The Tocher Family

It is said that every family lost someone in World War One. Sadly, too many lost more than one family member. One such family was the Tocher family from Aberdeen. Peter and Elspeth Tocher had five sons, Peter, George, James, John and Robert. All served in the Gordon Highlanders and all of them died.

Cpl George Tocher was the first to perish. He was injured while fighting near Ypres in May 1915 and died of his wounds. He is buried in La Clytte Military Cemetery. . Three of the brothers died at the Battle of the Somme. James and John Tocher died in July 1916 within two weeks of each other but their bodies were never found. They are remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. Robert Tocher died in November, and was buried in Forceville Communal Cemetery in France.

Peter Tocher was captured by the enemy in 1914, and spent most of the war in a German PoW camp. However, he contracted tuberculosis in the camp due to poor conditions and, although he returned home after the war, he died in October 1923. As his death came after the war, he was not entitled to a Commonwealth War Grave and was buried in a pauper’s grave in Trinity Cemetery in Aberdeen.

Artist’s Response
I chose to research the Tocher family, who experienced devastating loss during WW1. I was initially drawn to their story because they lived in Rosemount, a place in which I have lived for several years in Aberdeen.

On reading about their tragic and poignant history, I was moved and felt compelled to find a way to commemorate the Tocher boys. George, Robert, John, James and Peter were brothers who fought and perished as a result of WW1. Robert, John and James perished at the Somme and George was killed at the Battle of Menin Road. However, Peter died in 1923, in Scotland, after contracting tuberculosis. Peter had spent some years in a prisoner of war camp after his capture at La Cateau. As Peter’s death was later than the official end of WW1, he was not commemorated with a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone, unlike his brothers. In 2014, a memorial headstone was erected in Aberdeen’s Trinity Cemetery to commemorate the Tocher boys.

My print is a continuation of this commemoration and is specially dedicated to Peter Tocher. My print depicts the Aberdeen War Memorial. The emblem which appears on the Commonwealth War Grave is illuminated in the print.

Naimh Coutts
Gray’s School of Art
Robert Gordon’s University

Niamh is currently concluding her fourth year at Gray’s School of Art. After secondary school and a portfolio preparation course at Dundee and Angus College, Niamh moved to Aberdeen to study Contemporary Art Practice, specialising in printmaking and metal
work.

Within Niamh’s artistic practice, she analyses how human processes and perspectives have allowed us to manage and manipulate the environment. She is particularly interested in man-made structures and how they interact with an environment. The sentiment and meaning interwoven into these structures are pertinent to her practice. Primarily, Niamh use screen-printing, employing pointillism to create detailed and decorative illustrations.