Sapper died of his wounds

Mrs Gemmell, Fleming’s Buildings, Dunblane, received word her husband, Robert, a sapper with the Royal Engineers, had died of wounds received on August 2, 1917. He was a native of Bannockburn and worked at Cowie Colliery and latterly at Manor Powis. He had been home on leave four weeks earlier.

Pte Robert Dick, 51 Newhouse, Stirling, was in hospital suffering from a shell wound and the effects of gas. He joined the Royal Engineers in June 1916, and later moved to the Welsh Regiment. His wife was told he was in hospital in Boulogne and progressing. Pte Dick was a mason to trade.

Second Lt Douglas Lowe, Gordon Highlanders, was reported seriously wounded from a gunshot. He was the son of Mr PR Lowe, Carse View, Bridge of Allan, a veteran Stirling County cricketer. Lt Lowe was engaged in engineering before the war but after joining up saw a good deal of action, including service in the Gallipoli campaign.

Mrs Carruthers, Craiglea, Causewayhead, learned her son , 2nd Lt Jack Harris, A&SH, was wounded in the left arm and right knee following the bursting of a shell. The 20-year-old joined the Highland Light Infantry as a private in December 1914 and had come through fierce fighting while in France. In the autumn of 1916 he gained a commission and returned to France in January of the following year. He worked in a chartered accountants office in Glasgow before the war.

At Stirling Sheriff Court, grocer John Buchanan, Brucefield, Whins of Milton, pleaded guilty to breaching wartime laws on the sale of sugar for the purposes of preserving fruit. He had sold to others sugar he himself received for preserving fruit, contrary to the new law introduced because of the scarcity of the commodity. Solicitor John Archibald said the offence arose out of “misapprehension”. Mr Buchanan had a nursery at Whins of Milton, and sold fruit. He was in the habit of supplying sugar to those who bought fruit from him, when they asked, and thought there was no harm in continuing the practice. The fiscal said the accused received sugar for his own fruit and not to sell to others who might or might not use it for preserves. He was fined 40 shillings.

On the homefront, the Observer reported that Dr WA Chapple, MP for Stirlingshire, and a major in the Royal Army Medical Corp spent a few days in his constituency during a spell of leave. He made his first visit to Stirling for three years and, said the paper, looked well in his military uniform. Dr Chapple was “quite convinced we were winning the war from every point of view”. He said there was an impression in London that Germany might “crack up” that year (1917).