Another death after offensive

County casualties from the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the first big Allied offensive of the war, continued to mount.

The paper already reported on the death of L/ Cpl John Penman, D Company, 2nd Gordon Highlanders, a 19-year-old former colliery worker who was eldest son of George Penman, miner, Bentheads, Bannockburn and died on March 11.

And in the Observer of April 6, it was intimated that Pte John Trotter Millar, 2nd

Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, was killed in action during the battle on March 14. He was eldest son of Mr William Millar and came from a family that left Stirling to set up a business in Musselburgh. Pte Millar’s cousins, James and Samuel, ran a bakery in Stirling.

Pte Ninian Johnston, Gordon Highlanders, Baker Street, Stirling, was wounded taking part in the successful storming of German positions during the push. The 17-year-old suffered a bullet wound in his legs.

Pte Sam Cuthbert, 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders, a married man with three children living at 14 Glasgow Road, St Ninains, was another Neuve Chapelle casualty. He was wounded.

Sandy Robertson, 2nd Black Watch, son of Mr James Robertson, The Path, Bannockburn, was involved in the fighting at Neuve Chapelle and wrote home to say losses to his company “were very severe”and that he considered himself lucky to have escaped. Before joining up, Sandy was a well know local footballer and played outside right for the Bannockburn team.

British commanders hoped the attack by 40,000 Allied troops at Neuve Chapelle, in the Artois region of France, between March 10 and 13 would open up German lines. But the strike led to more than 11,000 Allied casualties, 4000 of them members of the Indian Army, and became bogged down after an early advance.