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EDINBURGH TOWN COUNCIL.
....The second last ordinary meeting of Edinburgh Town Council prior to the vacation was held to-day in the Council Chambers, Edinburgh...….
SCOTS GREYS' MEMORIAL - THE CZAR'S GIFT.
....A letter was announced from Mr W. Birnie Rhind, sculptor, asking a site in West Princes Street Gardens for a memorial to the Royal Scots Greys who fell in South Africa. Sir Robert Cranston expressed the hope that this matter would receive the most earnest consideration. The proposed memorial, he understood, was a very beautiful one. Mr M'Michael, convener of the Parks Committee, said they had had a model of the memorial before the committee. Of course they could not come to any finding in the matter, but he might say, for the committee, that they received the proposal in a sympathetic mind, because they regarded it as worthy of a good site. The memorial was to cost nearly £3000, of which, he mentioned, amid applause, the honorary colonel of the regiment, the Czar, had given £500. The letter was remitted to the Public Parks Committee.
Edinburgh Evening News, Tuesday 14th July 1903
THE SCOTS GREYS MEMORIAL UNVEILING.
LORD ROSEBERY TO OFFICIATE.
....It is understood that Lord Rosebery will unveil the Royal Scots Greys Memorial in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, on 16th November, an arrangement which is giving the liveliest satisfaction to the members of the regiment. His lordship will be remembered as delivering a particularly impressive speech at a dinner in Edinburgh to the officers of the Greys and the Gordon Highlanders prior to the departure of the two regiments to the war in the autumn of 1899. In connection with the unveiling ceremony, the Town Council will entertain a party to lunch, as was done on the recent occasion of the unveiling of the K.O.S.B. Memorial on North Bridge.
Edinburgh Evening News, Tuesday 23rd October 1906
....The memorial to the officers and men of the Royal Scots Greys who fell in the South African War will be unveiled by Lord Rosebery on Friday. The statue occupies a site south of the pavement of Princes Street, opposite the foot of Frederick Street. When the figure, which is a trooper of the Greys on horseback, was being placed in position a fortnight ago, the chain of the crane snapped and the horse was damaged, but the broken limb has been repaired and everything is in readiness for the ceremony. The sculptor's idea has been to represent a trooper scouting, and the figures, which are a third more than life size, are set on a rocky pedestal, 12 feet high, 17 feet long, and 11 feet wide, composed of grey sandstone blocks chiselled to represent natural rock. The foundations have been carried 20 feet below the street level, and rest on a concrete bed. From Princes Street the height of the memorial is 25 feet. On the portion of the pedestal facing Princes Street is a panel, flanked by two eagles, on which is carved the inscription:
"In Memory of
Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, and Men,
The Royal Scots Greys,
who gave their lives for their country,
in the Boer War, 1899-1902."
And then follow the names of the officers, non-commissioned officers, and men. The sculptor is Mr. W. Birnie Rhind, R.S.A.
Edinburgh Evening News, Thursday 15th November 1906
SCOTS GREYS' MONUMENT.
THE UNVEILING CEREMONY.
LORD ROSEBERY'S STIRRING SPEECH.
....The monument, which has been erected to the memory of the Scots Greys who fell in South Africa was unveiled to-day under not very pleasing atmospheric conditions. The pomp which is always associated with a military function, especially when the regiment is one so famous as the Greys, signalised the proceedings. Princes Street for a considerable distance on each side of Frederick Street was kept clear. On the east and west were stationed the squadrons unmounted, while immediately at the bottom of Frederick Street, and facing the monument, were drawn up about one hundred veterans of the regiment. Round the hollow square formed by the unmounted men were drawn up the mounted squadrons with the colours. In the centre facing the platform was the band of the regiment. All the way up from the bottom of the street to George Street there was a dense crowd of people with a forest of umbrellas, while vantage posts on Princes Street balconies were also filled with spectators. The band of the regiment and a number of mounted men were drawn up on the clear space in Princes Street.
....Immediately in front of the monument on the pavement a small platform had been erected, from which the formal proceedings were to take place. Grouped round this was packed a number of invited guests, prominent among whom were General Wogac, the Russian Military Attache, representing the Czar, who is honorary colonel of the regiment; Lieut.-General Leach, commanding Scottish District, and officers of the Headquarters' Staff; Colonel Sir Robert Cranston, in his uniform as Brigadier of the 1st Lothians Brigade, Sir Charles Dalrymple, several members of the Corporation, colonels of Volunteer corps, &c.
An extract of the report of the unveiling, Edinburgh Evening News, Friday 16th November 1906
THE SCOTS GREYS MEMORIAL.
SPEECH BY LORD ROSEBERY.
....There was unveiled in Edinburgh yesterday by Lord Rosebery a memorial to the memory of the men of the Scots Greys who fell in the South African campaign. The memorial, which occupies a commanding situation in West Princes-street-gardens, overlooking Princes-street, takes the form of a mounted trooper of the regiment in bronze, one-third more than life size, standing on a pedestal of grey sandstone blocks. At the ceremony there was a large gathering, including officers of the regiment past and present, Sir E. P. Leach, V.C., commanding the Scottish district, civic and other dignitaries. General Wogack, from the Russian Embassy, London, was also present, representing the Tsar, who is honorary colonel of the Greys. Unfortunately during the proceedings a drizzling rain fell. Colonel Coventry Williams, commanding the regiment, having asked Lord Rosebery to unveil the memorial.
....Lord Rosebery said that the Scots Greys were bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. After reviewing the early history of the regiment and their services in the South African war, Lord Rosebery continued: - I was with the Scots Greys at their last dinner in this city. It was a cheerful dinner, but it was not glad or triumphant. We met under the shadow of a humiliating reverse. We know that humanly speaking we could not expect that all who were then present would return to us again. We knew at any rate that all were about to face the unknown, and we then resolved and declared that evening that, having put our hands to this thing, we would see it through and we would muddle through somehow, and somehow or other we did muddle through. Some of them who were there that night did not return, and it is to their memory that we erect that memorial to-day. Honour to the unreturning brave, the brave who will return no more! We shall not see their faces again in the service of their Sovereign and their country. They have undergone the sharpness of death. They sleep their eternal sleep thousands of miles away in the green solitudes of South Africa. Their place, their comrades, their saddles will know them no more, for they will never return to us as we knew them, but in a nobler and a higher sense have they not returned to us to-day? They return to us with a message of duty, of courage, and of patriotism. They return to us with a memory of high duty faithfully performed. They return to us with the inspiration of their example. Peace, then, to their ashes; honour to their memory; Scotland for ever! (Cheers.)
....Lord Rosebery having drawn the cord and unveiled the memorial, the hymn "For all the Saints who from their labours rest" was sung to the accompaniment of the band, and the Rev. Dr. Theodore Marshall, Chaplain to the Forces in Edinburgh, offered up the dedicatory prayer. Lord Provost Gibson, in the name of the city, accepted the custody of the memorial and the trumpeters sounded the Last post, and the proceedings closed with "God save the King."
MESSAGE FROM THE TSAR.
....At the close it was intimated that the following telegram had been received from the Tsar: -
...."On the date of the unveiling of the monument in memory of the Scots Greys fallen in the battlefield my thoughts are with my gallant regiment, and I send it my sincerest greetings. - NICHOLAS."
The Times, Saturday 17th November 1906
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