Grierson's take on the Cardwell Army Reforms

Earlier this year we posted an article about the Childers Army Reforms of 1881. In it we mentioned the 1873 Cardwell Reforms. 

Whilst pouring over a copy of the magnificent "Records of the Scottish Volunteer Force" By General James Grierson I noticed he had covered the subject too. It was the first time the Volunteers and regulars were linked together, so he had included it in his magnum opus. The Localisation of Depots was an important step in the reform of the British Army but is often overshadowed by the Childers Reforms eight years later.

Poor General Grierson died on his way to the front in August 1914, but his work on the Scottish Volunteers from 1859-1908 is still the definitive work on the subject over one hundred years after it was published. He sums it all up beautifully so I will use his words on the reforms:

1873 Reforms

In the year 1873 a most important step was taken in the organisation of the volunteer force, which was the beginning of their closer association Territorial organisation with the regular forces and the militia. 

By General Regulations and Instructions of July 24, 1873, there were brought into force the recommendations of the Localisation Committee of 1872. The United Kingdom was divided into seventy infantry sub-districts, each consisting of a certain area, to each of which were assigned for recruiting purposes, as a normal rule, two line battalions, two militia battalions, and the volunteers of the area. Of the line battalions, one was nominally to be stationed abroad, the other (which fed the foreign battalion in peace) at home, and two companies of each were to be permanently quartered at sub-district headquarters to form the brigade depot. The depot, the militia and volunteer battalions, and the army reserve men were constituted the "sub-district brigade," and were placed under the orders of the lieutenant-colonel commanding the sub-district brigade depot, who was charged with the training and inspection of all the infantry of the auxiliary forces.

In the North British District (as the Scottish Command was then termed) the infantry sub-districts were as follows :—

No. 55.— Counties of Orkney and Shetland, Sutherland, Caithness, Ross and Cromarty, Inverness, Nairn, and Elgin.
Depot at Fort George.
Regular Battalions—71st and 78th Foot.
Militia  -  Highland Light Infantry and Highland Rifles.
Volunteers—1st Administrative Battalion. Ross-shire, 1st Administrative Battalion. Inverness-shire, 1st Administrative Battalion. Sutherland, and 1st Administrative Battalion. Elginshire.



No. 56.—Counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kincardine.
Depot at Aberdeen.
Regular Battalions—92nd and 93rd Foot.
Militia  - Royal Aberdeen (2nd battalion not yet formed).
Volunteers—1st Aberdeen Rifle Volunteers, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Administrative Battalions. Aberdeenshire, 1st Administrative Battalion. Kincardineshire, and 1st Administrative Battalion. Banffshire.



No. 57.— Counties of Forfar, Perth and Fife.
Depot at Perth.
Regular Battalions—42nd and 79th Foot.
Militia  - Royal Perth (2nd battalion not yet formed).
Volunteers—1st Forfar Rifle Volunteers, 1st Administrative Battalion. Forfarshire, 10th Forfar
Rifle Volunteers, 1st and 2nd Administrative Battalions. Perthshire, and 1st Administrative Battalion. Fife.



No. 58.—Counties of Renfrew, Bute, Stirling, Dumbarton, Argyll, Kinross, and Clackmannan.
Depot at Stirling.
Regular Battalions—72nd and 91st Foot.
Militia  - Highland Borderers L.I., and Royal Renfrew.
Volunteers—1st, 2nd, and 3rd Administrative Battalions. Renfrewshire, 1st Administrative Battalion. Stirlingshire, 1st Administrative Battalion. Argyllshire, 1st Administrative Battalion. Dumbartonshire, and 1st Administrative Battalion.. Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire.



No. 59.—County of Lanark.
Depot at Hamilton.
Regular Battalions—26th and 74th Foot.
Militia  - 1st Royal Lanark (two battalions).
Volunteers—1st, 3rd, 4th, 16th, and 29th Lanark Rifle Volunteers.


No. 60.—County of Lanark.
Depot at Hamilton.
Regular Battalions—73rd and 90th Foot.
Militia  - 2nd Royal Lanark (two battalions).
Volunteers—19th, 25th, 31st, and 105th Lanark Rifle Volunteers, and
3rd Administrative Battalion. Lanarkshire.


No. 61.—Counties of Ayr, Wigtown, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries, Selkirk, and Roxburgh.
Depot at Ayr.
Regular Battalions—21st Foot (two battalions).
Militia  - Scottish Borderers, and Royal Ayr and Wigtown.
Volunteers—1st Administrative Battalion. Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire, 1st and 2^nd Administrative Battalions. Ayrshire, 1st Administrative Battalion. Dumfries-shire, and 1st Administrative Battalion. Galloway.


No. 62.—Counties of Edinburgh, Peebles, Haddington, Berwick, and Linlithgow.
Depot at Glencorse.
Regular Battalions—1st Foot (two battalions).
Militia - Edinburgh L.I. (2nd battalion not yet formed).
Volunteers—1st and 3rd Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers, 1st Mid-Lothian Rifle Volunteers, 1st Administrative Battalion. Mid-Lothian, 1st Administrative Battalion. Berwickshire, 1st Administrative Battalion. Haddingtonshire, 1st Administrative Battalion. Linlithgowshire.

For the command and training of the auxiliary artillery, artillery sub-districts were similarly formed, of which there were two in Scotland, each in charge of a lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Artillery, who commanded and inspected the corps of militia and volunteer artillery and the army reserve of the artillery in his sub -district. The 1st North British Sub-district, headquarters at Edinburgh, comprised the counties of Argyll, Ayr, Berwick, Bute, Clackmannan, Dumbarton, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Fife, Haddington, Kinross, Kirkcudbright, Lanark, Linlithgow, Mid-Lothian, Peebles, Renfrew, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Stirling, and Wigtown, and the 2nd, headquarters at Aberdeen, the rest (North) of Scotland.

