Private killed in explosion
An exploding shell left a Stirling soldier dead and two comrades injured. Pte John Taylor was in a room with a sergeant-major and sergeant when the blast occurred outside and he was killed instantly. News of his death was conveyed to his mother Mrs Neilson, who lived in Orchard Place, Stirling. Before enlisting, PteTaylor worked as a ploughman and later a lorryman. His step-father, four brothers and two brothers-in-law had all joined up. The step-father, two brothers and a brother-in-law were still at the front. One brother and a brother-in-law had been killed, and a brother gained the Military Medal on October 21, 1916.
*** Pte James Mann, Seaforth Highlanders, formerly a railway porter at Stirling, was reported missing. He was from Forfar and one of four brothers in the Forces.
*** Mr John Baird, commercial traveller, 3 Millar Place, Stirling, learned their second son, John, a private in the Cameron Highlanders, was killed in action on December 14, 1917. Pte Baird was a former seedsman with a Glasgow firm. Mr and Mrs Baird had three sons in the Army and John was, tragically, the second to have been killed.
*** Dunblane and Lecropt War Savings Association’s 810 members collected in 1917 £12,320 of which £5000 went in war loans and £7320 was invested in 9420 war savings certificates.
*** The Observer of 100 years ago told how at a military camp in Stirling soldiers were to receive a total of £2500 in back pay and allowance money. The colonel commanding the camp ordered the men to put part of their allocation into war savings certificates - to help the Government fund the war effort – and arrangements were made for members of a local war savings association to visit the camp and take deposits.
However, not one soldier turned up to place at which association members gathered collect contributions, prompting the Observer to comment: “We are not surprised. The men have given so much already that they no doubt require for themselves, their families and friends all the pay the Government allows them.”
*** Meanwhile, on the home front, the Observer told how a gentleman from the town had just received a letter posted to his home 10 years earlier.“The hated Boche (Germans) had nothing to do with it,” explained the paper.“It arrived in London in good time but got lost in the post office and was only found the other day and dispatched to the gent to whom it was addressed.”
*** John Lawlor, miner, Cowie, appeared at Stirling Police Court facing several charges arising from an incident in St Mary’s Wynd, Stirling. The accused had been standing in the doorway of a house there eating“chip potatoes” when he was asked by the resident to move away. Instead of complying, Lawlor struck the male resident in the face. When taken into custody, he violently resisted arrest and struck one constable who as a result had to go off duty for the rest of the night.
He was ordered to forfeit a pledge of three guineas (just over £3).