OVER the past few weeks, the photographs featured in our weekly trip down West Fife's Memory Lane have focused on life in Dunfermline during the Second World War and the ways in which people faced up to the disruption in their daily lives.

This week, we delve even further back into the town's history to the time of the First World War, which took place between 1914 and 1918.

The first photograph is a carefree image of children playing in Pittencrieff Park on Friday, June 26, 1914, at the annual Children's Gala just two days before an assassin gunned down the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, of Austria, triggering a chain of events that led to the outbreak of what would later be referred to as 'The Great War'.

The next photograph is of soldiers marching through Crossgates and provides a vivid picture of just how many men responded to the call for volunteers to fight in the conflict, with many of those who signed up fated never to return to their homeland.

One soldier who did return, and with a Victoria Cross (the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system) in recognition of his achievements, was Corporal David Hunter, of 35 Forth Street in Dunfermline. He can be seen on the left of the next photograph with a gun crew of local soldiers, including Sergeant Rafferty, of Kelty; Edward Brown, of Halbeath; and Gunners Watson and Farrell, of Dunfermline.

With six men of the 1/5th Batallion the Highland Light Infantry, he held out in a machine gun post for 48 hours on September 16-17, 1918, at Moeuvres in France under heavy attack from German bombardment and also from 'friendly fire' from his own side, with hardly any food or water.

A French war correspondent, Jean Vignaud, gave a later account in an interview of how unassuming and modest he had found Corporal Hunter to be: "I guessed that this little miner from Fife, his gas mask slung across his shoulder, his khaki Balmoral across one side of his face, round and ruddy, with piercing clear eyes, heartily wished us to question others. Just at this moment, Scottish bagpipes were heard playing some native dances which, for an instant, deadened the noise of the cannon, and it seemed this music celebrated the courage of this little unknown soldier, of this humble miner from Fife."

At the outbreak of the war, practically not a single part of the dockyard at Rosyth was capable of immediate use by ships. However, work was accelerated by the Admiralty and, with additional inducements and agreements, contractors completed the excavation of the main basin and the yard went on to play a significant role in the later stages of the war.

The final photograph shows a service and ceremony which took place in No 3 Graving Dock on July 8, 1915. From March 1916 until Armistice Day on November 11, 1918, there were docked and refitted at Rosyth 78 capital ships – dreadnoughts, super-dreadnoughts and battle cruisers – 82 light cruisers and 37 small craft.

More photographs like these can also be seen at facebook.com/olddunfermline as well as in Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries, where 'Old Dunfermline' DVDs will be on sale in the shop when it reopens to the public, and also at facebook.com/olddunfermline.