The mounted volunteers of Scotland were placed for command and inspection under the lieutenant-colonel and inspecting officer of the 1st Cavalry District for Auxiliary Forces, headquarters at York, and the engineer volunteers were kept under the direct command of the Commanding Royal Engineer, North British District. Thus the volunteers were for the first time brought into close organic connection with the other branches of the forces of the Crown, and in this same year a beginning was made with a scheme of mobilisation which, it must be confessed, existed at first only on paper, according to which definite duties in the defence of the country were told off to the various corps on the coast, which were formed into "local brigades" for its watching and defence, or as "detachments from corps" for the garrisoning of the fortresses.

Fort George to mark links to Liverpool

We've mentioned the Fort George museum refurbishment before. More news now from the BBC News website.

Liverpool's military links to the Highlands are to be remembered in a new museum display.

The museum at Fort George, near Inverness, is being upgraded a cost of £3.2m. So far £2.5m has been raised.

A donation of £1,500 covers the cost of a display dedicated to the Liverpool Scottish, which was raised to fight in the Second Boer War in 1900.

In 1937, it became a territorial battalion of the Cameron Highlanders, based in Inverness.

The Highlands Museum is dedicated to the Cameron Highlanders, Seaforth Highlanders, Queen's Own Highlanders and their affiliated regiments.

The Liverpool Scottish, whose soldiers wore the Forbes tartan and saw action during World War I, later became part of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.

Money for the display was donated by the Liverpool Scottish Regimental Trustees.

When first raised, the regiment recruited mainly from Scots living in the city.

The revamped museum at Fort George, a 1700s artillery fort which remains a working barracks, is scheduled to open in 2012.

Actor Hugh Grant launched the public appeal to help raise funds for the project in November 2010.

His grandfather Col James Murray Grant, from Inverness, received the Distinguished Service Order for bravery during World War II.

The Seaforth Highlander was depot commander at Fort George after the war.

Grant's father Capt James Murray Grant also served with a Highlands regiment.
 
'Safe keeping'

Museum chairman, Maj Gen Seymour Monro, said he was thrilled by the Liverpool Scottish support.

Col Ian Paterson, president of the Liverpool Scottish Regimental Association, added: "The Liverpool Scottish was an important and valued member of the regimental family in the Highlands for the major part of the 20th Century.

"As such it is appropriate that we support this splendid museum at Fort George and that we place here notable items reflecting that great history for display and safe keeping."

Viscount Haldane - Who's Who in Scottish Military History

Today is the 155th anniversary of the birth of the politician Viscount Haldane. The Edinburgh born and bred MP came from a distinguished family of Perthshire soldiers and sailors, but he himself never served in the armed forces. He was a tubby intellectual once described as a speaking penguin. A Renaissance man not cut out for military life.

He is our Who’s Who in Scottish Military History today because in 1907 he was responsible for the Acts which transformed the British Army and prepared it for the First World War. His reforms also changed the Scottish Volunteer regiments into the Territorial Force. It was his reforms which led to the creation of two of Scotland’s most famous volunteer units; the Lowland Division and the Highland Division. They would achieve undying fame in two world wars as the 51st and 52nd Divisions and the name still lives on today in the 6th and 7th battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Richard Haldane was born in 1856 in Charlotte square in Edinburgh, just round the corner from where Douglas Haig was born in 1860. Coincidentally the two would work closely together in the Edwardian War Office when Haldane was Secretary of State for War and Haig was a general and the Director of Staff Duties.

I’ll not go into detail of the life of Haldane in the years before 1905 because this is about Haldane the army reformer, not Haldane the politician.

He was appointed Secretary of State for War, the minister responsible for the army, in December 1905. He had been aware of the short-comings of the army since the 2nd Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. The Empire had won but had been humiliated on many occasions by the mostly volunteer Boer army. Haldane knew he needed to shake up the demoralised army from top to bottom. As far back as 1901 he stated he wanted ‘a comparatively small Army - one extremely efficacious and capable for foreign service’, but not one able to ‘compete with the enormous armaments of Europe’. Four years later he was in a position to put his theory into practice.

Almost immediately he was forced to create the British Expeditionary Force. Secret negotiations between the British and French governments in January 1906 committed Britain to sending an army to France in the event of a European War. Haldane created a BEF of six infantry divisions and one cavalry division out of the regular army troops garrisoned in the UK. Each infantry battalion, artillery battery, medical corps ambulance and engineer squadron was allocated to a brigade and division; and would be ready for war within a matter of days.

He then wanted to improve training. This was when he first came into contact with General Douglas Haig who was working as Director of Staff Duties at the War Office at the time. With Haldane’s help in quashing objections from other generals, Haig produced two volumes of the Field Service Regulations. For the first time the army had one set of manuals which covered the training and organisation of all branches of the army, including front line and line of communications troops. When war came all units would now be singing from the same hymn sheet.

Haldane’s next major reform was the creation of the Territorial Force. Haldane saw that the rifle volunteers formed in the 1850s and 1860s to defend Britain against French invasion could be reorganised into brigades and divisions to defend Britain from an attack by Germany. They could also potentially be used overseas too if the men volunteered.

He used the old Yeomanry units as the cavalry for his fourteen new territorial divisions. He also changed the status of the Militia. It was now renamed the Special Reserve and would be the holding unit for the regular battalions of a regiment for reserve soldiers recalled to the colours in the event of war.

At the same time as converting Yeomanry, Militia and Volunteers into an integrated defence and training force for a modern war, he also introduced the Officer Training Corps to schools and universities to train future officers. This part of his reforms alone would guarantee a pool of trained young officers ready to fill the ranks of the rapidly expanded army in 1914.

His last major reform at the War Office was the creation of the General Staff, and shortly afterwards the Imperial General Staff. Once again he worked with Haig on this reform, and this would pay dividends in the later war years when Haig was commander-in-chief in France, and responsible for large contingents of troops from Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa.

