Project Heritage
Please support our campaign to restore the SVR Memorial at Eastern Cemetery
Thank you for your kind interest in PROJECT HERITAGE: Scottish Veterans Residences’ 2025 campaign - launching in April 2025 - to restore the monument and memorial to former soldiers and sailors, situated in Edinburgh’s historic Eastern Cemetery, near Easter Road.
The memorial honours and remembers many of the first Veterans to have lived in Whitefoord House, Edinburgh, from SVR’s creation in 1910, through to 1948, when the charity started to enter names of comrades who had passed away in a Memorial Book rather than inscribing their names on the plaques as it had done during those early years. The sight of funeral processions leaving Whitefoord House in the Canongate for Eastern Cemetery was a common one back then, as men who had served in a variety of Regiments, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, were buried with military honours.
The imposing SVR memorial, which is 7 metres wide and stands 2m high, is a prominent feature of the cemetery, but sadly, in recent years the stonework, plaques and foundations have fallen into a state of disrepair, and the memorial is in urgent need of some TLC.
Enlisting the help of conservation experts, stonemasons and other specialists, we as a charity are now committed to restoring the memorial to its former glory, so people can come and continue to pay their respects to these brave men who served their country and lived out their final years as respected Veterans at Whitefoord House.
We expect overall project costs to amount to at least £40,000 and we would welcome any donation, big or small, to help us reach our goal. Simply click the DONATE icon above and follow the instructions. If we surpass this target, we pledge to ring-fence any additional money raised for Heritage projects, including Phase 2 of Project Heritage in 2026: focusing on the burial ground of Veterans from our Rosendael residence in Broughty Ferry, Dundee.
For more information, or if you can help in any way, please contact our Head of External Relations, Colin Leslie
colin@svronline.org
