Flights take flight

Just a commentary after the event on the recent saga surrounding the axing of flights in and out of Benbecula.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar decided to axe flights between Benbecula and Barra, saving £148,000. This has had certain consequences, and in my opinion not all of them were foreseen by our local authority. Although the flights were poorly subscribed, they fulfilled a lifeline function. Transporting urgent medical supplies, and patients back and forth to the Uist & Barra hospital is but one that came to mind. Yes, there is the ferry from Eriskay to Barra, but I can’t imagine that many recently discharged patients from the U&B relish the prospect of a potentially bumpy 40 minutes on the high seas.
However, I really do wonder if CNES foresaw the logistical consequences - I doubt it. Withdrawing the Barra flights from Benbecula also resulted in a reduction in flights from Benbecula to Stornoway (to just 3 days a week) as well as in flights from Stornoway to Inverness and Edinburgh. I found it wryly comical when our MSP started to squawk at the prospect of his Friday flight from Edinburgh being axed so he couldn’t go home for the weekend. Cutting the Benbecula - Stornoway flights means that consultants coming from Stornoway can only do so on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, unless they are prepared to drive 75 miles (in total) and sit on a ferry for a whole hour to get themselves to the U&B in Balivanich, Benbecula. And do the process in reverse at the end of the day.
I am not convinced that CNES consulted with Loganair prior to implementing the decision to cut the flights. Reading the media reports at the time, everybody seems to have been caught out by the consequences. Another consequence is the loss of a subsidy from the Scottish Government for this lifeline service.

Cutting costs, which CNES has had to do to the tune of £6m, is a necessary evil in this time of economic stagnation. But cutting costs without due regard for the consequences is not good local government.

Napier Commission Report

Over the past few months, I have been transcribing the findings of the Napier Commission into the conditions of the crofters and cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. So far I have covered the Western Isles and Skye; I am now going through the evidence for Shetland. Maybe of interest to Island Bloggers out there?

Castlebay School row

The row between parents and students on the one side, and the management of Castlebay School and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar on the other, continues to escalate. Today, about 20 pupils walked out in protest against the failing education standards. They only went back into class after a schooltrip to Barcelona, due to take place later this year, was threatened to be cancelled.

Last week, the parents passed a vote of no confidence in CnES as an education authority, following talks with the head of schools of said authority. The island's councillor has declared his own council to be unfit for purpose. Parents have called on the Scottish education minister, Mike Russell, to step in and sort out the mess. Reading the reports on Hebrides News, it appears that the Chair of the Education Committee and the Parent Council of Castlebay School reside on different planets.

I sincerely do hope that all parties concerned, rather than rolling about the streets of Castlebay in an unseemly brawl, stick their heads together to sort out this mess. It is the pupils' future that is at stake, which should supersede all other considerations.

Castlebay School

A ferocious row is going on in the Isle of Barra, 120 miles south of Stornoway. The school in the main town, Castlebay, has been receiving less than favourable reports from Her Majesty's Inspectorate for Education, now for 3 years in a row. Parents are concerned and so are the pupils. A local internet blog highlighting the issue received 100 comments, whereas commonly the number of comments on its entries is around a dozen or so. More remarkable is that the Council blocked access to the blog from computers at the school in Castlebay.

In spite of a visitation by a senior education official, parents' and students' fears are by no means allayed, and a move could be afoot to wrench control of the school from the council to the community. This would require the consent of the Scottish Government.

War History

Posting links to sites related to the First and Second World Wars and the islands of the Outer Hebrides. Emphasis is on Lewis, part of it my own research, with help from island historical societies.

http://facesmemorial.blogspot.com/
Faces from the Lewis War Memorial, lists the Fallen from the Isle of Lewis for the First World War; includes portrait photographs.

http://iolaire1919.blogspot.com/
The Iolaire Disaster of 1 January 1919. Lists the names of those that lost their lives in that shipwreck, includes portrait photographs and pictures of gravestones in island graveyards.

http://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/englishcamp/lewis/index.html
HMS Timbertown, the story of the internment camp at Groningen, Holland, where more than 100 island sailors were interned for the duration of WW1.

http://lewiswwar2.blogspot.com/
Lists the Fallen from the Isle of Lewis for the Second World War

http://www.adb422006.com/ROH/index.html
The 1914-1919 Roll of Honour for the Isle of Lewis

http://harrismemorial.blogspot.com/
Lists the Fallen from the Isle of Harris for the 1st and 2nd World War

http://www.adb422006.com/ROH/uist-ww1.htm
Roll of Honour for the First World War for Berneray, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay and Barra

http://www.adb422006.com/ROH/uist-ww2.htm
Roll of Honour for the Second World War for Berneray, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay and Barra

http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/warmemscot-forum-76.html
Western Isles War Memorials: pictures and listings of the war memorials in the Outer Hebrides

http://scottishwargraves.phpbbweb.com/viewforum.php?f=19&mforum=scottishwargraves
Western Isles War Graves: pictures and information of those lost in the 1st and 2nd World War who are buried in the Outer Hebrides, or referred to on family gravestones in island graveyards

Harris War Memorial

The Harris War Memorial on-line, which was first published in August last year, has been extensively revised and updated with more information on many of the casualties. This contains listings for both World Wars, ordered by village. Any further information is more than welcome, in fact, desperately needed.

A Roll of Honour was never published for Harris for the First World War, leaving only the War Memorial at Tarbert for reference. Finding further information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (the primary source) can be very tricky and time-consuming in some instances.

All the main islands in the Western Isles now have their WW1 and WW2 casualties listed on line.

I would like to close this post by dedicating it to the memory of all the approximately 2,500 men from these islands who laid down their lives for King and Country during World Wars I and II.

Uist & Barra War Memorials

The information from the War Memorials for the islands of Berneray, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay and Barra has been transferred to the Internet. Apart from the actual war memorials, pictured courtesy Scottish War Memorials Project, the cemeteries in the islands as well as the invaluable Commonwealth War Graves Commission website were all sources for further information. There are gaps, like there are in the information on Lewis casualties.

To reiterate: these are lists of the Fallen from both world wars. For the sake of clarity, there are separate pages for the First World War and for the Second World War.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Graveyard in Eriskay "][/caption]

Mingulay

Mingulay, one of the Barra Isles or Bishop's Isles, is currently unoccupied. The last permanent inhabitants left in 1912, leaving the island as a haven for wildlife and a place for grazing sheep. The reason I am flagging this up in passing came about through researching the First and Second World War roll of honour for Barra. One of the sons of Mingulay appears in the listings for WW1:

Seaman Roderick Gillies
Son of John and Flora Gillies, of Mingulay, Barra
Husband of Mary Macdougall Gillies, of Caolis, Vatersay, Barra, Inverness-shire.
Military unit: RNR, HMT Robert Smith
Service number: 3560B
Date of death: 20 July 1917, at the age of 35
Memorial: Portsmouth Naval Memorial, panel 27
Local memorial: Barra & Vatersay, Nask, Barra

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Mingulay's former settlement, image courtesy isleofbarra.com"][/caption]