Common Cause: Commonwealth Scots and the Great War

Abstract

• Emigration has been an ever-present theme in the story of Scotland. In 1914, as the world prepared for war, thousands of men enlisted in Scotland for military service, and across the British empire and beyond thousands more of Scottish birth and descent joined up. As optimism gave way to the grim reality of years of conflict, the human cost of fighting became a foundation of national consciousness in the countries where Scottish people had made new lives - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and elsewhere. Based on the exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland (11 July to 12 October 2014) Common Cause explores the relationship between Scottish military traditions and the emerging national identities of the British Commonwealth. - Taken from book jacket