The MacGillivray and Scott lists

The following biographies are the result of the extensive and painstaking work of Russell MacGillivray and Ian Scott (RMcG/IS) whose efforts were started well before my own. They afford the reader a biographical description of the serviceman and where possible his family.

Russell and Ian were unable to finish the process, but the biographies researched by them are transcribed below. There is overlap between men from Larbert and Bothkennar. Russell MacGillivray and Ian Scott’s write ups of the soldiers’ histories are given before my write ups. My purpose in this section has been to write biographies of the men not covered by RMcG/IS and to expand on the work done by Russell and Ian.

The work on the Larbert War Memorial is huge, some 285 men, which puts this work on the Bothkennar Memorial into perspective. The work on the Bothkennar Memorial on the 40 men of Bothkennar who died and are listed pales in comparison. Where it is different is its focus. Where soldiers that appear in Russell’s “Larbert and the Great War” book and in the Bothkennar Memorial, the Bothkennar project should, hopefully, develop RMcG/IS’s original work.

My interest has been not only the soldiers but also the people and the community of Bothkennar in that time between the run up to the war and the aftermath.

The publication of the 1921 census will hopefully offer a view of the impact of the Great War folk of in Bothkennar in that tragic period.

Family

Husband of Mrs Elizabeth Adamson, nee Robb, Bothkennar; father of wee Jim & Nettie; eldest son of Mr & Mrs McDonald, East End, Stenhousemuir

James, who was born in Clackmannan, was a member of Alloa Burgh Police Force prior to the outbreak of the First World War.  He was a “very popular and efficient police officer”.

As soon as war was declared he enlisted in Alloa for the army.  However, it was some time before he went to the Western Front as his service medals do not include the 1914 Star or the 1914-15 Star.  He returned home for a short period as he had suffered from trench fever.  This was a common disease which was spread by the bites of body lice.  The main symptoms were headaches, skin rashes, inflamed eyes and leg pains.  The fever usually lasted for about five days, but relapses were common.  Rarely a fatal disease, recovery usually took about a month.

At the time of his death, James belonged to the 2/1st Berkshire Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery, which had arrived on the Western Front three months previously.  From mid-July his battery was based near Nieupoort.

On 1 September 1917. James was seriously wounded by shrapnel.  He was taken to the 1st Canadian Clearing Station at Adinkerke, a village 12 miles east of Dunkirk. He died there of these wounds later the same day.

Family

Son of Margaret Paton, Bellsdyke Cottages & of William Baillie, Back o’ Dyke, Larbert

Robert lived with his mother at Bellsdyke Cottages, Bothkennar.  He was a miner at Redding Pit before he joined the army. 

Robert died of wounds which he suffered on July 24 during the Battle of the Somme. At the start of July his brigade was moved into the Somme area.  By July 7 all batteries belonging to the brigade were in action south of Montauban.  On July 14 their bombardment began at 3.20 a.m., five minutes before the infantry attack on the enemy line from Bazentin-le-Grand to Longueval.  They on fired the enemy lines continuously all day. From then until they were relieved on August 1, there was heavy shelling by both sides.  On July 24 the brigade diary reported that 41st Battaery was “badly shelled with all calibres.”

Cemetery/Memorial

Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbe, France

II. E. 46.

Mericourt-L’Abbe is a village about 6 miles south-west of the town of Albert.  Since this cemetery was used to bury the soldiers who died at three Casualty Clearing Stations established in the village between May and July 1916, many graves are either too close together to be marked individually, or they contain multiple burials.

Robert is also commemorated on the Grangemouth War Memorial

Private Alexander BAIRD

2nd Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers

Service Number 15099

Date of Death 14 May 1917

Age at Death 36

Family

Husband of Jane Stewart Baird, Skinflats; father of Janet

Alex lived in Stenhousemuir with his wife Jane and one child. He was a miner employed by Carron Company before joining the army in September 1914.  He was initially posted to the 2nd Battalion of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers.  He arrived on the Western Front in July 1915 in his regiment’s 7th Battalion.  He was wounded in November 1915 and suffered from trench fever in September 1916.  He was invalided home as a result and didn’t go back to France until April 1917.

