Duncan Harley

The Zulu wars were to take an awful toll on Aberdeen’s Gordon Highlanders and in years to come, the young men of the regiment were to be sacrificed on the poppy strewn plains of Europe not just the once but twice more. Miss Christie, as her pupils referred to her, seldom shared her feelings with her Dunnottar Primary class.  But her charges still recall her tears each year when, on the anniversary of the death of a brother who perished amongst the dense  blue clay  of  Flanders  fields, the entire class would be asked to recite John McCrae’s poignant poem ‘In Flanders Fields.’ I n Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we t...