Lismore and the War – curated by Douglas Breingnan and Dave Clarke.
This special exhibition is in 3 parts.
The first part in 2 large cabinets ,highlights the 8th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders which was so ubiquitous in the Oban area it was simply known as the 8th. The cabinet contains items of uniform badged to the battalion.
Exhibition Lismore at war 2026
Exhibition Lismore at war 2026
It also mentions Mrs McLachan at Achuran House who formed a comforts fund for the men of the 8th Argyll’ in the first weeks of the war. Lismore’s women providing hundreds of shirts, socks and hose tops to the battalion when on active service. Children were also involved. Catherine and Euphemia Black organised regular collections of eggs which were donated to Wounded troops in the Urban War Hospital.
The 2nd cabinet has among other things, the Argyll’s distinctive sporran worn by Neil Albert MacCormick of Daisy Bank and the bonnet of the Scottish H Horse Squadron based at Connell where many Lismore men enlisted
The 2nd Part inside the door on the right is a smaller cabinet and concerns 2 households of The MacCormicks – a Lismore family at war. The fate of the family from Daisy Bank and who owned and ran the Lismore Stores, makes for sad reading. Not only did they lose their son Neil Albert but also Catherine and Annie who died on the same day from the deadly flu pandemic of 1918, Catherine in Glasgow , Anne in Lismore.
October 1918 at Daisybank: L to R – Neil Munro (Australian visitor), May, Annie, Kitty and Neil
Meanwhile the MacCormick family from Baligrve was caught up in a tragedy in Nyasaland (modern day Malawi) where William Jervis Livingstone of Bachuil was the manager of Magamero estate owned by a relative Bruce Low Livingstone. And where after several years mistreating the native workforce, they rebelled and decapitated William Jervis and shot Duncan MacCormick when he went to his rescue. Duncan was not despised by the workforce. A booklet tells the story of Magamero, in particular the fate of the rebel leader John Chilembwe a Baptist minister and later a Malawian hero whose anniversary is now a public holiday and who appeared on the plinth in Trafalgar Square in London.
Exhibition 2026 Magomero estate tragedy
Exhibition 2026 Magomero estate tragedy
Exhibition 2026 Magomero estate tragedy
Exhibition 2026 Magomero estate tragedy Duncan MacCormick
Exhibition 2026 Magomero estate tragedy
On the wall on the left as you enter are nautical charts , British, German and Russian. Highlighting Lismore’s strategic wartime and post war time position. With clear explanations.
Exhibition 2026 Nautical maps
Exhibition 2026 Nautical maps
Exhibition 2026 Nautical maps