Speaking to soldiers: historical consciousness and collective memory of the Great War amongst serving and retired soldiers of a Scottish infantry regiment

Abstract

In the summer of 2017, a series of fifty-two confidential interviews were held with retired veteran and serving soldiers of The Black Watch, a Scottish infantry regiment, to establish whether a clearly identifiable core collective memory of the Great War existed within this regimental community at that time. Following a brief rationale for the choice of serving and retired soldiers as interviewees, an outline of working definitions of historical consciousness and collective memory is given. A description of the interviews and interviewees follows. Amongst the topics discussed in the interviews were visits to the battlefields of the Great War, the Scottish oral tradition, family involvement in the conflict, war poetry and film, inter-generational differences in perception of the war and formal remembrance. This article draws on the results of the interviews to examine interviewees perceptions of the conflict and describe the formation of historical consciousness of the war within the group. It finally concludes with an attempt to identify the core collective memory of the war within this regimental grouping at that time.