THE Prince of Wales is to pay tribute to members of a rural community who died in the First World War.
Charles will attend a service at a memorial cairn in the Huntly area of Aberdeenshire today. He will lay a wreath during the visit to the Cabrach cairn at Lower Cabrach that was built by members of the community association to commemorate the local lives lost in the war from 1914 to 1918.
During the visit the prince is expected to meet the descendants of those who died after going off to battle.
While no accurate record exists of the exact number of local lives lost, the Imperial War Museum suggests that when combined with the neighbouring parishes of Rhynie, Lumsden and Dufftown, the figure could stretch into several hundred.
Many of the men from these parishes would have joined the 5th and 6th Battalions, The Gordon Highlanders.
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The loss of so many people from the rural area, previously home to a number of crofts and small farms, resulted in a significant drop in the local population.
In addition to those who lost their lives in battle it is thought that many more succumbed to illnesses, having spent most of their lives in the remote farming community with little resistance to disease.