Today at 11am people across the north and north-east will fall silent to remember those who have died serving their nation during times of conflict.
The Press and Journal is shining a light on the ways that individual people and communities played their parts in the Great War which ended 102 years ago today.
And we are highlighting the ways that people today, during an unprecedented time when all parades were cancelled on Remembrance Sunday, are instead finding ways to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Among those being remembered today as a Highland nurse who died on a torpedoed evacuation ship 6,500 miles away from home during the Second World War.
Lily Murray is the only woman whose name appears on the war memorial at Dornoch – alongside her brother, Angus, who was killed during the Battle of Arras in France in 1918.
The UK’s First Sea Lord, Admiral Tony Radakin, has paid tribute to Miss Murray, who perished aboard a ship in the Far East when it was sunk by the Japanese in February 1942.
The professional head of the Royal Navy has commemorated the life of the 44-year-old Scot in a special online Remembrance Service video recorded by Very Rev Dr Susan Brown, the minister of Dornoch Cathedral.
Miss Murray was part of The Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service and was on the SS Tanjong Penang while it was making its escape from PomPong Island in East Malaysia with upwards of 200 passengers and crew.
But, according to Historylinks Museum in Dornoch, the vessel was attacked at close range and survivor accounts later described how it was “blown out of the water.”
The last telegraph received from Miss Murray by her parents, Peter and Margaret Murray, was sent on January 27 2942, in which she wrote: “[I’m] fit and well, love Lily.
Admiral Radakin said: “This is a very special occasion for all of us, as we remember someone on the Dornoch war memorial, the only woman who lost her life during the Second World War.
“Her name was Lily Murray. These days, naval personnel face the same worries and challenges serving the nation operationally on a worldwide basis.
“We give thanks to God for those who paid the ultimate price while serving their country just like Lily Murray.
“And we give thanks to those who are serving in the Royal Navy and wider Armed Forces, all of whom are supported wonderfully by their families and wider communities such as Dornoch.”
Rev Brown spent a week visiting Royal Navy units across Scotland last February during her year as Moderator of the General Assembly.
She said: “When the stories behind the names on our war memorials are told, they make the remembering all the more poignant. The names suddenly belong to real people, with families and friends, and lives beyond the inscription on the monument.
“I think it is so important for us to understand that it was ordinary people like them who went to extraordinary lengths in their day, to give us our today.”
She has urged everybody to heed that message during what will be, for many of the survivors of the conflict, a Remembrance Day in isolation.
Meanwhile, a group of students have assembled a special virtual performance to honour local war heroes today.
Students from Aberdeen International School have digitally assembled a programme of music, songs and poetry for a group of north-east veterans to mark the poignant occasion.
The Armistice Day Recital, entitled “We Remember”, was put together in partnership with the Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine area branch of the British Legion, after the annual performance in the school’s purpose-built theatre had to be cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Kent Walter, fine arts co-ordinator at ISA, said the recital is intended to have a “meaningful impact” on the veterans’ lives and their service to the nation.
She said: “It is a very moving recital as you would expect and I am extremely proud of each and every one of our students who are playing their part in such a fitting performance to pay tribute to our veterans.
“As a school community, we will very much miss the theatrics accompanied with the recital each year; but the message remains the same and we are committed to honouring our fallen heroes.”
The recital will air in a special live recording today, alongside footage of a recent ceremony held at Banchory War Memorial by a small group of veterans to mark Remembrance.
On Sunday, the Queen and national political leaders took part in a sombre wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in London unlike any other.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon laid a wreath on behalf of the people of Scotland at the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle to mark Remembrance Sunday.
Around Scotland, thousands of former and serving military personnel and members of the public took to their doorsteps to observe the two-minute silence in tribute to the fallen.
