An assemblage of hanging baskets gave me a warm welcome to the Royal Borough of Stirling as I stepped from a train onto the platform. I was a National Serviceman with the Royal Army Medical Corps, it was 1958, and I had been posted to the Medical Reception Station which is known as the Argyll’s Lodging. It was to change my life completely from the mining community of St. Helens where I was born.

Sweaty and out of breath my first Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders casualty was waiting for me in a WW11 ambulance, needing to be taken to our military hospital at Cowglen. Over the next 18 months I came to admire and respect the A&SH gallantry and history. They have taken part in conflicts from their inception in 1794 to the present in Afghanistan.

Little did I realise that 50 years later I would step back over the moat of Stirling Castle when I joined the Stirling Castle Writing Group. You are breathing in a lungful of history as soon as you step into the Guards Square. Destiny has drawn me back to this mythical, magical lodgings of security. I’m part of its history. A legacy is my military service in the story of Stirling Castle, which has been recorded on the Your Past Their Future video for posterity.

Walk on the lawn of the Royal Gardens and you are walking in the footsteps of royalty. This is where I belong: This is My Stirling Castle.

Jim Statter

This week’s contribution comes from Jim Statter, who was a National Serviceman when he first came to the castle. We would love to hear other people’s memories of the castle and have created a new area on our website My Stirling Castle. To submit your memories to the website and also be entered into a competition please read on.