The one thing he didn’t do was introduce conscription. He resisted calls for it and was a great believer in his territorial force and OTC in producing hostilities-only soldiers out of keen volunteers.

In 1910 Haldane left the War Office. Haig who had worked closely with Haldane over the previous three years later called him "the greatest Secretary of State for War England has ever had". Haldane was hoping to go to the Admiralty and start his reforms there. His father had been in the Royal Navy and whilst in the cabinet Haldane had seen how unprepared the Navy was for a modern war against a European power. The job went to Churchill instead. It is now one of history’s what-ifs. What if Haldane had reformed the navy as successfully as he had the army?

Haldane had always had many German friends and spoke German fluently. Before 1914 he worked hard to keep the peace but one man could not stop the momentum building up in Europe for war. On the outbreak of war the prime minister called him back to mobilise the army. No-one knew what was needed better then Haldane. Asquith offered him his old job back at the War Office but Haldane turned it down and suggested an experienced soldier like Kitchener instead. Once again we have another what-if. Kitchener dismissed some of Haldane’s carefully prepared mobilisation plans. He reduced the BEF from six divisions to four and ignored the Territorial Force as reinforcements and instead called for his volunteer army to be raised. What if Haldane had been in charge? How would he have created an army of seventy divisions to fight a war against the most powerful army in Europe?

In August 1914 Haldane’s reforms were put to the test and they more than stood up to them. Crucially for the first time in a major war the British regular army knew exactly what to do on the outbreak of war. The divisions moved to France within days and the contemptible little army gave the Kaiser’s army a bloody nose at Mons and Le Cateau. The Territorial Force quickly moved to their war stations and almost to a man volunteered for overseas service. By 1915 many TF units were in action in France and Gallipoli and held the line before Kitchener’s New Army units were ready for action.

Ironically the man who had done so much to reform the army and prepare it for war found he was sidelined during the war because of his supposed German sympathies. His former allies failed to support him against the hostile press and he was forced to resign as Lord Chancellor just at the time his Territorial Force was going to war.

He remained a committed parliamentarian for the rest of his life serving both Liberal and Labour parties. He didn’t forget his homeland though and he had spells as Lord Rector of Edinburgh University, Chancellor of the University of St Andrews and was made a Freeman of the City of Edinburgh.

This most unlikely of Scottish Military heroes died at his family home in Perthshire in August 1928 just a few months after his old colleague Douglas Haig. ‘The Scotsman’ reported that the local territorials including the 6th/7th Bn Black Watch T.A. lined the roads for his funeral service at Auchterarder. Local resident General Sir Ian Hamilton was in attendance and a Black Watch piper played The ‘Flowers of the Forest’ at his graveside in Gleneagles Cemetery.

Twenty years after he had shaken up the war office the army had not forgotten that Haldane was the man responsible for their ability to fight in 1914, and fourteen years later they gave him a fitting send-off.

Royal Scots return to Leith from Russia - On this day in Scottish Military History 1919

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 the guns stopped in France and Belgium. The Armistice with Germany signalled the end of the Great War and the end of four years of fighting.

For one Scottish unit it was a different story. On 11th November 1918 whilst the cease fire took place on the Western Front a Royal Scots battalion from Linlithgow was fighting a bitter battle against the Communist Bolsheviks in the snow of North Russia.

The reasons for British troops being in North Russia in 1918 go as far back as 1915 and the debacle at Gallipoli where so many Lothian men had died.

By 1915 Britain and France needed to help prop up their ally Russia. Russia was unprepared for war against an industrialised country like Germany and all sorts of arms and equipment were being shipped to Russian ports to support their war effort. With their victory at Gallipoli the Ottoman Turks controlled the Straits of Marmara which connected the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. That meant the Black Sea ports in Southern Russia were now out of reach to the British and French ships.

Instead the stores and supplies had to go up to the Arctic Circle to the port of Archangel and later to the British-built port at Murmansk. Throughout 1916 and 1917 the Allies landed thousands of tons of arms and equipment in the North Russian ports but poor transport links and mismanagement within Russia meant that huge stock of these stores were piling up at the docks and were not being shipped south to be used against the Germans and Austrians.

By late 1917 Russia was in turmoil. Revolutions in March and October 1917 left the Bolsheviks in nominal control of the country. They immediately sued for peace with Germany and then turned their attentions to defeating their enemies the ‘Whites’.

In Spring 1918 with the winter snow melting, the Bolsheviks started shipping the stockpiled British arms from Archangel south to fight the Whites. The British decided these arms and stores should be used by the Russian White Armies instead. With British and French backing it was thought the Whites could defeat the Bolsheviks and then start fighting the Germans again on the Eastern Front to ease the pressure on the Western Front. By late March the Royal Navy landed Royal Marines at Murmansk and the British started to put together an expeditionary force to be sent to Russia to advance on Archangel.

In late August 1918 as the war in France was reaching its climax the 2/10th Battalion Royal Scots, Territorial Force was approaching Archangel. The 2/10th Battalion had originally been raised in Linlithgow in September 1914. Its role had been to replace other first line Territorial units which had gone overseas. Up until 1918 it had only served in Scotland and Ireland. 935 of the fittest and able men had been drafted to other units on the Western Front and the men who served in the unit in 1918 were category B1, B2 and B3 – all considered unfit for active service. Every available man who could fight was already at the front fighting the Germans so when the task force being sent to Russia was being put together it was from home defence units serving on garrison duty in the UK.

The Royal Scots recruited up to their war strength of 1,000 men with drafts from other regiments and had sailed on the S.S. ‘City of Cairo’ from Newcastle on 17th August 1918. They arrived in Archangel on 25th August 1918 to a port caught up in a civil war, with troops and sailors from several nations based in and around it.

