Tribute to Scots VC hero is set in stone... 100 years on
FOR hour after gruelling hour, a tiny group of Gordon Highlanders held off 500 enemy soldiers, braving poison gas, bullets and savage bayonet attacks.
At the head of the heroic defenders that day in northern France in 1918 was Lieutenant Allan Ebenezer Ker, whose steely resolve inspired them to fight until the very last bullet. It was an outstanding military action that earned the Scot the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for bravery. And now, almost 100 years on, a lasting tribute to him has been laid outside his old Edinburgh home in the shape of a commemorative flagstone.
On March 21, 1918, the British line near Saint-Quentin was penetrated, leaving the Army’s flank dangerously exposed.
Lieutenant Ker and his men, armed with one machine gun, managed to hold up the enemy advance despite exhaustion, hunger and hours of bombardment.
He stayed at his post with a sergeant and several soldiers who had been badly wounded, beating off bayonet attacks with revolvers after their Vickers machine gun was destroyed.
Lieutenant Ker then gathered the wounded men into a small shelter and only surrendered when all of their ammunition was spent and the position overrun.
The Scot was taken prisoner and was held for nine months. He only learned of his award and his newfound fame after he was repatriated.
Yesterday, Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Frank Ross was joined by former members of the Gordon Highlanders at the unveiling of the commemorative stone in the city’s Findhorn Place.
Mr Ross said: ‘A hundred years on from the First World War, it is crucial that Edinburgh continues to commemorate its wartime heroes.
‘This tribute to Lieutenant Ker and the city’s other Victoria Cross flagstones will be a way for new generations to learn about who these servicemen were in an engaging and meaningful way.’
Lieutenant Ker also saw action in the battles of Passchendaele, Arras and Cambrai.
Although his family left Scotland years ago, with the last traces of his descendants in the US, the soldier’s Victoria Cross is still on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum in London.
It was presented to him ‘for conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty’.
The gathering in Findhorn Place was preceded by a ceremony at the Grange Cemetery, where Lieutenant Ker’s restored family headstone was unveiled by Lieutenant General Sir John MacMillan KCB CBE, and John Spencely CBE who, with his wife Lyn, arranged for the headstone’s restoration.
The Last Post was sounded and a wreath was laid while a piper played Cock O’ the North.