Prior to WW1, war memorials were primarily built to celebrate the great leaders and victories in battle and were never held as an object to commemorate the ordinary serviceman. Public opinions started to change during the Boer war, with new monuments being created which listed the names of the fallen, especially those of the lower ranks of the Armed Forces. Around two thirds of war memorials in the UK today, date back to the First World War.

During WW1, there was a ban on the repatriation of war dead which meant the families of over 700,000 servicemen had no grave as a focus to mourn their loss. Many of the dead had a shared history in their local communities. They had gone to the same church, school and had even worked together, hence their loss impacted the communities where they had lived. Local Committees were formed and from those committees, local war memorials started to spring up all over the country.

The memorial at Muir of Ord was no different. Despite several searches of newspaper archives, there are no records on the creation of this memorial, however it is highly likely that those on the committee would have been from several well known names in the village, such as Forbes, Cameron, MacDonald, Chisholm, Mackay and Munro, (all members of the Men’s Club) and also The Stirling’s of Fairburn, Mackenzie’s of Ord, Mackenzie-Gillanders of Highfield and possibly even Lord Lovat of Beauly.

The memorial consists of a tall stone cairn with a rectangular red marble tablet for WW1 inset at the base. Resting at the base of the cairn is a harp-shaped red marble WW2 tablet. The whole is set on a stone slab base. Celtic knot work border on the WW1 tablet with a harp motif inscribed at the top centre. The earliest indication of when this was built is the photograph above which was a postcard sent in 1922.

There are newspaper articles from the 1930’s that indicate that it was the men’s Club, along with the churches that ensured a high profile turnout for the annual armistice day commemorations.

The Armistice Day service was held at the War memorial and was attended by the ministers of the Free Church, Urray West Church and Rev. Alexander Cameron, late minister at Killearnan, who had retired to the village in 1932. Pupils from Tarradale School and the Men’s club laid wreaths.