The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
How one foe’s kindness helped family in distress
German’s show of humanity in heat of battle is among items on show in town
The details of how an enemy soldier helped a local woman find out what had happened to her husband in a First World War battle is one of the stories being told in a town’s special festival.
Amid the devastation of the very first day of the Battle of Loos, a young Prussian officer bent down to check the pockets of a British officer.
The man, Major Charles Maitland Makgill Crichton, had been cut down while leading a daring rescue bid.
Finding holiday photographs of the man’s family and basic details of his life, the officer displayed incredible humanity amid the horror.
He wrote a letter, which he sent to Scotland and it arrived in Crieff some weeks later, bringing to an end weeks of uncertainty for his family.
The major’s gallantry and the letter that informed his wife and children of his demise are just one the stories told as part of the Crieff Remembers festival.
It begins in earnest tomorrow with a parade through the streets of the town, followed by a drumhead service and community day on the Market Park.
An exhibition at the Strathearn Artspace runs until August 12 and features stories, artefacts, letters and photographs relating to the men of Crieff who fought during the conflict.
“My great-grandfather briefly joined the army as a young man before emigrating to California for a time,” said David Crichton, 44, who works at Monzie Joinery.
“He rejoined in 1914 and was elevated to the rank of major before serving with both the Cameron Highlanders and the Gordon Highlanders.
“He was sent to the Western front in the summer of 2015 and was engaged at the Battle of Loos, where he was joined to a group of Highland regiments.”
They had been told to push through Loos and on to the outskirts of the city of Lens. However, when they reached the outskirts, they were met by a deadly array of sub-machine gun posts.
His great-grandfather decided to attempt a rescue, joined by Major James Barron.
“My great-grandfather died quite quickly and Major Barron died a couple of weeks later in a German field hospital,” David said.
“My great-grandmother Sybil, then pregnant with a sixth child, tried without success to find out what had happened.
“Then out of the blue, around a month later, she received a letter from a German officer.
“He had found my great-grandfather’s body and the enclosed photographs of his children – taken on holiday the previous summer – and had sent them back.”
The family has made efforts over the years to find out who that officer was and discovered he was killed in action a couple of years later.
“My father did try to find out more about him but he was Prussian – east German – and so he sadly didn’t get very far,” David said.
Documents relating to his greatgrandfather will be on show during the Crieff Remembers exhibition. Visit www.crieffremembers.org mmackay@thecourier.co.uk