Mapping the stories of Scotland’s great Highland regiment.
The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise’s) Regiment was created under the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders (raised 1794) and 93rd Sutherland Highlanders (raised 1799) but traces its history back to the raising of the Stirlingshire Militia in 1639.
The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum is located at Stirling Castle, which was the home of the regiment from 1974 to 2006 and has an array of artifacts and a substantial archive. Although it is based in the Central Belt, former CEO Harvey Carruthers observes “because we’re based in an ancient monument, we’re not accessible to everybody and we have a huge diaspora of soldiers and former soldiers’ families as far and wide as Canada, Pakistan, Australia, people who have connections to the Argylls, but can’t necessarily get to us.”
“They all leave a footprint, so it’d be lovely to tie up those connections.” – Harvey Carruthers
So Harvey reached out to the Scottish Tech Army to create an interactive global map of the world showing where Argylls soldiers came from and to record some of their achievements, in a format that can be added to and searched by the public. Harvey noted that the ambition was that in time people could include their own stories and populate the map so that “family members and researchers can build a better picture of what the Argylls have achieved”.
Teamwork makes the dream work
The STA began work in November 2022 and the original team comprised: Maria Ten and Sam Hodgkinson (Frontend Developers), Alan Wong (Backend Developer), Naomi Penfold (Data Analyst), Maggie Dziezyc, Dougie Richardson and Colin Tweedie. During the course of the development there was a change of CEO at the Museum and so the final project was delivered to new CEO Islay Carmichael by STA Scrum Masters David Stelzer and Alex O’Connor, Amber Barker (Product Owner) and Brad Leadbetter (Developer).
Alex tells us: “We needed to develop a product that would meet the expectations of the museum, while determining what a user of the site would be searching for. The goal was to create a product that effectively catered to a diverse audience, ranging from casual visitors with a passing interest to serious researchers seeking in-depth information.”
An Agile solution to managing ancient records
The approach was inspired by Agile Values, experimenting with Scrum practices of collaboration, transparency, self-management and continuous improvement. The team analysed the museum’s data of 30,000 records to find commonality on which to base the search function of the map: surname, rank and date of birth. Only 6,000 records had the minimum data, so those formed the database for the initial development of the map.
The future of the interactive map
Alex reflects: “The museum is at the point where they want to keep interacting with patrons and relatives of anyone who served and go on a drive to acquire more data for the soldiers…to enhance the archive with information, photos and anecdotes to create a place to give back to the soldiers who gave to us.”
He continues: “Now that the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum has the tool, it has been receiving a large volume of interest from its global community and local history society groups, which have been researching those Argylls who served and are wanting to share the service data, which will be added to the map. They also plan to install an interactive Regimental service map terminal (touch screen) in its Affiliations Gallery.”
For the Museum itself there’s a rich opportunity to fill in the data gaps and ultimately include all 30,000 Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders soldiers, a fitting tribute to their service for Scotland.
About the Scottish Tech Army:
The Scottish Tech Army was founded in April 2020 by Edinburgh-based entrepreneurs, Alistair Forbes and Peter Jaco, to help charities and other organisations dealing with the massive impacts of Covid-19 on the economy and society. It is a volunteer-based not-for-profit community that provides impactful digital solutions to support a wide range of civil society organisations delivering social benefit. Its enduring mission is to mobilise the UK’s tech talent for good and to aggregate, amplify and augment the tech for good ecosystem in Scotland.
About the charity:
Museum – The Argyll Sutherland Highlanders Museum
Situated within Stirling Castle, the spiritual home of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment, the museum brings history to life through themed stories about Scottish history, culture, and pageantry.
Written by: Nicola Clark-Tonberg
