The Gas War by Graham Johnston

In 1916, Shetland brothers Charlie and Willie Abernethy served together in the trenches at the Somme, part of a ‘Special Brigade’ unit that waged gas war against the German side. Willie met his end there, aged just 23, and his brother recorded the awful event in his trench diary on the day it happened. Over 100 years later, their story is told in a new book by Graham Johnston. The book is the first of four about Shetland’s war being published by Shetland Library in partnership with the Shetland Museum and Archives. The project is funded by the Scottish Government’s Public Library Improvement Fund and has encouraged local researchers and authors to bring their work on Shetland’s war to publication.

Graham Johnston has been doing a huge amount of research on the War, and the story of the Abernethy brothers was one that caught his attention because not much has been written about the British side in the gas war. The story of the brothers was also very interesting and poignant, particularly because of the existence of the original diary. In addition, Graham was able to consult with Charlie’s son, Charles Lindsay Abernethy, who visited Shetland with the original diary to meet Graham, and will speak at the book launch.

The other books due to be published in the coming months as part of this project are:
• Shetland Merchant Mariners in the Great War by J. Laughton Johnston;
• That Grim Red Dawn – Shetland’s sacrifice at the Ancre by Jon Sandison
• And Darkness Fell, a novel by Christian S. Tait

1 September 2018 - an illustrated talk on Dr Elsie Inglis (1864-1917)

Surgeon, suffragist and founder of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals
By the Rev. Hugh Maddox, with Marsali Taylor

The Darkest Day: talk on Shetland's losses at the Ancre on 13/11/1916 by Jon Sandison + screening of Private Andrew Williamson by JJ Jamieson. 13 November, 2017, Shetland Museum and Archive.