Stitchers: Frances Togneri (Lockerbie), Brett Sylvester Matulis (Edinburgh), Joyce Souness (Port Seton), Jeanette Holt (Edinburgh)
The 1917 Anglo-Russian Military Convention directed Russian subjects in Britain to join the British army in France or fight with the Tsar’s army. About 1100 Lithuanians left Scotland for Russia, arriving at Archangel, but the Tsar’s government had fallen. Many joined the Bolsheviks; most disappeared, some returned to Lithuania. Others joined the Slavo-British Legion in 1918 and fought the new enemy – communism. At the campaign’s end only about 85 Lithuanians, those attached to the Legion, returned to Scotland. Many of the women left behind remarried; some, deprived of government support, were later deported. The Lithuanian community did not recover.
LT04 Lietuviai Kotijoje – Liotuàinianaich Alba
Ann an 1914, thàinig mòran Liotuàinianaich a dh’Alba gus teicheadh bhon bhochdainn agus bho chruadalachd an riaghlaidh aig an Tsàr Nicholas. Bha a’ mhòr-chuid ag obair ann an gnìomhachas a’ ghuail agus an iarainn; bha cuid a stèidhich gnothachasan. Bha an Caidreachas AngloRuiseanach ag iarraidh dhaoine a dheigheadh a fhrithealadh ann an arm Bhreatainn no arm na Ruis. Roghnaich mu 800 a dhol do dh’arm na Ruis, a’ fàgail an teaghlaichean ann am fìor bhochdainn. Ann an 1917, ràinig iad Archangel ach bha riaghaltas an Tsàir air tuiteam gu na Bolsheviks. Chaidh mòran dhiubh a ghiùlain tarsainn na Ruis gus a dhol do dh’arm ‘geal’ an Tsàir, agus chaidh an còrr dhiubh don Lèigiun Slavo-Breatannach a chaidh a stèidheachadh ann an 1918. B’ e beagan dhiubh a thill don Ruis.