New tartan launched to honour Arctic convoy veterans

A new tartan will be launched tomorrow to honour veterans of the Arctic convoys.

The new tartan designed to commemorate the convoys. Picture: Contributed

The tartan, woven after consultation with the veterans, incorporates “colours of dread, death and destruction but colours too of bravery, hope and survival.”

It will be unveiled by Andrey Pritsepov, the Russian Consul-General in Scotland, at a ­ceremony on board the Royal Yacht Britannia to honour the ­Arctic convoy veterans.

Brian Wilton, design ­consultant for the Scottish Tartans Authority, who ­created the tartan, said: “White represents ice flows, wind-whipped wave-tops, snow and ice-encrusted superstructures and today the classic white berets of the surviving veterans. Grey is for the sea and the sky, for allied battleships and the ever-threatening ­German U-boats. Black is for line upon line of ­German bombers and their devastating cargoes, whilst silver is the most chilling sight of all, the bubbles in the wake of an oncoming torpedo.”

It also contains the red in the White Ensign of the escorting Royal Navy ­vessels; the red of the ­merchantmen’s flag, the Red Duster, and the red in the Russian national flag. There are also echoes of MacLeod and MacKenzie tartans from Loch Ewe, the convoy departure point.