Sign in
☰
People MPsHouse of LordsGovernmentOppositionPartiesCommittees Votes Commons votesLords votesVotes by issueTopicsStats & rankingsParliament in numbers Legislation BillsEarly day motionsPetitions Elections Election resultsConstituenciesWho is my MP? Scotland OverviewMSPsScottish GovernmentVotesBillsMotionsCommitteesConstituencies & regionsElections Search Sign in

Motion · S5M-22025 · 11 Jun 2020

Remembering the 51st Highland Division at Saint Valery 80 Years Later

Lodged by Dr Alasdair Allan Standard Motion 26 supporters

The motion

That the Parliament remembers the surrender of 10,000 men of the 51st Highland Division taken prisoner near Saint-Valery-en-Caux near Le Havre, six days after the Dunkirk evacuations, after being attached to French defence forces, facing the onslaught of the invading Germans; remembers those that tragically lost their lives; recalls also that the men were marched to Stalag XX-A prison, north west of Warsaw, to be there for the duration of the rest of the war; highlights that, of the 219 returned escapees to Britain in 1941, 134 had been from the 51st Highland Division; notes that three of these escapees were from Ballachullish, who used Gaelic to confuse the Germans to convince them that they were part of the Ukraine and then friendly forces of Stalin; recalls their 1,300 km march at the end of the war from the east of the oncoming Red Army, marched by German forces, to the west where they eventually met the Americans, and pays tribute to their sacrifice and heroism, remaining in France after the Dunkirk evacuations, and most notably captured in Scots Gaelic on the memorial in Saint-Valery-en-Caux, “La a bhlair is math na cairdean” (On the day of battle it is good to have friends/relations).

Supporters (26)

Source: the Scottish Parliament motions and amendments record.