral Ramsay mastermind this miracle?

Dr Andrew Gordon is currently a Reader of Naval History in the Defence Studies Department at the Defence Academy, Shrivenham. He was educated at Glenalmond College then the University of Wales where he read International Politics. He has a PhD in War Studies from King’s College, University of London. He has been an honorary fellow of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies at Exeter University since 1996, is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Councillor of the Navy Records Society. He has been a recipient of the Westminster Medal for Military Literature, and the Longman History Today Book of the Year prize and is author of the award winning book The Rules of the Game, Jutland and British Naval Command. His latest book Admiral of the Narrow Seas: The Life of Bertram Ramsay will be published later this year. Dr Gordon was Distinguished Chair or Naval Heritage, at US Naval Academy 2007-2009 and Archival Fellow at Churchill College Cambridge, Sep-Dec 2009. He is a former Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve and has the Reserve Decoration.

Tickets £8 non members | £6 Friends
Reservation recommended | 01738 638152 option 3