Injured comrade left on battlefield
Saw enemy giving drink to wounded private
A soldier told how, as the enemy approached, he had to leave a wounded Stirling comrade on the battlefield.
Pte Peter B Meston was just 19 and serving with the Seaforth Highlanders.
The second son of Mr JK Meston, gardener, Springbank, Pte Meston was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans in France on July 28, 1918.
According to the Observer, a pal saw him fall and helped him as far as he could but had to get away himself when he saw the Germans approaching.
Before leaving, the pal told Pte Meston he would let his parents know about what had happened and the last he saw was a German soldier giving the wounded private a drink.
Pte Meston was wounded in both legs and one of his arms was “numbed” but the pal said the wounds were clean and he did not think they were serious.
Pte Meston was working as a chemist with Mr Moore, Murray Place, when he joined up in April, 1917, and had been in France since the beginning of the year. He had a brother who was in the Army, serving in Dublin.
•A former Stirling grocer was among the war’s latest fatalities. Sgt James Smith, A&SH, was the son of Mrs James Smith, widow, Springfield Place, Stirling. He was killed by a shell in France on July 24, 1918. The 24-year-old had only been at the Front for two months although he had been in the Army for three years and had acted before that as a gym and bayonet instructor. Sgt Smith worked as a grocer with D&J MacEwen, Stirling, and was well know as a prominent member of Mr Morrison Weir’s kinderspiel.
Mrs Smith had a life blighted by tragedy. Her husband died in a railway accident some years earlier when her family were young. And another soldier son was drowned when the ship he was on was torpedoed in the Mediterranean. A third son was with the Labour Corp in France.
•Mrs James Reid, Main Street, St Ninians, received the sad news her husband James, a sergeant in the A&SH, posted missing in September , 1917, was now believed to have been killed at that time. The sergeant was a member of the Stirlingshire Territorial Battalion and called up at the outbreak of the war. The former Millhall Colliery miner went to France with the Battalion and took part in much of the fighting. Sgt Reid’s parents formerly lived in Cowane Street but moved to 25 Upper Craigs. His father was a carter with Messrs McGregor, slaters. Sgt Reid was 31 and he and his wife had one child.
•A former Stirling seedsman was discovered to be a prisoner of the Germans. Pte Robert McQueen , West Yorkshire Regiment, was the youngest son of the late Councillor James McQueen, Ivanhoe Cottage, Newhouse, Stirling, He was reported missing on March 27, 1918, at the time of the big German offensive. Nothing was heard from him for several months.
However, his wife received a postcard saying he was a prisoner-of-war in Germany and not wounded. Pte McQueen’s brother, John B McQueen, tailor, was serving with the Gordon Highlanders in Mesopotamia.
•Another soldier to be taken prisoner during the German offensive of March, 1918, was L/Cpl Alexander Dawson, Black Watch, whose mother lived at Gartincaber, Plean. She received information he was a POW.L/Cpl Dawson joined the Colours in November, 1915, and was sent to France in January, 1917. Before enlisting he worked at the Clydesdale Bank, Cowdenbeath.
•On the homefront, Stirling Library re-opened in early August, 1918, after being closed all July for stocktaking. The Observer said the resumption was widely welcomed as there had been a general increase in reading since the start of the war.