We are a new Study Centre being established at Kelso Library, the centrepiece of which is a collection of books called “The Russell Cawthorn Collection” with the theme:
“The Great War and its Global Consequences”
The Collection spent the years 2010 to 2021 at St. Andrews University Library as a dedicated research collection under the auspices of the Scottish Charity No. SC040789, originally called "The 1926 Foundation" but which has very recently changed its name to "The Russell Cawthorn Collection". In late 2024, the Collection relocated and is now housed at Kelso Library in the Scottish Borders, where it was formally opened by His Grace The Duke of Roxburghe (who has graciously agreed to become the Patron of our project) and supported by Professor Sir Hew Strachan, for many years the Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford, and latterly the Wardlaw Professor of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews, who has been a great supporter of the whole project for many years.
The Collection is organised primarily by historical categories. Within each major area, material is subdivided chronologically and thematically, enabling structured research across campaigns, theatres, and specialist subjects.
Each volume record includes full bibliographic details, including title, author, publisher, year of publication, ISBN (where applicable), acquisition details, and, in most cases, a short review.
The Collection is dynamic and constantly growing. It currently contains ? volumes by authors across ? categories. St. Andrews University Library themselves conducted a survey in 2016, when we were considerably smaller, which proved that our presence had made St. Andrews the premier academic resource, save for the usual statutory repositories, in Scotland, and one of the five principal collections in the U.K.
Our mission is to make this resource available to anyone who is interested, especially people in the Borders, and particularly the schools in the area. But we will also use social media to advertise our resource worldwide.