Fairlie Community Association is bringing back its Great War exhibition to the Village Hall to commemorate the building’s 125th anniversary.
Aptly. the display will be on show during Remembrance Sunday, from 10.30am until 3pm.
The Community Association was awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £9700 in 2014 to research the names on the Fairlie Roll of Honour in the Village Hall (including those on the War Memorial) - culminating in a booklet, website and exhibition.
In addition to the 126 names on the Roll of Honour, local researchers discovered another 30 people with a Fairlie connection who served (from those commemorated in the Church, or from Largs News snippets, or have been given to us by family members).
The Community Association had a group of volunteers who carried out online research (birth, death, service information, etc.).
Fairlie Primary were also involved in researching the project.
With photographs, campaign maps, military documents and memorabilia, the exhibition tells the stories of the men who left the village to serve in the first World War which lasted from 1914-18.
There will be 18 roller banners telling the stories of 126 men named on the plaque, plus information about village life.
Picture displays include a soldier who was a prisoner of war, while there will be postcards from the Somme.
Rare photographs taken by a soldier who served in the desert, and a poem about Fairlie written by one of the men with accompanying photographs, will feature.
Military documents of the period including attestation papers, demob papers, death telegramsform part of the display, and there will be a map of Fairlie in 1912.
A poignant slideshow will show photographs from Gallipoli and the Somme, with narration from letters sent home by the soldiers describing their experiences. There is a local link to these photographs which originated from from Lt. Gen. Hunter-Weston’s collection, and were provided by Angus Cochran Patrick of Hunterston.
The exhibition will also include campaign maps, replica medals and mementoes loaned by family members and the community.
The volunteers also spoke to Sarah Goldie at Largs Museum, and accessed historic war records, carrying out extensive research in the Village Hall.
The Fairlie Great War exhibition has been praised for its concise information presented about every villager who fought in the Great War.