Soldier John back home to tragedy
Arrives to find his daughter , 13, in flames
A Stirling soldier arrived home from the Front to discover screams coming from the property – and his teenage daughter in flames.
One of the Stirling homefront’s most tragic incidents of the war began when the wife of John Harvey, Herdsbrae, Pirnhall, left for Stirling Station to meet him.
Mrs Harvey left in the house alone their 13-year-old daughter, Jenny.
The Observer said: “When the parents arrived back at Herdsbrae from Stirling, they were startled to hear screams coming from the house and on hastening they discovered the girl’s clothing to be in flames .”
A Dr Morrison was called and he found the teenager to be seriously burned to the legs, arms, head and face. She was taken to Stirling Royal Infirmary but died that night.
*** A well known Stirling family were hit by a double bereavement. Solicitor Mr John Jenkins lost his 32-year-old son Archie in July, 1918, to Spanish Flu after a day’s illness. Just two months later, he discovered his youngest son, John, was killed in an aeroplane accident in Kent. No details were given. The 18-year-old left Stirling High in the 1917 summer holidays and joined the RAF the following October. Ten days earlier, he had been home on leave with his elder brother, Lt James Jenkins , A&SH, who had returned to France where he had been serving for a year. Solicitor Archie Jenkins was with the Royal Garrison Artillery in Broughty Ferry when what was first thought to be a cold turned out to be the deadly virus which would kill millions of people around the world between May 1918 and March 1920.
*** Mrs Calvert, 5 St John Street, Stirling, learned her husband Alick, a private in the A&SH, died on September 7, 1918, from wounds received on the first of that month. The 25-year-old was serving in Salonica. He was a regular soldier, having enlisted three years before the start of war, and came with his regiment from India to France in September 1914. He served in France for 18 months before transfer to Salonica where he had been since. The Edinburgh man was home on leave in February, 1918, and married a Stirling woman. However, he contracted malarial fever and was in hospital at Bangour for some time. He returned to Salonica six weeks earlier.
*** Listed as wounded in the Observer was Pte Archie Strang, Light Tank Corp, son of Mr Joseph Strang, Ordnance Stores employee, who suffered injuries to his wrist, foot and shoulder on August 29, 1918. The skin condition erysipelas later set in and his condition became so bad that his mother was telegraphed and asked to go to Warrington Hospital, where he was being treated. His condition had improved since then but he remained on the ‘danger list’. Pte Strang, 26, joined the Scots Greys on August 29, 1914, and served with cavalry corps before moving earlier in 1918 to the Tank Regiment. He formerly worked at the Ordnance Stores and pit.
*** Pte Thomas Morgan, Lancaster Regiment, whose father, also Thomas, lived in Caledonian Place, St Ninians, was in hospital near Lancaster. He was suffering from wounds to the head and left arm, which was broken. Pte Morgan was formerly on the clerical staff at Forthbank Carpet Factory. He served with the Army Ordnance Corp in Salonica before joining an English infantry regiment and in May, 1918, heading to France.