The main island commemoration took place at the Cenotaph in Rothesay, where a wreath was laid after the 11am silence by deputy lieutenant Lyn Bulloch on behalf of the Queen.

Bute's uniformed organisations, led by the Rothesay and District Pipe Band, were joined in the parade to the memorial by the members of the reformed Rothesay branch of the Royal British Legion Scotland. Branch secretary Andy Marsden was among those who followed Mr Bulloch in laying a wreath at the Cenotaph.

Argyll and Bute Council, Bute Community Council, Rothesay and District Pipe Band, Strathclyde Police, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, the Rothesay Army Cadet Force, HM Coastguard, the British Red Cross and the 1st Rothesay Girls' Brigade were also among those represented at the Rothesay wreath-laying ceremony.

Commemorations were also held at the island war memorials at Kingarth and in Port Bannatyne, where Mrs Jean Gall laid a wreath in memory of the 39 members of the 12th Submarine Flotilla - the 'Midget Submariners' - who lost their lives while training in the waters off Bute during the Second World War.

The Rev Ian Currie of the United Church of Bute led a short religious service at each memorial, concluding with the famous exhortation, written by the 19th century poet Laurence Binyon: "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them."

The last Remembrance Sunday commemoration on Bute took place at North Bute Cemetery at Croc-an-Raer, where the traditional service organised by the Rotary Club of Rothesay, in memory of the 36 merchant seamen buried there, was led this year by the Rev Kimberly Bohun of St Paul's Episcopal Church in Rothesay.

Twenty-one of those sailors lost their lives on September 15, 1940 aboard the SS Coronda, which was brought to Bute by the Liverpool and Glasgow Salvage Company after being heavily damaged by German bombers.

Piper Craig McKenzie played a lament, and local children laid flowers at each seaman's grave.

See also:

Bute Maritime Memories - from Bute Sons and Daughters website
The Second World War on Bute - an overview from Bute Gateway

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