The serial: Largie Castle, A Rifled Nest Day 43

Stewart introduced several comforts for his men: a hot water system and a cup of tea after meals

After its decline as a royal residence, the castle became a military centre and, in 1881, the regiment’s headquarters. I drove past the church of the Holy Rude, where James VI was crowned and parked my car on the esplanade. Whereas, in the 1930s, the space was used as a parade-ground, today it serves as an open-air concert arena.

In spite of the cold wind, I paused to absorb the panoramic view: to the west was Ben Lomond, and on the opposite side stood the Wallace Monument, swirled in mist. I approached a large defence wall and moat, entered through the main gate and crossed a cobbled courtyard.

After climbing a slope that led to the palace and great hall, I found a courtyard and, on its west side, the King’s Old Building built for James IV in 1496. Once an infirmary and officers’ sleeping quarters, it became, in 1988, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders museum. Career I had come not to gape at medals, photos or kilted uniforms but to see if the museum held any records on Angus. Rod Mackenzie, the museum’s deputy curator, ushered me into a room where officers toast their Queen and country.

Dominating the space was a mahogany table and on its surface a silver bowl surrounded by silver goblets, plates, quaichs, and cutlery. As I sat, Rod presented me with the 1st Battalion’s diary. “Let’s hope you can find something in that!”

I learned, that as a new recruit, Second-Lieutenant Macdonald was not entirely green. The OUOTC had taught him how to clean a rifle, shoot straight, drill with precision, polish a bayonet blade, and fumble through a manual of military law.

From the time he became a scout at West Downs until mid-way through his second year at Oxford, when he entered the Territorial Army, Angus had prepared for his career as an army officer. After joining, he’d come to the Argylls’ depot at Stirling Castle and took part in ceremonials and drills on the esplanade.

More significant was his introduction to the then commanding officer, Ian Stewart of Achnacone, who belonged to a branch of the Appin Stewarts. They were woven firmly into Argyllshire’s social fabric and the Appin laird’s wife, a staunch Episcopalian who played the church organ, was a friend of my grandmother.

This social ease and recognition helped oil the wheels for the young 2nd lieutenant. Stewart introduced several comforts for his men: a hot water system and a cup of tea after meals. It was here, in late 1934, at the start of Angus’s army career that Colonel Stewart noted the qualities of this tall, reserved young officer.

Angus was mostly based at Redford Barracks on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Since the construction of Fort George in the Highlands, Redford had become the largest military installation in Scotland.

I now possessed his dates: vital milestones in his short life. During Angus’s first months in the Argylls, the battalion resembled a theatrical troupe more than a fighting force. Pageantry and ceremonials have always preoccupied soldiers. Contest In October, 1934 the regimental pipe band took part in a contest in Italy’s Turin (Angus was absent from the competition as he was no piper but his brother Jock was a gifted player). The Italian newspaper, La Stampa was extravagant in its praise:

Back in Edinburgh, other ‘darlings’ (six officers and 150 other ranks in conjunction with the Royal Scots Greys) took part in the filming of ‘The Iron Duke’ and enacted the charge of the Gordon Highlanders and Royal Scots Greys at the battle of Waterloo.

To fulfil the complement, the battalion provided a guard of honour for the admiral of the General Fleet when the “Deutschland,” a German battleship berthed in the Firth of Forth.

The diary was punctilious in listing each officer, his rank and role. Angus’s name occurs when the battalion shifted south to Tidworth, a village near Salisbury Plain, the traditional training ground of the British Army.

The Argylls left Edinburgh on January 10 1935 and their send-off was tumultuous, as they had been popular during their four-year stint in the capital.

Ironically, Angus’s army career in Scotland amounted to just over three months before he returned to his old stamping-ground (Tidworth was 20 miles from Winchester College).

The garrison was a bustling community, constructed in the early 1900s during the heyday of the British Army. By the beginning of the Great War, it was self-sufficient with a railway connection, church, hospital, theatre, recreation rooms, power station and cinema, while Tedworth House was an officers’ mess. Exercise The Argylls were billeted at Lucknow Barracks. From the outside its main structure (built in 1905) resembled an English country mansion and was a pleasant change from the grim prison-like building at Redford.

Apart from the appearance of his name in regimental records the only other reference to my uncle at Tidworth is the Winchester College obituary stating that “he looked every inch a soldier when we visited him at Tidworth.”

I wondered who the obituarist referred to when he wrote ‘we’? Was it his housemaster, college prefects, or members of the Officers’ Training Corps? In addition to parades and manoeuvres, Angus sweated it out in a series of long-distance marches.

In the autumn of 1935, the battalion performed a large exercise over a wide area. While completing the task they made a discovery; if after dumping supplies, administrative vehicles doubled as troop transport, the unit could occupy important ground and gain an advantage. Although this new scheme of ‘misappropriating’ supply vehicles caused plenty controversy, it set a precedent and the practice was adopted widely between 1939-1945.

Angus’s service records reveal that during his first summer in the south, he received tuition in mortar warfare and signed on for a further course the following year. He also learned about air photography at Netheravon Airfield nearby. More tomorrow

“...these flaming reds, those feather bonnets, those cloaks draped from the shoulder and falling in harmonious pleats down the back — what did the public know of all that dazzling ensemble, rendered still more vivid by the inimitable way the men held themselves, and by their marching in that capricious yet most orderly step? These wonderfully fine fellows with beautiful uniforms and bearing. They reaped applause to the full.”

© 2017 Mary C Gladstone, all rights reserved, courtesy of the author and Firefallmedia; available in hardcover and paperback online and from all booksellers.