On the Allied side apart from the British were Canadians, Australians, French, French Colonials, Italians and Americans. There were also some Poles and Serbs who had been serving on the Eastern Front alongside the Imperial Russian Army. They all had their own reasons for joining the fight against the Bolsheviks and continuing the fighting on the Eastern Front against the Germans. (Elsewhere in Russia at the same time there were more British and French troops, as well as Belgian, Czech, Greek and Japanese troops; but they are not part of the 2/10th Battalion’s history).

Also fighting with the allies were local Russians recruited into an auxiliary regiment of the British Army (The North Russia Rifles) and there were also White Russian soldiers and sailors.

Against them were the Bolsheviks and just to add to the confusion the Finnish Army and their allies the Germans were also a potential threat to the Allies from the nearby Karelia Peninsula

By the time the Royal Scots arrived the Allies had been in North Russia for five months. They had captured the city of Archangel and were holding a line far south of the city along the River Dvina and across to the railway line running south out of the port of Murmansk.

On their arrival the Royal Scots marched through Archangel behind a US Marines band, over their shoulders were Mosin–Nagant rifles. The ‘City of Cairo’ had also been carrying a consignment of US made Russian rifles for the British and American forces in North Russia, and the Royal Scots were issued with them instead of the usual Lee Enfield rifle.

The next day most of the battalion sailed South up the River Dvina on barges to Bereznik where the Dvina meets the River Varga, and with some Royal Marines, Poles, Russians and some Royal Navy manned boats they formed a battle-group called ‘C’ Force.

‘D’ company of the Royal Scots moved to another part of the front and also served alongside some Royal Marines and Russian levies and they were called ‘D’ Force.

During September 1918 the Royal Scots of patrolled in forest and marshland on both sides of the Dvina around Bereznik and fought several engagements with Bolshevik troops. In mid September ‘C’ Force was bolstered by the American 339th Infantry Regiment.

By October 1918 the Bolshevik forces were attacking more frequently and in strength using gunboats and artillery. At the same time winter was starting to grip around the White Sea. The port of Archangel was frozen by the end of October and the Royal Navy’s ships were trapped in the ice. This allowed the Bolshevik river boats to sail up the Dvina and it forced the Allies to retreat back towards Archangel. By this time the Royal Scots had 100 wounded men in the hospital in Borok and they had to be evacuated in the retreat.

On November 11th 1918, Armistice Day on the Western Front, the Royal Scots of ‘C’ Force were attacked by 1,000 Bolsheviks at Toulgas. Their target was the Canadian Artillery of the Force and bitter hand to hand fighting developed as the Royal Scots struggled to repulse the attacks. On the day the people of the Lothians celebrated the end of the Great War for Civilisation the 2/10th Royal Scots suffered casualties of 19 men killed and 34 more men wounded. They were also awarded three Military Crosses, two Distinguished Conduct Medals and three Military Medals

For the troops in North Russia the conditions were now very harsh. In some places they had to patrol through snow over 10 feet deep. To deal with the conditions the Royal Scots adapted to patrolling on skis, snowshoes and on sleighs.

The skis especially were a hit. The ordinary soldiers of the Royal Scots could take some comfort from their miserable posting with the thought that it allowed them to indulge in a rich-mans sport which before the war had been the preserve of those who could afford to travel to the Alps.

The skiing was a small respite from the extreme cold and the constant attacks from the Bolsheviks. All this time the Bolsheviks were gaining in strength whilst the White Russian forces were suffering from poor morale, desertion and mutiny. In January 1919 without the support of the ice-bound Royal Navy the Allies were forced further back towards Archangel.

The British realised that they needed to send more troops to defend Archangel and prop up the Whites so volunteers from the troops returning from France who wished to stay in the Army and serve in Russia were formed into a new Brigade which would be sent to Archangel when the winter ice broke up.

In May 1919 as the Bolshevik 6th Red Army prepared for a new offensive the fresh British troops arrived. The Royal Scots got the welcome news that they were to be relieved of their front line duty and would return home.

On 6th June 1919 the 2/10th Bn Royal Scots were replaced by 2nd Bn The Hampshire Regiment and the Royal Scots moved to Murmansk to wait for a troopship.

A few days later the battalion embarked at Murmansk for home. By happy coincidence they were to land in Leith. The ‘Czartisa’ sailed into the Imperial Dock on 18th June 1919.

Along with the 277 Canadian Artillerymen, and 51 other soldiers who had sailed with them, the 987 men of the battalion marched through cheering crowds from the docks to Leith Central Station. They then travelled the short distance to Gorgie Station and marched up to Redford Barracks where they were to be demobilized.

Two days later they were entertained along with men from the recently retuned 1/9th Battalion Royal Scots by the Provost and City at Forrest Hill drill hall and then marched along Princes Street.

The 1/9th Bn had a long and distinguished war service on the Western Front but the service of the 2/10th Bn in Russia had been well reported in local papers. The men of the 2/10th Bn who had left the UK ‘unfit for active service’ returned as battle hardened soldiers and were treated as the equals of the veterans of the 1/9th Bn that day.

Over the next few days the battalion was wound up and on 25th June 1919 the 2/10th Battalion Royal Scots officially ceased to exist.

It wasn’t quite the end though. Not all the men had been demobilized and were sent to the 3rd Reserve battalion of the regiment. A few days later a party of 50 former 2/10th Bn men returned to the headquarters of the battalion at Linlithgow for another reception where they were warmly received.

The 2/10th Bn had missed the celebrations on Armistice Day but they were included in the Peace celebrations when the war officially ended in 1919. A grand peace march was organised in Glasgow on 4th August 1919 with 10,000 men and women from all branches of the armed services and those involved in war work taking part. Contingents from every Scottish regiment marched through George Square and one of the biggest cheers of the day were for the men who had served in the 2/10th Royal Scots. Coming from the city of ‘Red Clydeside’ for an Edinburgh regiment which had been fighting the Communist Bolsheviks it shows how much of an impact the actions of the Royal Scots had made at home.

