What is recorded here
Campbeltown War Memorial is a ten-metre granite tower designed by Alexander Nisbet Paterson after a public competition. A dispute over its position drew a petition with 2,000 signatures, but the committee kept the Kinloch Park site. The Duke of Argyll unveiled it in 1923, and its panels now name 480 military and civilian dead from two world wars.
Why it was made
Campbeltown town and parish raised the tower to name 349 people killed in the First World War and to place their loss beside the loch in a permanent public setting.
People and events
Alexander Nisbet Paterson won the design competition, and the Duke of Argyll unveiled the finished memorial on 21 October 1923 before the Reverend Donald Davidson dedicated it.
How it worked
A rough grey-granite tower carries pale crosses, smooth name tablets and the Gaelic promise that their fame will endure, joining individual names to one strong landmark.
What remains
The complete ten-metre tower survives at Kinloch Park after restoration in 2012, with added tablets for 125 military and six civilian deaths in the Second World War.
Why it mattered
The argument over the site, settled by a committee vote of seventeen to four despite a 2,000-name petition, shows how strongly the town cared about where remembrance belonged.
Sources for this account
- OpenStreetMap contributors, saved Campbeltown War Memorial record
- Imperial War Museums, Campbeltown Town and Parish memorial
- Dictionary of Scottish Architects, Campbeltown War Memorial
Sources checked 16 August 2026.
From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) n671502561
Places near here
Photo credits
- Mary and Angus Hogg, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Leslie Barrie, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Derek Tootill, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Maker not stated on source page, commons.wikimedia.org
- Rose and Trev Clough, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Stephen Sweeney, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Leo, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
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