Castlehill, Edinburgh, EH1 2NG

During the war, a military hospital was established at Edinburgh Castle which was mainly used for prisoners of war who required treatment. In 1939, Luftwaffe pilots shot down over the Firth of Forth were brought up to the castle and treated in the hospital. Norman MacCaig, one of Scotland’s most important 20^th century poets, was briefly imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle after refusing military service, before being sent to join the Non-Combatant Corps. Other Scots who were imprisoned for refusing conscription included Douglas Young, chair of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 1942-45, who spent time in 1942 in Saughton Prison in western Edinburgh. As a dual national, the Italian Scottish artist, Alberto Morrocco, serving with the 51^st Highland Division, was based at Edinburgh Castle where he was employed making false wounds for training exercises. In 1944 he painted a portrait of the Commander-in-Chief of the Castle.

Sources: ‘Edinburgh Castle’, The Scotsman, 21 February 1946, p.6, https://www.edinburghcastle.scot/the-castle/history, Richard Finlay, Independent and Free. Scottish Politics and the Origins of the Scottish National Party 1918-1945 (1994), Victoria Keller and Clara Young, Alberto Morrocco (1993), p. 42.

Additional links:

• https://www.snwm.org/
• https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/PORTRAIT-OF-THE-COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF-OF-ED/397ED316D13AC480
• https://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-092-946-C&scache=2nfi091lzi&searchdb=scran&PHPSESSID=s7t57mpcg1pu1p5uoa94ha75i1