The battalion had been in existence for nearly five years but had only served overseas for just less than ten months. In that time it suffered 132 fatalities. That was only a fraction of the number of casualties suffered by the Royal Scots battalions which served at Gallipoli, the Somme and at Arras; but they had served on a distant and almost forgotten battlefield on the edge of the Arctic Circle. They suffered from swarms of mosquitoes and horseflies in malarial marshland in the summer, and the bitter cold of the deep forests in the Russian Winter. They had to fight an enemy who never gave up and had to rely on White Russians who frequently did give up. In the ten months in Russia the battalion had been turned from unfit boys fit only for guard duty into soldiers praised by their commanding generals, and fêted in their homeland.

There was one more act in the history of the 2/10th Bn Royal Scots. On 18th July 1920 former officers and men of the battalion assembled at Linlithgow and were presented with a King’s Colour. No other 2nd Line Territorial battalion of the Royal Scots was issued one. With the battalion disbanded it was handed over to the safe keeping of St Michael’s Parish Church next to the Palace. On it was proudly displayed the Battalion’s only, and hard earned, battle honour - Archangel 1918-1919

*Many thanks to Alistair McEwen for the images

Sons of Galloway - Recommended website

Today's recommended website is the result of one man's passion in researching the sacrifice of his local area and the local territorial infantry unit. The Sons of Galloway is Dr Stuart Wilson's tribute to the men and women of South-west Scotland who served and died in the Great War.

The website covers the 5th Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers, which recruited throughout the three old counties which now make up Dumfries and Galloway*. It also is the home of the Stewartry Roll of Honour which is "a nominal roll of all men and women native to Kirkcudbrightshire, or resident in the county on enlistment, who served their country in the First World War".

The amount of data collected is staggering, and there is a wealth of information and photographs contained on the website. The work is ongoing and all contributions of information related to the projects will be gratefully received by Dr Wilson.

He now lives in England but is from Auchencairn in Kirkcudbrightshire, and apart from the website he has also written a book, "Answering the Call", about the men from Auchencairn who fought and died in the First World War. There is a bit about that on the website too where you can order a copy

Please take the time to visit the website even if you have no connection to the area. The story of the 5th KOSB's at Gallipoli is a tragic one; and the sacrifice of the whole of the Scottish Borders in early 1915 is often overshadowed by Scotland's greater losses first at Loos and the other battles of the Western Front. It is a tale that deserves a wider audience and Stuart Wilson's website does a magnificent job of telling it.

* During the First World War, Stranraer and the Rhinns of Galloway had territorial units of the Royal Scots Fusiliers rather than the King's Own Scottish Borderers.

The 1/6th Bn Royal Scots Fusiliers get a new Commanding Officer - On this day in Scottish Military History - 1916

It's not the man who took over the 1/6th Bn Royal Scots Fusiliers ninety five years ago today which this post is about. It's the man who handed over command on this day we are interested in.

6th May 1916 saw Lieutenant Colonel Winston Spencer Churchill being recalled to London and bidding farewell to his territorial battalion.

When the battalion had been told that the architect of the Dardanelles debacle was to be their commanding officer in January 1916 they were not overjoyed. Churchill was a bit deflated too. He had hoped for a battlion of a Guards regiment, not a Scottish Territorial unit.

Churchill wasn't going to let it bother him for long and he threw himself into his new appointment with all the energy and enthusiasm he could muster. The Scots soon found that their new C.O. was not the lame-duck politician they expected but a serious and experienced soldier who knew exactly how he wanted his new battalion to perform.

Churchill had seen action in several Victorian wars and had been a war correspondent in the Boer War. In an army of civilians in uniform he was a man with experience of war. This was unlike anything he had seen before and he spent some unpleasant and uncomfortable weeks in trenches at 'Plugstreet' but he turned the battlion round into an efficient front line unit. He also got the chance to lead his men into battle; something he had always dreamed of.

By all accounts the five and a half months Churchill spent as the commanding officer of the 1/6th RSF T.F. were good for both Churchill and the battalion, and it was with genuine sadness that they parted company, on this day in 1916.

Senior Scottish Generals of the First World War

In the First World War four commanders-in-chief of British forces were Scottish. It was probably more accident than design why a small group of Scotsmen should hold such high command around the same time. They don't seem to have been great friends and they had different backgrounds before achieving high rank.

The titles they held were Commander-in-Chief India, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Commander-in-Chief British Expeditionary Force and Commander-in-Chief British Salonika Army.

The four soldiers were Douglas Haig, Ian Hamilton, Beauchamp Duff and George Milne. We've covered two of them in Who's Who posts on this blog already so it will only be a quick summary today.

Douglas Haig, Commander-in-Chief British Expeditionary Force

We have covered Haig before. He’s the most well known of the four and he had the top job. In late 1915 he took over the command of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders and oversaw the bloody battles of the Somme and Passchendaele. He also led the British Army to victory in 1918. It was his army which beat the German Army in the field and captured 188,700 prisoners and 2,840 guns almost as much as the French, American and Belgian armies combined. General Pershing the US commander in France called him “The man who won the war”. Apart from commanding the BEF, the divisions and corps fighting at the front; he also commanded all British and British Empire armies in France. That meant at its peak he commanded four million men.

Ian Hamilton, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Expeditionary Force

Hamilton was a Who’s Who not so long ago. He was a very experienced soldier when he got the top job in the Mediterranean in March 1915; this theatre covered Egypt and later Gallipoli. Hamilton was expected to take Constantinople and knock the Ottomans out of the war. It didn’t work out that way and by October 1915 his campaign in Gallipoli had stalled with huge loss of life and he was out of his job. This sacking effectively finished his military career.

