Visit any Borders town, village or hamlet and there will be a memorial bearing the names of men killed in what is known as the Great War.
This summer, this region will join the rest of Scotland and the UK to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of a devastating conflict that left much of Europe in ruins and paved the way for social upheaval and revolution.
Nationwide plans have also been drawn up for the next four years to also mark the 100th anniversaries of the famous battles and other events as they occurred during the 1914-18 war, which cost the lives of an estimated 100,000 Scottish soldiers.
With a proud tradition of military service, the Borders was particularly hard hit by the First World War, with the columns of The Southern gradually carrying increasingly-long casualty lists.
Regiments such as the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, and another famous Scottish regiment, the Royal Scots, recruited heavily from the Borders. The Royal Scots alone fielded 35 battalions throughout the First World War and lost 12,000 men.
The fallen were known as “the Lost Generation” and there was scarcely a street in Galashiels, Hawick, Selkirk and elsewhere in the larger Borders towns in which a local family did not lose a loved one.
By the war’s end, more than 9,000,000 combatants were dead – a casualty rate exacerbated by rapidly-developing technological and industrial sophistication, and tactical stalemate.
As part of the commemorations, The Southern is launching its own special coverage of events, both national and local.
As well as running regular features on aspects of the war, including how local regiments such as the KOSB fared through the years of the conflict, we are appealing to readers to join with us to help make the commemorations more poignant.
We want readers to send in their own stories of how their families’ lives were affected by the Great War - stories of loved ones who were killed and wounded, accounts of those who survived life in the trenches, on the high seas and in the air, and stories of how the families left at home coped with the inevitable hardships of living in a nation at war.
To this end we will be running a series of joint projects with Scottish Borders Council Museum & Libraries Service, details of which will be announced later in the summer.
Local schools are also welcome to get involved with reports of any projects with a First World War theme.
And any Borders communities planning anniversary events or war memorial projects can also get coverage of these in the pages of The Southern.
Each week, The Southern will give our readers an idea of what everyday life was like in the area 100 years ago, building up to the outbreak of war and afterwards. The Southern’s editor, Susan Windram, explained: “As The Southern begins its commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War and all those who fought and died in it, we will be looking back at how The Southern covered the conflict at the time, but more importantly we would love you to share your family memories, old photographs or letters, connected to the Great War; helping us remember and pay tribute to the many Borderers who lost their lives or loved ones to ensure the freedoms we enjoy today.”