They may not have died in combat, but 45 Commando have ensured two marines killed in car crashes last year will never be forgotten.
Captain Michael Strachan and Marine Carl Harrison’s names were the last to be added to a memorial tablet in the remembrance garden at RM Condor, which will be officially opened on Friday.
The monument features the names of marines who have lost their lives in the service of 45 Commando since 1971 when 45 moved to Condor. Families of the bereaved will attend the ceremony with supporters of the £250,000 garden project.
Capt Strachan (28) and his sister were killed when his car was extensively damaged in an accident on the B979 Stonehaven to Netherley road. He had married his partner Kirsty McDonald only 11 days before.
The tragedy came less than a fortnight after Marine Carl Harrison (24), also from 45 Commando, died in an early-morning crash close to the entrance of RM Condor.
Commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Lee said: ”Being a Royal Marine is the ordinary man’s way of doing something extraordinary, but the tragedy of that is some men have to lay down their lives for their brothers-in-arms.”
Lt Col Lee said the garden would become a focal point both for remembrance and celebration for the entire Condor Marine family.
”The point was in part, but not exclusively, that the garden would be about remembrance. Of course, that is an absolutely vital component of it, but it is also heavily about the living.
”It is a place where people can go and think, consider and just expand their decompression beyond the 24 hours we enjoy en route home in Cyprus.
”It is also a place where the wounded can work, a place for families and a focus for trying to harness while it is no less tragic and no less sad in any way, shape or form bereavement in a positive way.
”And so it has proven, and I think it has done a service to all those various different cohorts both memory, bereavement, those with or without wounds, mental or physical, who are still here and who have not paid the ultimate price.”
The garden contains commemorative rocks from Northern Ireland, Norway, the Falkland Islands, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The marine in charge of the project, Captain Steve Lewis, said: ”Around the garden we have many stones and these stones provide a link to the countries where we have served and unfortunately lost men from the Commando.
”To get all these stones from each of the countries was very hard work. I’ll talk about one the Falkland Islands.
”I phoned the Royal Marines Association in the Falkland Islands and asked if there was any chance they could do us a favour. I told them we needed a big chunk of the Falkland Islands and for it to be shipped across to the UK for a memorial garden.
”In true Royal Marine fashion the ex-Royal Marines said: ‘No problem, leave it with us.’ That was on the Friday, and I got a phone call on the Monday morning saying the rock was on the ship and it would be there in nine days.
”Over one weekend this rock came from a quarry near Two Sisters one of the main battles of the Falkland Islands and it now lies within the remembrance garden at 45 Commando.”