He was one of 25 other ranks who joined the 2nd Battalion on 8 May 1917.  On that day and the following day, the KOSB, when they were in trenches just south of Fresnoy Wood, were subject to some severe shelling, causing “fairly heavy casualties”.  An attack on the German position at 2 a.m. on the 9th was a total failure.  In 3 days the battalion suffered over 150 casualties.

They were relieved on the 10th but, as the battalion war diary records, “at 10 p.m. on the 12th we moved into the front line again, but taking up a slightly different position.”  This was near Oppy Wood.  “The battalion remained in the trenches until the night of 16th/17th…  The tour was more or less uneventful.  Enemy shelling was constant, but not heavy, excepting at intervals when he appeared to be nervous and laid down a barrage.”  7 soldiers, including Alex Baird, were killed between the 13th and 17th May.

In the death notice for Alex was quoted Hebrew chapter xii verse 5:

“Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”

Bob Carmichael died from head injuries received during a German air raid on St Omer the day before.  The town suffered a number of air raids during May 1918 and the number of casualties was described as “serious”. 

Before he joined the army in 1914 he worked for a firm of stevedores at Grangemouth Docks.  He had gone to the Western Front with a group of transport men and had belonged to the Railway Transportation Establishment.  This was responsible for the operation of the military railway system on the Western Front.  The men attached to the RTE worked, for example, as porters, loaders, train conductors, clerks.

Bob’s widow, Janet, and child lived at Palace Cottages, Bothkennar. 

Commemorated at Longuenesse (St Omer) Souvenir Cemetery, St Omer, France

This section is a transcription from IS/RMcG of the Peter Davie section on the “Men of Larbert War Memorial publication

Family: Husband of Jeanie Scobbie, Blackmill Carron; son of George and Jane Davie. Father of Janet Wilson Davie

Peter Davie was a gas fitter before the war and was called up immediately. He left for the front lines on 13th August 1914. In November he was invalided home but returned to the Western Front five months later.

Private Davie’s battalion was transferred to Mesopotamia at the end of 1915. The British base at Kut-al-Amara was besieged by Turkish forces from 7 December 1915. So his battalion on its’ arrival in Mesopotamia on 5 January 1916 was immediately ordered to break the siege. A total of 19,000 British* troops advanced up the River Tigris towards Kut but when they were confronted by a Turkish Force which was at least 3,000 soldiers stronger than the British force.

*The troops involved were British Empire forces with the majority of men being drawn from the Indian Army, usually in mixed Brigades of two battalions of Indian troops and one British battalion.

The Battle of Sheikh Sa’ad in which Peter Davie was killed, was fought to overcome the Turks. The British Force attacked at midday on January 7. The Black Watch were sent forward at 1:30 p.m. against the well-defended Turkish position. Colonel Arthur Wauchope, the commanding officer of the Black Watch complained that “no time was given for the issue of orders, no frontage or direction was given, no signals communications arranged and to all enquiries the one answer was “Advance where the bullets are thickest’.” Also his orders were to make a frontal attack on a plain as bare and flat as a billiard table without any artillery support.”

According to historian Peter Hart,

The Turkish trenches were well-sited; the rifle and machine gun fire was heavy, accurate and well-controlled (as equal to any rifle fire they had had come under on the Western front) and their artillery fire was particular. Moreover, the sun was right in the eyes of the attacking force and with the mirage, added greatly to the difficulties, and especially those of the supporting artillery, which were unable to locate at all accurately, the position of the Turkish trenches.

Consequently, as a Black Watch soldier wrote, “The regiment came under heavy shell-fire as soon as they advanced, followed by intense rifle-fire which bowled over the men like rabbits.” The British force lost 4,000 casualties in three days and made no significant gain. In this battle, and two others the same month, the troops “went through hell”.

In the three weeks of the January campaign to relieve Kut, the 2nd battalion Black Watch went from 29 officers and 890 men in the battalion to 2 officers and 130 men.

At the end of April the British surrendered at Kut-al-Amara.

Hart P (2013) The Great War page 281

Buchanan, G (1928) pp 64-65

Private Thomas LAING

2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders

Service Number S/40613

Date of Death 11 April 1917

Age at Death 25

Family

Son of James & Agnes Sibbald Laing, Argyle Buildings, Skinflats

Thomas was employed at Carronhall Colliery and lived with his parents.  He enlisted in the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders in November 1914.  He was later transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders.

He was killed during the Battle of Arras.  His battalion, which was to have a support role in the first days of the battle, was to capture the 3rd system of German trenches, known as Le Point du Jour.

