Search is on for relatives of John O'Groats men lost in World War I

A SEARCH is being launched to find modern-day relatives of the 10 John O'Groats men who were killed in action during World War I.

A memorial plaque to the men has recently been restored and their relatives are to be invited to a rededication ceremony in the spring.

Six Seaforth Highlanders and four Royal Naval reservists from the community lost their lives in the conflict and their sacrifice was honoured by the memorial, dedicated "to the immortal memory of our comrades who were heroes". It was created by archaeological draughtsman, portrait painter and sculptor John Nicolson, who was then farming from the old inn called the Halfway House, now better known as Summerbank, Auckengill.

The memorial was created to be a feature of the original Pentland village hall at John O'Groats – a prefabricated shed-like structure that had been floated across the Pentland Firth from Hoy in 1921and re-erected on what is the site of the present village hall.

When the present hall was built during the 1960s the memorial was re-hung, but when the building had its first major upgrade in 2012 the memorial, by now badly stained, was put into storage for what was intended to be a temporary spell.

Now, thanks to the efforts of Barry Butler, a member of Dunnet and Canisbay Community Council who has professional expertise in the tiling and decorative stoneware trades, the memorial has been restored and given a new mounting. And, with help from the community council's honorary secretary Mark Gibson, the plaque has been put back where it belongs.

Andrew Mowat, treasurer of the local hall committee, is delighted with the result.

"We are extremely grateful to Barry for doing such a fine job with this restoration," he said. "Both the community council and ourselves on the hall committee feel that it would be appropriate to have a rededication service and we hope that this will occur during the coming spring. But first we want to give any living relatives the chance to attend."

Community councillor Bill Mowat agrees.

"I wholeheartedly endorse the appeal for relatives," he said. "There are two or three men named in the plaque whose relatives I know, plus a bit about the life stories of their predecessors who gave their lives in the awful conflict. But there are others who do not seem to have relations living locally and it is those folk that we are seeking."

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