McCabe’s Spruce is a 100-year-old Scottish spruce that started life as a tiny sapling in the muddy carnage of Passchendaele. Lt McCabe sent the saplings home to his father in an ammunition box along with a letter which read: “Owing to the amount of shell, rifle and machine gun fire which the place has been subject to, practically nothing is alive which is any taller than the trees I sent … some of the fiercest fighting of the war having taken place in their vicinity.”
Lt McCabe died from his wounds in 1917, and was never able to see the tree grow into maturity, which now stands as a permanent memorial at Crieff’s Abercairny Estate.
His tree has now fully matured and is in contention to be named Europe’s finest tree.
Artist’s Response
For my print dedicated to Lt McCabe’s Spruce, I further researched the battles of Passchendaele. I was very moved by the story of a tiny spruce tree being dug out of the carnage of no-man’s land and protected in an ammunition box. It utterly amazes me that it made it all the way to Crieff where it still stands today 100 years on.
Alice Prentice
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design
Website: aliceprentice.myportfolio.com/work
Instagram: @aprentice_illustration
Originally from the Black Isle, Alice is currently in her third year of studying Illustration at DJCAD. During her time at DJCAD she’s become an avid printmaker and especially enjoys the processes of screen-printing and risograph.
For her final year, she plans to further explore printmaking and push the boundaries of these processes. Alice was particularly interested in the project for the historical and cultural nature of the brief. She thinks it’s important to learn more about our national history and how the First World War affected the lives of people in Scotland.