Zero hour was 5.30 a.m. on April 9, and the 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, in support, moved off an hour later.  At first their advance was “quite uneventful”.  At 12 noon the advance was continued and the battalion crossed No Man’s Land.  The German front line system had been “more or less obliterated by our shellfire.”  At 3.10 p.m. the battalion reached their objective for the first day and began to consolidate their position.  This continued until the morning of the 11th.

In the early hours of the 11th arrangements began for a resumption of the attack in the valley of the River Sensee.  It was to start at 12 noon. The assembly of the attacking troops beforehand was spotted by German aeroplanes and consequently heavily shelled. “When Zero came, the Companies advanced into the barrage.  They were immediately subjected to intense machine gun fire,” the battalion war diary noted.  A British barrage was put down around the Hyderabad Redoubt but this was “very weak”.  The German machine guns were positioned beyond the reach of this barrage and the failure of the attack was blamed on this.

Another operation at the western outskirts of the small village of Fampoux just east of Arras failed: “The heavy machine gun fire maintained by the enemy made it impossible to obtain information regarding the course of the action.”  The bitterness of the comment in the battalion war diary is easy to detect: “but it required no report to realize that a single wave of 400 men who had to advance an average of 1600 yards with a Battalion in front of 100 yards could not obtain their objectives in face of such machine gun fire and rifle fire.”

Thomas Laing was one of the battalion’s casualties which numbered 12 officers (out of 12) and 363 other ranks (out of 420).  “I leave these losses to speak for the gallantry of all ranks”, wrote Major N C Orr.

Thomas is commemorated at Brown’s Copse Cemetery, Roeux, France.

Roeux is a village 8 miles east of the town of Arras.

IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY BELOVED SON

Adam came from a large family.  He had 4 brothers and 3 sisters.  He was working as a miner at Howkerse Colliery and living with his parents and two of his sisters when war broke out.  He attested for the army in November 1914 but he did not give an undertaking to serve abroad until February 1916 and didn’t actually go abroad till April 1917.

He served in the 14th Battalion of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders in 1917 and with the 11th and the 2nd Battalions in 1918.  He joined the 2nd Battalion in June 1918.

It seems likely that he was killed in action when the 2nd Battalion was involved in attacks on three successive days on German trenches near Villers-Guislain, a small village ten miles south-west of Cambrai.

On September 21, the battalion bombed the trenches held by the Germans at Leith Walk.  There was considerable German resistance and the attack was called off at 10 a.m.  Later that day, in the evening, the battalion repeated the morning’s attack.  There was more success.

On September 22 at 9.48 p.m., the battalion was sent in to capture trenches at Derby Post, Gloucester Road and Storar Avenue.  Despite heavy machine gun and rifle fire crossing No Man’s Land, which stopped all but 20 men out of 3 platoons, the attackers arrived in Gloucester Road and then seized Derby Post.  There was intense fighting all through the night as the Germans made several determined counter-attacks.

On September 23 at 9 a.m., the Germans hit the British positions with “a sudden and heavy barrage and attacked in great force,” the battalion war diary noted.  By 10.30 a.m. the battalion soldiers were being driven back at several points. Their supplies of bombs and trench mortar ammunition were exhausted and emergency supplies were brought out to the battalion.  The situation was “very critical”.  According to the battalion war diary,

The 2nd Battalion was relieved on September 23rd and went into Brigade Support.  At night for the next few days carrying parties of about 50 soldiers were involved in preparations for future operations.  Adam Laird was killed in action on the 24th.

Casualties for the period September 19 - 30 were noted in the battalion war diary.  They numbered 4 officers killed, 6 wounded and 1 missing.  36 other ranks were killed, 152 wounded and 54 missing.

Adam is Commemorated at Vis-en-Artois Memorial and also on the Grangemouth War Memorial

John lived with his mother in Glensburgh and worked as a miner before he enlisted in the army in December 1914.  He was then a month away from his 18th birthday.  Perhaps because of his age, he didn’t go to the Western Front until the end of August 1916. 

In April 1917 John’s battalion was in the Arras sector.  It took part in the first three days of the Battle of Arras and then was billeted for six days.  On April 18 at 11.30 a.m. it began a march of 17 miles in rain to reach at 9 p.m. the Hindenburg System just east of Neuville Vitasse, “without a single man having fallen out,” commented the battalion war diary.  Both sides shelled each other’s front line trenches over the next four days before John’s battalion launched its next attack.

