Men of the The spean bridge monument

Hi there, My Name is Laura Muirhead and My Grampa served with the No 4 Commandos, his Name was James(Jimmy) Muirhead. My question is, are there any original pictures of the three soldiers who posed for the spean bridge statue? My Grampa remembers posing in a group of three men on a tabel and getting his picture taken at the end of the war and always believed that he was the man on the right of the statue as you look at it.It does look very much like him and it would be interesting to know if the original picture on which the statue was modeled was still around. Many thanks
Laura x

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 01/06/2011 17:21:24

Hi Laura,
Welcome to the CVA and thanks for your post.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no original photos of the men who 'modelled' for the Commando Monument (although I'd love to be proved wrong... (Anyone?).

If you see the links below you'll see that there are at least 5 'contenders' - Jimmy (Jock) Muirhead, Jack Lewington, William (Jock) Moore, Taff Jones and George Dowse - and I'm sure there will be more...

http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/1003.page

http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/1392.page

In the clip, Jack Lewington remembers jumping up on the table and being photographed and wonders on the whereabouts of the other two - Jock More from Lerwick and Taff Jones from Swansea

Nick

Laura,

Just for you, here's a photo of the commando on the right -

... and another

Thank you so much, Those close up photos of soldier 3 are brilliant! It certainly looks very like my Grampa but no matter if it is or not, the statue is a great tribute to all the commandos and makes me very proud of all the men. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. Laura x

Laura,
Other than the group photo:
http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/4/4+cdo+veterans/N__4+Cdo+v__t__rans+FLESSINGUE+1984.jpg.html
we don't seem to have a photo of your grandfather in our Gallery.
It would be great if there was one there that we could compare to the Memorial...

If you do have a photo of your grandfather that you'd like us to display in our gallery please contact me or Pete Rogers and we'll be more than happy to upload any photos for you.

Nick

Hi Nick,
Thank you for the link to that photo of my Grampa, I have seen that one. I will need to look out some old photos of my Grampa so I can compare them to the memorial and maybe post them to you to put on display. Thanks again for your time.
Laura.

Laura,
Thanks - I thought you may have seen the photo as a Derek Muirhead identified Jimmy as his grandfather...

I do hope you can find some photos of you grandfather as it would be good to compare with the memorial.
I can see what you mean about a striking resemblance between your GF and the memorial though.

nick

Nic, Laura is my sister and one of us will need to get a photo posted soon.