Arran’s darkest day of the First World War
In the latest of an occasional series of articles to commemorate the centenary of the First World War, Fiona Laing investigates the Arran men and women who fought and served. Here she recounts the island’s darkest day of the war . . .
It is September 1915, the war many thought would be over by Christmas 1914, was now one of attrition and stalemate. Arran had suffered her losses through the late spring and into the summer of the year.
James Allen, whose parents lived in Lamlash, was a member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, he died at ANZAC cove on 2 May 1915. John Stevenson, a farm labourer resident in Pirnmill when he enlisted in the Highland Light Infantry, died on 23 May 1915 in Flanders. James McDiarmid, with Shiskine connections, was part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force that fought in the Battle of St Julien. He was wounded on 18 May 1915 and died from his injuries on 5 June 1915.
John Saul a Royal Scots Fusilier, and a resident of Benlister, died from wounds in a hospital in Calais on 11 August 1915.
Perhaps one of the most tragic deaths was that of Simon Lawson, who worked at Rosaburn. A member of the 6th Dragoon Guards, he was wounded in October 1914 and taken prisoner by the Germans in December of that year, being released in August 1915.
Accidnetally
While on leave in Glasgow on 11 September, he was shot when a soldier’s rifle went off accidentally as he was preparing to disembark from a tramcar. The bullet narrowly missed two passengers before striking Simon as he stood with his brother on the pavement. He died later that evening. Apart from Simon Lawson’s accidental death, these losses had been part of the attritional nature of the war. Various attempts had been made by both sides to break through the stalemate of trench warfare, with little success.
The allies decided to have one final attempt that year at breaking through the German lines before winter set in and, for the British forces, this was to be the largest scale offensive of the war so far, the Battle of Loos. Part of a wider allied offensive, six Divisions of the British Army were deployed in the area around the French mining village of Loos, near to Lille and the Belgian border. Every Scottish regiment was represented in the battle, making up half of the 72 infantry battalions taking part; this made it the most significant battle in the whole war for Scotland.
The earlier losses of the war meant that this battle also saw the entry to the war of Kitchener’s ‘New Army’, made up of the thousands of young men who had enthusiastically enlisted to serve their country. These keen young men, including hundreds from Arran, had joined up alongside their friends; one small section of a trench would be filled with men from the same village, neighbourhood, football club, or office.
The whistles blew for the men to ‘go over the top’ at 6.30am on the morning of 25 September 1915. Amongst the first wave of attack were the Black Watch, KOSB and HLI who, during the battle, were to suffer casualties on a scale which almost wiped out their battalions. A battalion is usually around 700 men.
The 7th KOSB suffered 631 casualties killed or wounded, 6th KOSB 650, 10th HLI 648, 12th HLI 553, 9th Black Watch 680, 8th Black Watch 511 and the 7th Cameron Highlanders 687. Hardly a town or village in Scotland was unaffected by the losses at Loos. By the time it eventually ended on 16 October, over 20,000 British soldiers had died. Over 7,000 of these from the Scottish Regiments.
Darkest day
On September 25, six Arran men lost their lives. It was Arran’s darkest day of the war. Brodick lost three young men that day: George Goulthorp, John Mcallister and 19 year old William McIntyre who all served with the 9th Black Watch. Archibald Kelso, whose parents farmed Holy Isle, lost his life serving with the 7th Cameron Highlanders. Ronald Robertson, 2nd Black Watch, 20, of Penrioch became the second son of Duncan and Mary Robertson to be killed, Duncan having been killed five months earlier, and John Craig of Imachar fell at 7am that morning.
The particulars of John Craig’s loss are recorded in a remarkable letter written by his friend, Jock Henderson of Whitefarland, to John’s Uncle Donald. In it he explains, quite matter of factly, of the moment John fell and how, after asking if there was anything he could do for John, he shook his hand and bade him goodbye with the promise that he would let John’s folks know what happened. Jock returned to the battlefield that night to see if he could find his friend, but without success. Jock survived the war ending it as a Sergeant Major in the Black Watch having been awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre and twice mentioned in despatches.
The war was to go on to claim the lives of many more Arran men, but that day in September 1915, for Arran and Scotland would never be matched for its losses.
It is for this reason that Scotland marked this day in particular last Friday with a National Commemoration in Dundee, the home of the Black Watch, where a beacon is lit annually in memory of the men who died at Loos.