This is a thanksgiving tribute to Sir William Wallace and King Robert the Bruce, as well as to one family - Richardson of Lochmaben in Annandale - who served both men loyally and of whom I am proud, as a Henderson to be blood kin.

A prime objective of both Wallace and Bruce in the late 13th and early 14th Century was to unite all Scots in order to drive out the invading English from their homeland. Key battles won by the Scots took place between the Abbey Craig and Stirling Bridge in 1297 and between the River Forth and Bannockburn in 1314.

I feel today as much a part of the efforts that sought unity as I associate myself with the battle sites. Why?

My paternal Henderson 17th century roots lie, not only in Fife, but also with Kerr in the Lothians, and, perhaps most significantly, with Richardson in Annandale. I was born under the shadow of the Wallace Monument. I spent my childhood just west of Coxithill in Cambusbarron. I matured as a teenager in Bannockburn. The ten children of my Great Grandparents, Kerr and Richardson were born and raised at Old Polmaise between 1880 and 1895 on a part of the swampy site of the massacre of the English in 1314 where the Pelstream and Bannock Burns flow down to the Forth.

Thus in awe at my legacy, I pay tribute :-

Proud to be Scottish,

John

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