Stranger’s wanderings near loch

A man who volunteered for the Army at the age of around 50 was found in a distressed condition in Gartmore, the Observer reported.

Under the heading ‘A poor man’s wanderings’, the paper said the stranger, who was in a distressed condition, appeared in the village one evening.

Special constables found in the man’s pocket a card with his name and address and they were able to contact his friends who came to take him home – but not before he had wandered up to Loch Dhu.

It was later discovered that at the beginning of the war, the man had volunteered for the Sportsman’s Battalion and remained with it in the South of England for two years.

He was later transferred to Yarrow to work in shipbuilding but one day disappeared, prompting a four-day search.

There was no trace of the man until those involved in the search received a telegram from Gartmore saying he was there. The man had walked 40 miles during which he suffered from exposure and his condition was so weak that his doctor was taking a “somewhat grave view of the case”.

*** Meanwhile in Aberfoyle, villagers welcomed back several soldiers who were home on leave. Pte Angus McGregor, Trossachs Road, had been in France for about two years. Pte Robert Anderson who had been badly wounded, was convalescing, and Pte Duncan McKinlay was warmly greeted by those who knew him. He had emigrated to New Zealand seven years earlier and before joining up was engaged in farming. Home on leave in Gartmore was Pte Peter Clark, Royal Scots Fusiliers.

*** In Doune, a County Appeal Tribunal in Perth granted conditional exemption from call-up to Mr AK Buchanan of the town’s Balhaldie Inn.

*** People in Deanston and Thornhill were celebrating the wedding of Pte John Murray, a soldier from the area serving with the Canadian contingent and Miss C Forrester. They were wed in the home of the bride. Her sister married at the same time, also to a soldier.

*** Among the soldiers on leave in Doune were Ptes Liddel, Deanston, and Martin Wynter, Doune. The former was attached to the office of the Red Cross and had been at the Front for two years. Pte Wynter, a Seaforth Highlander, had been in Salonica and on the Western Front.