Carluke - Map of a '˜Town Called Courage'

A '˜new' map of Carluke has just been published which misses out major buildings like the High School, Lifestyles and even the massive Tesco store.
A map showing where the men of Carluke who served in World War One lived before marching off to the conflict, 225 of them never to return.A map showing where the men of Carluke who served in World War One lived before marching off to the conflict, 225 of them never to return.
A map showing where the men of Carluke who served in World War One lived before marching off to the conflict, 225 of them never to return.

However, what it DOES show are the one-time homes of the town’s fallen and heroes of World War One.

Based on a 1912 map of Carluke, locally-born businessman Sir Angus Grossart has sponsored a ‘Map of Honour’ as his contribution to the town’s Armistice Centenary commemoration, being held under the banner ‘A Town Called Courage’, reflecting its three-VC status.

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A spokeswoman for the Carluke Parish Historical Society said: “The map focuses on the 30 streets which made up the town centre of Carluke at the time and uses a black dot to represent each man who was killed, a red dot to represent each man who returned with physical wounds and a blue dot for those who served and returned with no physical wounds.

“A glance at this map quickly brings home the impact of the war on the families and the wider community. There is hardly a street which is empty of dots and even more significantly black dots.

“Some streets stand out more than others. In Kirk Road, for example, four of the nine men who enlisted were killed and two of these young men were brothers, while in John Street, all eight of the young men who marched off to war became casualties, four killed, four wounded.”

She added that those who lived outwith the town centre are not forgotten and their contribution to the war is also displayed on the map; of the 28 Braidwood men who went off to war, 20 became causualties.

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Law, statisically, was luckier, suffering 24 killed out of the 218 men who served.

Carluke, as a whole, lost 225 men.

For more information, contact Carluke Parish Historical Society

On Wednesday, October 31 at 11am an engraved memorial stone to Carluke VC Thomas Caldwell will be laid at Market Square.

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