Cellardyke in WW1
At the outbreak of the First World War the population of Cellardyke was nearly 3000, double that of Anstruther. As might be expected fishing dominated economic and social life. Of the of the 64 steam drifters in the East Fife district, 37 were manned by Cellardyke crews. When war broke out this all changed. Fishing was severely restricted; businesses closed.
The local drifters were requisitioned by the Admiralty for minesweeping or anti submarine patrol duties. (One of these, the Craignoon, was sunk in the Adriatic.) And the men went with them. From Cellardyke over 100 fishermen had joined up by October 1914. Over two thirds of Scotland’s fishermen served in the war.
Many did not come back of course.
On the Cellardyke war memorial there are 62 names of which 22 are on the navy panel – some 35 % of the Cellardyke men who died 1914-1919. Yet across the UK as a whole naval casualties accounted for fewer than 5% of deaths. So our experience is quite different from that of most communities.
Very few fishermen joined the Army. The many Cellardyke men who did so worked in ancillary occupations like the local oilskin factories, cooperages, or roperies. Others who died in army ranks, worked in Anstruther, like the young apprentice plumbers and printers were killed. There were students away at university and men who had emigrated, leaving their parents behind to mourn their loss in Australian and Canadian ranks.