Beauchamp Duff, Commander-in-Chief India

In March 1914 Lieutenant General Beauchamp Duff from Turriff in Aberdeenshire was appointed to one of the top jobs in the Empire. The Commander-in-Chief India was responsible for 250,000 men across what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Aden. It was a huge responsibility for Duff. And when war broke out a few months later he faced a huge challenge. He had to oversee an expansion of his army, he sent 100,000 men to France to help the then tiny British Expeditionary Force and he then had to send most of his forces to Egypt and later Mesopotamia. At the same time he had to continue to garrison the sub-continent.

In 1916 he was the man ultimately responsible for the disaster at the Siege of Kut-El-Amara where eight thousand British and Indian troops surrendered to the Ottoman Army and there had been a further twenty-three thousand casualties trying to relieve them. Duff was the fall guy and was sacked. He returned to the UK and faced an enquiry. Blamed for the debacle along with the Viceroy he tried to clear his name but when that failed he took his own life.

George Milne, Commander-in-Chief Salonika Army

Aberdonian Milne had a background in the army as a gunner, serving in the Royal Artillery from 1885. He was a Major General in command of 27th Division when he first was sent to Salonika in the north of Greece in 1915. His next appointment was to take over as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Thessalonika when it expanded and was renamed The Salonika Army. This wasn't a command as big as the others; there were seven British divisions fighting alongside French, Serbian, Greek, Italian and Russian troops all under the combined command of French general
Franchet d'Esperey. From 1915 his troops fought against the Bulgarians but after their collapse in October 1918 he finished the First World War pushing his troops towards Constantinople which soon capitulated. The Ottoman capital was in Milne's hands three years after Ian Hamilton had failed.

Out of the four only Milne survived the war with his reputation intact and lived to a long age.

Haig worked hard to do his best for his ex-soldiers but the work took its toll and he was dead within ten years of the end of the war. Duff had killed himself before the war was over. Hamilton lived a long life but his career was finished.

Milne made the rank of Field Marshal and was Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1926 to 1933. He was appointed Constable of The Tower of London from 1933 to 1938 and also in 1933 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Milne, of Salonika and of Rubislaw in the County of Aberdeen. Field Marshal George Francis Milne, 1st Baron Milne GCB, GCMG, DSO passed away peacefully aged 81 in 1948.

Others

It is also worth mentioning another Scottish general who died just after the outbreak of the war. Lieutenant General James Grierson died of a heart attack in France on 17th August 1914 just as the British Army was arriving to fight the Germans.

Grierson was from Glasgow and like Milne had seen his early army service in the Royal Artillery. He had written several books military subjects and after the TF was formed in 1908 he wrote the history of the Scottish Volunteer force from 1859-1908. It was a comprehensive history and is still the definitive history of the Scottish volunteers over one hundred years after it was published.

Grierson was sent to France to command I Corps whilst Haig commanded II Corps. He was peer and rival of Haig, and in war games on Salisbury Plain in 1912 had actually beaten Haig. If Grierson had not died an untimely death he may have taken the top job instead of Haig in 1915.

Another Scot worth mentioning is the Edinburgh man Richard Haldane. Haldane had been in charge at the War Office in 1908 when he reformed the army and created the Territorial Force. Haldane and Haig worked together to prepare a British Expeditionary Force which could be sent to France at short notice.

Kitchener gets the glory for forming the New Armies of volunteers in 1914 but it was Haldane's foresight back in 1908 which prepared the British Army for the continental war ahead.

Not in a top job but another senior general was the Ayrshire man Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer Gould Hunter-Weston. The former Royal Engineer commanded VIII Corps at Gallipoli and on the first day of the Somme. There’s not much good you can say about Hunter-Weston. He seems to have had little imagination when it came to tactics and he sent thousands of his men to their deaths throughout the war.

I think I’ve covered the Scotsmen in the top jobs in the Great War but if you know of others in army Commander-in-Chief, or corps Commander roles please leave a comment here, or on our facebook page.

Plea for Lanarkshire Yeomanry monument in Lanark

An article from the Carluke and Lanark Gazette by Ron Harris highlighting the efforts to raise a memorial to the Lanarkshire Yeomanry:


Lanark should be the place where our area’s Forgotten Regiment is finally properly remembered.

Although the glorious Cameronians are quite rightly commemorated each year with a ceremony at a monument at their Douglas birthplace, there is hardly any reminder of another locally recruited army unit which made huge sacrifices for our nation – the Lanarkshire Yeomanry.

Now a group of ex-Yeomen and relatives of late members of the mostly Territorial unit disbanded after World War 2 want a proper memorial erected to the memory of the regiment.

And Lanark looks favourite to be the chosen site, it having been the Yeomanry's official base and home.


Indeed, the Royal Burgh still has full status as Lanarkshire's County Town throughout the unit's history.


The push to raise money to have the monument built is being organised by the Lanarkshire Yeomanry Group, formed a few years ago to research and promote the regimental history.


Now it has  written to every local South Lanarkshire Council member to ask for their opinion on a suitable location.


Many in the group favour Lanark as a natural monument site but councillors are being asked for their opinion on exactly where in Lanark it should be erected.


The secretary of the group, Agnes Doogan, says in her letter to them: "The regiment had its origins in the Lanark area of the early 19th Century and local men saw action in the Boer War, the Great War and in World War 2. Thomas Caldwell of Carluke was a member of the regiment and was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1917 for action on the Western Front.


"In World War 2 the Regiment was the nucleus of the 155th and 156th (Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiments of the Royal Artillery. Both units were in the heat of battle."


She went on to tell fo the sacrifices Yeomen suffered, particularly those in Japanese captivity, working as slaves on the infamous Death Railway.


She goes on: "It it our aim to have a permanent memorial to the men of the regiment sited in the Lanark area as this was the regimental base and the heart of the regiment.


"We are not seeking finance from the council but would appreciate its help in locating a suitable site for a memorial. Lanark Loch comes to mind as the regiment regularly exercised there and spent leisure time in this area.


"In addition, we wonder wether there would be a place for naming a street or some other public feature in South Lanarkshire - possibly in Lanark - after the Yeomanry?

