BEAUTIFUL poppy wreaths have been placed around Fairlie to mark locations of the fallen from the First World War in close proximity to where they lived in the village.
The Fairlie Roll of Honour 1914-18, which hangs in Fairlie Village Hall, lists the men of the village who served in the Great War.
This plaque was the starting point for Fairlie's Men Of The Great War project, which aimed to find out the stories behind the names.
With the help of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2014, Fairlie Community Association researched the names and set up a website, had booklets printed, and mounted exhibitions in the Village Hall in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
The group of volunteers used online sources to access military and statutory records, and for more personal stories and local snippets searched the archives of the Largs and Millport Weekly News.
An unlikely source was the Fairlie Boy Scouts log-book kept by Assistant Scoutmaster Laura Tennant from 1912 to 1916, and, of course, family members provided a treasure trove of photographs, documents and information.
A total of 131 men joined the army (of whom nine had emigrated overseas), 16 joined the navy and 4 joined the R.A.F.
There are 30 sets of brothers, and 9 brothers-in-law. The oldest to serve was born in 1869, and the youngest were born in 1900.
Amongst the men were 13 clerks and 13 gardeners, 12 were shipyard joiners and four joiners, seven worked for the post office and seven worked for the railway.
There were four bakers, a butcher, a company director, a solicitor, a policeman, an evangelist and a minister.
Nineteen soldiers are marked on the plaque as having made the supreme sacrifice. Of those who survived the war, five lived into their 90s, and the last survivor died in 1993, aged 93.
A spokesperson for the Community Association said: "As part of our 'Fairlie's Men Of The Great War' project, we've hung wreaths round the village to remember the Fairlie men who died.
"We've tried to hang the wreaths as close as possible to where the men lived.
"There are nine wreaths commemorating the 19 men named as having made the supreme sacrifice on the Roll of Honour in Fairlie Village Hall."
He was the youngest son of Alfred and Harriet Parker of Fairlie House, the nephew of the Rt. Hon. Charles Stuart Parker and the husband of Joan Bowes Lyon, the cousin of the future Queen Mother.
On November 7, 1914, he was severely wounded leading his company against the German trenches, but the fighting was fierce and his men were unable to recover him.
Initially he was reported killed in action, but this was amended to wounded and missing, and from November 1914 until early January 1915 enquiries were made as to his fate.
On January 11, 1915, the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade replied: “Captain Parker’s body was found with his identity disc inside the Eastern edge of Ploegsteert Wood. It was buried by our men”.
However, the rumours that he was still alive became so widespread that in November 1915 his brother made enquiries via the Swedish Ambassador in Berlin to ascertain if he was a prisoner, and his widow asked the family to issue a public denial.
He is buried at Strand Military Cemetery in Belgium.
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