A Black Watch hero’s medals have been safeguarded for future generations after they were snapped up by military museum chiefs.
Corporal Corrie Garrow, from Crieff, served in Kosovo and Iraq before being seriously injured in Afghanistan in 2008.
Now, the Museum of the Royal Regiment of Scotland at Edinburgh Castle has revealed that they bought his medals from a UK auction house in what they called an “important and exciting acquisition”.
A statement from the museum said: “This medal group was an important and exciting acquisition for the museum as it’s the first medal group awarded to a member of The Royal Regiment of Scotland to be acquired by the museum.
“It is fitting that these medals are the first to enter the collection because not only are they a fine campaign group in their own right but they also represent the typical antecedent service of the majority of soldiers who formed the backbone of the Royal Regiment of Scotland when it was first established.
“It is our intention to put this medal group on display in the museum once we re-open to the general public later this year.
“We would like to thank Corrie Garrow for providing us with additional information about his service and look forward to welcoming him to the museum at some point in the future to view his medal group on display.”
The medals were purchased last year during the height of the pandemic but museum bosses delayed the announcement until staff were back at the venue in Edinburgh Castle.
Wounded in action
Corrie joined the Army on February 25, 1999 and served with the Black Watch in Kosovo in 2001.
He was later posted to Iraq for the opening stages of the conflict where his regiment helped take Basra.
Corrie was injured during this operational tour, falling about 7ft from a Warrior fighting vehicle which resulted in him losing consciousness and breaking his right cheek bone.
He experienced further active service in Afghanistan with the Royal Regiment of Scotland deploying immediately after Christmas 2007 as a member of B Company 4 SCOTS, the Highlanders.
Corrie was wounded in action in April 2008.
An Army medical report said: “Having been involved in several contacts, he sustained frag injuries to the face, neck and chest when an rocket propelled grenade (RPG) detonated on the side of the Warrior he was providing top cover for.
“There was no retrograde amnesia and he tells me he did not lose consciousness.
“He tells me his colleagues pulled him down through the turret and he remembers continuing fire impacting on the side of the vehicle, but doesn’t remember the journey to the regimental aid post but does remember the subsequent Chinook flight to Bastion.”
Corrie immediately had a shrapnel fragment removed from his left eye before being transferred to the UK for further treatment.
Sadly, the injuries suffered by Corporal Garrow prematurely ended his military career and he left the Army in 2009.
Scotland’s Forgotten War
Scotland’s Forgotten War is an in-depth investigation into one of the country’s longest running conflicts – the campaign in Afghanistan – and how it forever changed our local families and communities.
From Dundee, Angus and Fife to Aberdeen, Inverness and the Highlands, the combat thousands of miles away in Afghanistan has cast a long shadow over people’s lives in the last 20 years.
The Impact team
- Words by Stephen Stewart
- Design by Cheryl Livingstone
- Graphics by Roddie Reid
- Data visualisations by Lesley-Anne Kelly
- Photographs, video and audio by Jason Hedges, Mhairi Edwards, Drew Farrell, Blair Dingwall and Morven McIntyre.