"We believe that there is now considerable local sympathy for the sacrifice made by so many brave men from this area to be properly commemorated."

The Gazette will report on the response the Yeomanry Group receives from local councillors.

1/4th Bn Cameron Highlanders broken up - On this day in Scottish Military History - 1916

The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders always had a problem with its recruiting area. Their area was large in size but small in population. The county of Inverness couldn't really support a regiment on its own and traditionally they made up their numbers from places like Glasgow and Ireland.

In 1881 when all British infantry regiments formed two battalion regiments the Camerons only had one battalion. They were nearly turned into the 3rd Bn Scots Guards but Queen Victoria made her displeasure known about her own Highland regiment disappearing and the matter was quickly dropped.

In 1897 it was decided to raise another battalion and the Camerons were given the unusual privilege to recruit throughout Scotland and not just in their Inverness-shire recruiting area. I'm sure there were eyebrows raised by other Scottish regiments when that bombshell hit their Depots.

In 1908 when the Territorial Force was created most Scottish regiments formed several Territorial battalions. The Cameron's neighbours the Seaforths had three, the HLI had five and The Royal Scots had seven. The Camerons formed one: the 4th Battalion.

On the outbreak of war 1914 the Camerons recruitment luck changed. An enthusiastic officer took up the challenge of recruiting men from all over Scotland for the new Kitchener Service battalions being raised. Cameron of Lochiel's hard work delivered thousands of volunteers from Glasgow and Edinburgh into the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Battalions.

Even the Territorial battalion increased in size. In September 1914 a 2/4th Battalion was formed and in April 1915 a 3/4th Bn was raised to provide new recruits for the first two battalions. There had never been so many Cameron Highlanders in uniform.

At the outbreak of the First World War the 1/4th Bn was brigaded along with the three territorial battalions of the Seaforth Highlanders in the Seaforth and Cameron Brigade of the Highland Division.

In late 1914 1/4th Seaforths and 1/4th Camerons were up to strength of over 1000 men and were ready to go to France, but the Camerons had an outbreak of measles which delayed their departure until early 1915. (Measles was a killer to the Highland boys of the Camerons and 28 died).

The Camerons were first attached to 24th Brigade in 8th Division and saw action at The Battle of Neuve Chapelle within three weeks of arriving in France. They took 300 prisoners for the loss of 140 casualties.

Another change of division followed soon after. 1/4th Camerons joined 21st Brigade in 7th Division in April 1915. In May 1915 it was in action at Festubert where it took 250 casualties. It was in action again in June, and at Loos in September 1915 where it suffered another 200 casualties.

It had been hard fighting for the 7th Division throughout the year and in late 1915 there was a reorganisation with new battalions arriving from the UK taking their place. The Camerons (now with fewer than 500 men) stayed with the Division but moved to another Brigade. It was a short stay, and in January 1916 it returned back to its old home, the Highland Division.

154th Brigade in the Highland Division had been rebuilt with Scottish units but it was another short-lived stay in a formation for the 1/4th Camerons because three of the four units which had joined the brigade in January 1916 were replaced with other Scottish units only six weeks later.

On 28th February 1916 the three under-strength battalions were pulled out of the Division and sent back to the rear. Two Black Watch battalions were sent on to 39th Division and amalgamated to form one battalion, but it was announced the 1/4th Camerons would not go to another division and instead would be broken up and its men sent to other units.

Instead of men from 2/4th and 3/4th battalions Cameron Highlanders being sent from Scotland to rebuild it, it would disappear. Why this happened is still not entirely clear. No other Scottish Territorial battalion suffered this fate.

At this time voluntary recruitment had all but dried up and conscription had been introduced. Perhaps it was felt that the Camerons couldn't sustain so many battalions? But why did their only territorial battalion go instead of one of the three Kitchener Camerons battalions in France. Maybe Lochiel's influence meant his battalions were saved at the expense of the Territorials?

Whatever the reason; on this day ninety five years ago the only front line territorial unit of the Cameron Highlanders was broken up.

Reservists to recreate Jacobite night march of 1746

This article, by Steven McKenzie, appeared on the BBC News website:

The Territorial Army (TA) is preparing to retrace a possible route followed by Jacobite forces who were attempting to ambush a government camp in 1746.

The night march of 15 April, 265 years ago, was aborted short of its target on the outskirts of Nairn.

Bonnie Prince Charlie's forces were defeated at Culloden the next day.

In 2009, four people required hospital treatment to foot and leg injuries during the first "real-time" re-enactment of the march.

This will be only the second recreation to be held in the same time frame as the original march.

It has been planned by C Company, 51st Highland, 7th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, also known as 7 SCOTS.

Commandos of the Royal Marines Reserve and several members of re-enactment group, Battlescar, are expected to join about 30 TA soldiers on the trek.

A further 30 people drawn from the Army Cadet Force, Air Training Corps and Sea Cadets are also due to take part on stages of the latest recreation.

The march, which will not be open to the public, will be staged ahead of the 265th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden on 16 April.

The TA hopes to further understand the effects of 1746 night march on the Jacobites.

Research will include measuring and observing the affects of lack of sleep on judgement and the importance of food and provisions, or lack of them, for the soldiers on the march.

On 16 April, commemoration events at the battlefield will include a traditional service led by the Gaelic Society. A lone piper will also be present.

Visits to the National Trust for Scotland managed site are high with 124,053 visitors in 2008-09 - when a new visitor centre opened - and 112,565 in 2009-10.
Marcher on 2009 Jacobite night march re-enactment 2009 saw the first "real-time" re-enactment of the night march

Archaeologist and Culloden expert Dr Tony Pollard, from the University of Glasgow, took part in the 2009 night march.

He said the battlefield and its history continued to captivate the imagination of archaeologists as well as the wider public.

Dr Pollard said: "On an objective level, Culloden is a very interesting period of history.

