Dr Scott Arthur

I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. I heard that news from someone in this place who had also heard about it—somebody who does not live in Scotland—and I was absolutely ashamed to hear it. The 16th Royal Scots made great inroads into the German line, more than any other British battalion, but that was little comfort to the families who lost their sons. The losses of McCrae’s battalion were a small but significant component of the 1 million casualties in the 141 days of that battle. When Hearts unveiled the memorial clock at Haymarket in 1922, a crowd of 65,000 people gathered to honour that remarkable sacrifice. They were told that the nation owed a debt of gratitude to Hearts that could never be repaid. At the weekend, I was proud to attend a service at the memorial clock alongside hundreds of other people. Many of them were Hearts supporters—Jambos—but many of them were people who just live locally and wanted to take part in an act of remembrance. I was proud to be at that remembrance service, but I was even more proud to see pupils from Tynecastle high school, Balerno high school and George Watson’s college take part in it. A few days before, I attended another remembrance service at Firrhill high school in Edinburgh South West, which was entirely led by the young people there, apart from a small introduction by the headmaster. What is special about that school is that it is directly across the road from Redford infantry barracks. The young people who led the service read out the names of people who had died on that day, 6 November, during the first world war. All the names were of people who were 17, 18 or 19 years old, some of them perhaps even younger than the pupils who were reading out the names, and most of them just a few months or years older. Taking part in that service and being so close to the barracks was a real reminder of the impact of war. We talk about conflict, perhaps within 1,000 days, but I would hate for any of those young people to have to take part in a war. It was a reminder to me that in this place, we should always focus on peace, not war.