Fighting back after poison gas attack

A Stirling soldier told how in the chaos following a gas attack he met pals from the town.

Pte W Steadman, of the Seaforth Highlanders, was employed by Liptons Ltd at their shop in Barnton Street, Stirling.

He was the younger brother of Mr Steadman, who worked as a chauffeur at Viewforth, Stirling, and left Cromarty three weeks earlier for the front.

In a letter to relatives in Crieff he told how the awoke one morning to a German gas attack.

“We ran to get our respirators but I got some of it before I got mine on,” he said. “My throat and lungs felt as if they had been burnt and the effect it leaves is like bronchitis. I am, however, feeling alright again, although we are still wearing respirators

“The Germans seem to imagine that after they use the gas they only have to walk into our trenches. They found out their mistake yesterday for when they started to come over they met with a hot reception. about 20 yards and then flop down flat on the ground. I saw a lot of boys in khaki and who do you think they were? Some of the 7th Argylls. I had landed amongst a lot of Stirling fellows I knew.”

Not so fortunate was Pte Andrew McLeish, 1st Black Watch, who had been invalided home.

He was badly wounded in both feet when a shell exploded almost under him. The blast killed his captain and 10 men.

An ex-soldier who volunteered for active service at the start of the war, he had been in the trenches for eight months. His two eldest sons had followed him into the services and were drummers. They had also been invalided home.