"It came at the time of improved literacy and increased military bureaucracy meaning the battle is well recorded, however, we cannot take all these accounts at face value and there has to be a marrying of the archaeology with the records."

He added: "The investigations at Culloden are by no means over. Culloden is a flagship laboratory for battlefield archaeology and the new visitor centre has reinforced that.

"In terms of casualties it was a very small battle and the death toll pales when you consider other battles such as Pinkie, where tens of thousands were killed.

"Yet it still has that resonance and there is a romance related to it. Everyone loves an underdog and Culloden is an ultimate tale of that."

Highland homecoming for drum hidden during Dunkirk retreat

The following story appeared in The Scotsman newspaper today:



A military drum belonging to one of Scotland's most famous regiments, hidden in the heat of battle during the retreat to Dunkirk in the Second World War, is to be returned to Scotland 70 years after being abandoned.

The homecoming of the lost drum of the Gordon Highlanders will mark the culmination of a remarkable story involving the family of a French policeman, a forgotten birthday present and a twin-town agreement between villages in France and England. The story began when the regimental side drum, emblazoned with the battle honours of the Gordon Highlanders, was buried in a farmer's field by a soldier serving in the regiment's 4th Battalion as the Gordons were being forced to retreat to the Dunkirk beachhead along with the rest of the British Expeditionary Force.

But it has only now been revealed that, within hours of the Gordons leaving the village of Hem in northern France, the drum was found by a policeman who stumbled across its hiding place in the dark while taking a shortcut home. He had planned to give the drum as a birthday present to his grandson, but was forced to hide it at his daughter's home where it lay forgotten for more than 50 years. And the drum is only now being returned to Scotland after members of the twinning committee of Mossley, near Manchester, stumbled across the amazing tale while visiting their twin town in France.

On 12 November, at a ceremony in Hem, descendents of the policeman will hand over the drum to representatives of the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen, who plan to make it a star item at an exhibition on the musical history of the regiment. Museum curator Jesper Ericsson said: "This is an extraordinary story and the donation ceremony in France will be all the more poignant as armistice commemorations take place around the world. "We were absolutely staggered when we heard that someone in Hem had the drum and wanted to donate it to the museum." He explained that the drum had belonged to a soldier serving with the 4th (City of Aberdeen) Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders, a territorial unit which had been to ordered to cover the general retreat to Dunkirk following the Nazi invasion of France. Mr Ericsson said: "The drum was buried in farmer's field in May, 1940. But shortly after it was concealed a French policeman, Seraphin Boulet, stumbled over the spot. "He scraped away some of the earth and found a tarpaulin covering this beautifully- decorated drum. The story goes that with his grandson's birthday coming up he thought it would make a fabulous present." Mr Boulet took it to the nearby home of his daughter, Raymonde Detrain Boulet.

Fearing discovery by German patrols, the family decided to hide the drum beneath a pile of old clothes in a second-floor bedroom. Remarkably, the drum lay hidden and forgotten in the room until 1995, when Ms Boulet died and her family were clearing out the house. Mr Ericsson said: "Jean Pierre, the grandson who should have got the drum in 1940 as a birthday present, found the drum when he was clearing out his mother's home. And it has remained with the family until now. "

Unfortunately Jean Pierre died in 2007. But his daughter's husband, Pierre Osson, has been the driving force in getting the drum donated to the museum." He added: "There has been a special exhibition at the museum this autumn about the impact that music has had during the 200 years of the regiment's history. And it will be a tremendous end to the exhibition when we can put the drum on display here in Aberdeen."

The Fife Military History Project

Among the many interesting people I met at the Fife Family History Fair on Saturday was one gentleman who has undertaken a very ambitious but fascinating project. I got hold of a copy of one of his "flyers", and I'm sure he won't mind me reprinting the text here for anyone who might be interested:

Did your Ancestors guard prisoners of war with the Fife Militia, ride in the Fifeshire Yeomanry or join thousands of others in the Volunteers guarding the Fife coast against the French in the Napoleonic Wars?

Did they join the Volunteer movement in the Victorian era and join the Fife Rifle Volunteers, Fife Artillery Volunteers or Fife Light Horse?

Did they join up in the Great War and serve in the 7th (Fife) Royal Highlanders, Fife Royal Garrison Artillery or Fife and Forfar Yeomanry?

The Fife Military Project is an attempt to gather as much information as possible about Fifeshire's Militia, Volunteer and Territorial past and publish a website that will enable their descendants to learn more about them.

To illustrate the kind of information that I am acquiring from archives here is an extract of one of my ancestor's pension documents transcribed from the National Archives in Kew.

"His Majesty's Second Battalion. Royal Regiment Of Artillery. Whereof the Marquis of Anglesey is Colonel.

These are to certify That Sgt Andrew Gordon born in the Parish of Balmerino in or near the town of Balmerino in the County of Fife was enlisted for the aforesaid regiment at Yarmouth in the County of Norfolk on the Twenty third Day of April 1805 at the age of nineteen for unlimited service from the Fifeshire Militia. That he has served for the space ofTwenty two years and two hundred forty four Days, after the age of Eighteen"

"To prevent any improper use being made of this discharge, by its falling into other hands, the following is a Description of the said Andrew Gordon. He is about forty two Years of Age, is 6 Feet, Inches in height, Black Hair, Blue Eyes, Dark Complexion; and by Trade or Occupation a Shoemaker"

My name is Richard Dickens and I've spent the last 7 years researching into Fife's military heritage and I'm hoping you may be able to help with this project.

Please contact me at fifemilitia@googlemail.com if you have any information, items, pictures or documents on relatives who served in the Fife regiments.

I will be ready to bring the Fife Military Project online in the next year starting with a complete database of every soldier who served in the Fife Militia from 1798-1855.

I wish Richard every success with his project, and I look forward to seeing the results of his research. I'll be contacting Richard myself to see what assistance the Scottish Military Research Group can provide.