Bird’s eye view of memorial work
(Pictures: Scott Macivor)
Aerial photos taken this week show the progress of the work taking place at the Kitchener Memorial at Marwick Head in Birsay.
Restoration work started on the 90-year-old Kitchener Memorial, the 48-feet high stone tower, at the end of June.
It involves restoring the stonework to its original condition, inspecting and repairing the roof, reinstating the ventilation and restoring the inspection doorway.
Earl Kitchener, Britain’s Secretary of State for War, was among those lost when HMS Hampshire, sailing from Scapa Flow to Russia, sank just off Orkney’s Atlantic coast in 1916.
The curve of the new wall — to “better remember” all those lost on HMS Hampshire — can be seen in the photographs.
The project is being co-ordinated by the Kitchener & HMS Hampshire Memorial project committee, and when the wall is complete it will list all the names of the 737 men lost with the warship, having been engraved on inlaid granite.
