VC recipients to be honoured in Carluke

The new signs will be placed at all entrances to the town and upon all platforms at Carluke railway station. It is hoped they will be in place in time for the centenary later this year.

Sir Angus Grossart is proud of his family links to the town and has always maintained an active interest where he was brought up.

Throughout the Great War, his grandfather, Thomas Grossart, worked tirelessly for the war effort and when the Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918, he was called upon to address the townspeople in the Rankin Memorial Hall.

He hoped those present, and the nation, would never forget the sacrifice of those who had fallen and the bravery of those who had served.

A century later, the road signs to be donated by his grandson, Angus, are intended to ensure this message endures and fulfils a debt of honour for our generation.

Sir Angus hopes that the new road signs will be installed in good time for the 100th anniversary of the awarding of the VC to Thomas Caldwell in October 1918 and the centenary of the ending of the First World War a month later.

The signs will include three replicas of the VC medal against a plain white background. They will be placed on all the main routes into the town and on each platform at Carluke Station. Discussions with South Lanarkshire Council about their installation are at an advanced stage.

The wording on the signs, “Carluke, a town called Courage”, was coined a few years ago by Jack Murray, an ex Scots Guardsman, when he was astonished to discover that not one but three Carluke men had been awarded the Victoria Cross.

William Angus and Thomas Caldwell were decorated in the First World War and Donald Cameron during the Second. At that time the town had a population of less than 8,000 residents meaningCarluke had more VCs per head of population than any other location in Britain.