Scotland's Post-WW1 Land Grab Raids.

Learn something new every day.
"One hundred years ago a landmark piece of legislation was introduced in response to land raids by frustrated and disillusioned soldiers and sailors after World War One.
When the war ended, many soldiers and sailors from the Highlands and Islands returned home believing they had been promised land as a reward for their service on the frontline.
They had expected to use the land to build homes, grow crops and raise livestock to feed their families.
But when they found this was not available to them as promised, they carried out raids to take control of areas of large estates.
Gress in the Isle of Lewis was the scene of one of these land raids 100 years ago.
Islander Donald Graham's grandfather was among the leading raiders. They were not armed with weapons but potatoes which they planted on property belonging to landowner Lord Leverhulme.
"I feel proud of my grandfather," Mr Graham said.
"I can feel the strength of character and the force of will to do what they did, it shows a very brave man.
"It wasn't an easy thing back in those days to challenge authority. They did and you can see the outcome today of what they went through and what they did."
Dr Iain Robertson, of the University of the Highlands and Islands' Centre for History, said there were similar land protests from Highland Perthshire up to the north of Scotland and out to the Western Isles.
"Folks had been away between 1914 and 1918. They had made the ultimate sacrifice and then came back to find their families in exactly the same social and economic conditions that they had left them four years previously," he said.
"Prime Minister David Lloyd George had allegedly promised them four acres and a cow to create a land fit for heroes."
Next week, the University of the Highlands and Islands will hold a conference to mark the passing of the 1919 Land Settlement (Scotland) Act."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49741339

 

Familiar with the US bonus march post WW I, but this is new to me as well.

 

"Prime Minister David Lloyd George had allegedly promised them four acres and a cow to create a land fit for heroes."

This sounds like the "40 acres and a mule" promise of the American Civil War. Nobody in the government (with any authority to do so) ever made this promise to slaves or veterans, but we still hear echoes of it today. It makes me wonder how such delusions get started.

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Especially without Facebook & Twitter.

 

Could have been an echo of the "three acres and a cow" slogan used by British land reformers in the 1880s, and planted in eager minds by agitators-
Three acres and a cow - Wikipedia

 

That would be some years after the "40 acres and a mule" delusion. I *believe* the "40 acres and a mule" thing started among veterans of the Civil War in 1865, and then spread as a belief among freed slaves. In fact, nobody promised anyone any such thing. The end of the war did coincide with the great western migration and so there really was land for anyone tough enough to go west and claim it, if you didn't mind disputing that claim with the local Indian tribe.
At any rate I still hear this today, usually among the 'reparations' crowd who claim it is a broken promise to slaves, then used to justify reparations.

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