Didier and Valerie first came to Shetland for a visit 30 years ago. They have returned many times since, both for holidays and work. Now they have made the move and talk to podcast host Marjolein about this, and their new business, the cafe, C’est La Vie on Commercial Street.
The coastguard helicopter carried out a medical evacuation from Skerries this morning (Sunday).
Shetland Coastguard was contacted by the NHS at around 9.40am to carry out the evacuation of an ill patient to Lerwick.
The incident was concluded at around 11.30am after the patient was transferred to the Gilbert Bain Hospital.
The work of the Red Cross in safeguarding prisoners of war has been commemorated at the
Shetland Library, with the launch of a new book by Jonathan Wills.
Over £100 was raised for the organisation at the launch of Uncle Davie’s Red Cross Blanket, which tells the story of the writer’s Scalloway-born uncle, Private Davie Slater of the Gordon Highlanders, who was among those taken prisoner by the Nazi General Erwin Rommel at St Valéry on 12th June 1940.
Davie and 18 other young Shetland soldiers were with the 51st Highland Division, fighting a rearguard action to protect Allied troops trying to escape from western French ports in the days following the Dunkirk evacuation.
After a gruelling three-week forced march through France and Belgium, the 10,000 prisoners
were shipped up the Rhine on coal barges into Germany and then sent in cattle trucks to
various camps.
Davie ended up at Stalag XXA in Toruń, in Poland, where he worked on farms for four-and-a-half years until January 1945, when the guards marched their prisoners back to Germany through the snow, with the vengeful Soviet Red Army on their heels.
Somehow, Davie and his boyhood friends, John W. J. Smith of Scalloway and Duncan
Houston of Veensgarth, Tingwall, made it back to British army lines a few days after the
German surrender in May 1945.
The 320-page book, illustrated with photographs and maps, is based on over 200 letters and postcards that Davie sent home from Stalag XXA.
It also contains letters from his father, Jack Slater, and sister Nina at Myrtle Cottage, Scalloway; Red Cross reports held in the National Archives at Kew; and regimental records of the Gordon Highlanders, including the 5th Battalion’s war diary from January to May 1940.
Addressing a crowd at Shetland Library on Thursday, Dr Wills described the regular inspections of the prison camps by the Swiss Red Cross under the Geneva Convention, which undoubtedly prevented conditions becoming even worse than they were.
He noted that without the Red Cross food parcels sent to the camps many more prisoners would have died.
“Sadly, the Red Cross is still having to do such work in today’s conflicts,” he said, “so
I think it’s important to remind younger folk that, unless we know our history, we may end up
repeating it.”
The sum of £117 was raised to help the organisation’s continuing good works.
Uncle Davie’s Red Cross Blanket is published independently by Jonathan Wills and is on sale at The Shetland Times Bookshop.
The hard work of a long-running group that supports stroke victims is being praised in the Scottish parliament.
Conservative MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston has lodged a motion recognising the two decades of “dedicated support” Shetland Stroke Group has provided for people who have suffered a stroke.
It comes after the group marked its first 20 years at a celebration event in October.
Secretary Dorothy Storey, a retired neurology nurse specialist, has seen for herself the impact strokes can have on people.
She welcomed the news from Mr Halcro Johnston’s office.
“It was certainly a lovely surprise to receive the notification, and testament to all the work put in by the past and present office bearers, committee members and volunteers over the past 20 years, since the group was set up,” she said.
“The work has also only been possible because of all the generous donations received over the years from many local groups and individuals, some from sponsored events, donations from funerals in memory of loved ones who have had strokes, and many others.
“It’s a great honour to have the work of group highlighted in this way, and we are very grateful to Mr Johnston for tabling the motion.”
Lodged on Thursday, the motion has the support of 18 MSPs.
It calls on the parliament to congratulate the Shetland Stroke Support Group on its 20th anniversary and recognise its two decades of dedicated support for people in Shetland affected by stroke.
The motion also “notes the group’s invaluable role in providing guidance, social connections and practical assistance to stroke survivors and their families” and “commends its efforts in raising awareness about stroke prevention and recovery, as well as its success in getting funding for essential activities and resources”.
It thanks all of its members, past and present, for their commitment to enhancing the lives of people impacted by stroke in the Shetland community.
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