Heroes who will never be forgotten in new garden

THEIR names have been carved with pride on a huge slab of Kemnay granite, hewn from the quarry that supplied the stone for the Scottish Parliament.

The “memorial stone” at the centre of the new woodlands garden at Scotland’s main Royal Marines base records the names of the 59 marines from 45 Commando at Condor in Arbroath who have lost their lives, in conflict and in peace, since the elite unit moved to Angus in 1971.

Created from the remains of the walled garden once used to supply vegetables for the commanding officer’s kitchen, the memorial garden was officially unveiled yesterday as the last cohort of Marines prepared to return to Angus following the completion of their latest deployment to Afghanistan.

A total of 13 Marines from RM Condor have lost their lives in previous deployments to Afghanistan since 2006, but the unit suffered no fatalities on its latest tour.

Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver Lee, commanding officer, said the garden would become a focal point both for remembrance and celebration for the entire Condor Marine family. He said: “Remembrance is an absolutely vital component of the garden, but it is also heavily about the living. It is a place where people can go and consider.”

The garden was designed by Toby Buckland, presenter of BBC’s Gardeners’ World, and is based on the Globe and Laurel cap badge of the unit. It features rocks taken from every theatre of operations where marines have lost their lives – from Northern Ireland and the Falklands to Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo.