Volunteers receive award for work half a world away with NL connection

A couple from the Highlands have been praised for their volunteering work recording details and cleaning war heroes’ headstones and have received a prestigious award from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Gilmour and Susan Strang from Kingussie, volunteer for the organization and were given a Spotlight Award and received a letter of congratulation from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Director General, Claire Horton.

The couple have travelled the world through their volunteer work. In 2016, they embarked on an project to visit the graves of every man named on their town war memorial. Of the 60 named recorded, they have so far visited 58 of them on a quest that has led them to France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Lossiemouth.

Susan and Gilmour are particularly proud to care for the fifteen Newfoundland men, who came to Scotland with the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit in WW2. Susan has supported a historian from Newfoundland in his research and wrote the foreword to his book which will be published shortly.