Freedom Eventually?

[Michael Alexander]

Edinburgh - British Prime Minister David Cameron and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond signed an agreement on Monday to hold a referendum in 2014 on Scottish independence.

TV pictures showed the two men signing the agreement in Edinburgh.

"The referendum agreement has been signed," a spokesperson for Cameron's Downing Street residence said, following talks in Edinburgh between Cameron and Salmond, who leads the pro-independence Scottish National Party.

The referendum could lead to the United Kingdom breaking up after 300 years, leaving only England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the union.

Cameron strongly opposes a Scottish breakaway and the signing of the terms fires the starting gun on two years of campaigning pitching the leaders on opposite sides.

After months of negotiations, the deal is expected to give Scotland's administration the power to hold a vote in the final quarter of 2014, offering Scots a straight yes-or-no question on leaving the United Kingdom.

But support among Scots for independence appears to be slipping, with a survey by pollsters TNS-BMRB released last week showing 28% in favour and 53% opposed.



Mmmh! I wonder if I will have to give my wife back ? 

[henniek]

Sme time ago I enquired re this scottish soldier & gave them a bit of history that they appreciated : Attaced my letter: Can anybody tell me where Marshall Meadows in Scottland is ?
Swanstone
To whom it might concern:-Museum @ BERWICK

In the graveyard at Chrissiesmeer , South Africa , There is a grave that is different from the others. It is enclosed by a fence and it has a flat , white marble cross in the middle . It is the grave of Arthur William Swanston , a lieutenant from the Innskilling Dragoons . He was killed on 10 October 1900 while trying to save the life of private J.Garlick during the Anglo Boer war . Two others were killed at the same time and are buried in the same graveyard .
Swanston was remembered by his fiancée back in Scotland – for about 65  years after the S.A. war  she sent flowers to the postmaster at Chrissiesmeer with the request to put the flowers on Swanstons grave .She alternately sent pink and then the next year blue heather with matching ribbons , which always arrived end September or during October.
The successive postmasters  throughout the years accepted responsibility for the upkeep of the grave , and regularly painted the fence with silver paint , and regularly cleaned the  area from weeds.
When the fiancée was in her early eighties , she sent a letter with the flowers , explaining that due to her age of  as she put it : " over 80 years  and failing health "  , it might very well be the last time she will be able to send flowers. A year later , according to the then postmaster , the flowers arrived once more .
Info : - He was the second son of : JA and FE SWANSTON , of Marshall Meadows . Berwick - on - Tweed .  The grave of the man he was rescuing when he was killed is not there . And one can assume that Private J . Garlick was not killed , but only wounded , and that he survived . The letter that the fiancé wrote to explain about the frailty of her health was in 1963 . the last bunch of dried heather  arrived October 1964 . After 1965 , the postmaster at the time , took the grade one pupils (6 to 7 year olds ) from the primary school , every year during October for a wreath laying ceremony at all the war graves . But since his death , the primary school also  dwindled into obscurity . The last wreath , a bunch of fresh red roses,  was layed on the grave in the year 2000 , 100 years after the event .  The local reverent arranged the ceremony . Sadly today nobody remember her name . the last person who knew her name was the late , long deceased, postmaster who received the last wreaths during the sixties .
A  request from me then is    , 
Would  you perhaps have any record re the identity of this woman ? Thank you for the time taken . One can only wonder who she was , and how the death of Swanson shaped her life.
hk South Africa . 

                                                     

[henniek]

grave Swanstone

[Mike Voden (RIP)]

What's up Mike A, getting afraid now that independence might be granted to the Scots.

Secondly, we all know that the Scots are tight with money, so who is going to fund this independence..............???????????????

[Michael Alexander]

Exports of Oil, Whisky and shortbread.....

[toonfandangl]

Hi Henniek to answer your qustion Marshall Meadows is a few miles North of Berwick-upon-Tweed a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles (4 km) South of the Scottish border. It is roughly 56 miles East-South East of Edinburgh, 65 miles north of Newcastle upon Tyne and 345 miles north of London.

Berwick-upon-Tweed had a population of 11,665 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001. A civil parish and town council were created in 2008.

Founded as an Anglo-Saxon settlement during the time of the kingdom of Northumbria, the area was for over 400 years central to historic border war between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland. The last time it changed hands was when England retook it in 1482. Berwick remains a traditional market town and also has some notable architectural features, in particular its defence ramparts and barrack buildings.

[henniek]

Thank you so much for the info . now at last, after about 15 years ,  I can complete & close my record re Swanstone's grave in RSA

[toonfandangl]

No worries henniek glad to be of assistance.Frank. 

[henniek]

Frank , As she wrote ;  "Because I Remember , that is why I send the dried heather "   . She alse mentioned in her last letter
" It has been written that what makes life meaningfull is not so much what happens to you, but realy what happens between people. This seems to be true even in death"