The objective was to advance to the high ground overlooking the Sensee valley and Cherisy.  At 4.45 a.m., Zero hour, British artillery put over “an exceedingly heavy barrage” whilst the Germans retaliated with one “nearly as heavy”.  The battalion went off in excellent formation but almost the entire line was held up by a heavy machine gun barrage.  “Those that escaped pushed on most gallantly but were eventually stopped long before reaching their objective.”  A German counter-attack at 6 a.m. tried to roll up the right flank of the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers but was driven back by Lewis gun fire.

In the early afternoon the Germans attacked on the left of the Royal Scots Fusiliers but did not involve them.  At 4.30 p.m. the order to withdraw was received and this was completed before another British assault on the German trenches began at 6 p.m.

The battalion’s casualties were huge.  There were 15 officer casualties.  55 other ranks were killed, plus 3 died of their wounds; 195 were wounded and a shocking total of 309 were missing.

John Laird was one of those posted missing.

In addition to the the Bothkennar Memorial, John is commemorated on the Arras Memorial and on the Grangemouth Memorial

In the early summer of 1918 the 203rd Field Company of the Royal Engineers was serving in the valley of the Somme as the fightback after the German Spring Offensive of 1918 began.  The company spent most of May near Martinsart about two miles north of Albert.

On June 1 it moved into the Aveluy Wood sector and worked on the front line system of trenches.  The work consisted of “gas blanketing shelters and bunking same”; salvaging railway materials, rails and sleepers; and also linking a communication trench across a road to Clarence Trench.

William was working on one of these tasks when he was killed by the bursting of a shell.  Casualties amongst the 200 or so men who belonged to the company were relatively small, though June’s casualties for the whole of June were well above the monthly average at 8 killed and 14 wounded.

Before joining the army, William was a cranesman employed by the Caledonian Railway Company.

William is commemorated at the Senlis Communal Cemetery Extension, France

Senlis-le-Sec is a village 3 miles north-east of the town of Albert.

Robert enlisted in the army in November 1914.  At that time worked as a miner at Howkerse Colliery and lived in Baker Row, Bothkennar, with his father and his father’s fourth wife.  Robert’s mother had died when he was 3 weeks old.  He had 2 brothers and 3 sisters and 2 half-brothers and 4 half-sisters. 

In August 1916 he went to the Western Front in the 7th Battalion of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders.  He was then transferred to the 11th Battalion.

His battalion was successful on the first day of the Battle of Arras in reaching its objectives.  It was relieved on April 12th and in billets until the 18th when it was told that it would be going into line again but further south opposite the village of Guemappe. 

On 23 April it took part in an advance which began at 4.45 a.m.  It took an enemy strong point but was held up in front of Bullet Trench which was protecting the village of Guemappe.  The battalion “tried to push on through incessant machine gun and rifle fire” but no significant progress was made by the time the battalion was relieved at 11.30 p.m.  Out of an estimated total of 295 casualties for the day 50 other ranks were killed and 50 were missing.

Robert was posted wounded and missing after this attack.  In February 1918 his family was told that he was “now regarded for official purposes as having died on or since 23 April 1917”.

Commemorated on the Arras Memorial

Alex was a miner employed by the Callendar Coal Company and lived with his mother in Falkirk.  In November 1914 he joined the army and was posted to the 1st Battalion of the Cameron Highlanders.  He went to the Western Front in March 1915. 

On May 9 the battalion was involved in a major attack on the German lines near Hinges.  In the afternoon about 350 men in the battalion advanced and about 180 of them were killed or wounded before they were half-way across No Man’s Land.

The next significant operation for the 1st Camerons was to take part in the attack on the first day of the Battle of Loos.  They were to assault the German front lines immediately south of the Hulluch – Vermelles road.  The battalion war diary recorded that at 5.30 a.m. the 1st Camerons went in support of 2 other battalions.  The full account of the operations on the first day written three days later reads:

The Camerons held the line until they were withdrawn on the evening of September 27. It is clear from an official return that it was not known when Alexander was killed between the 25th and 28th.  It is most likely that he was killed on the first day of the battle.

Commemorated at Ninth Avenue Cemetery, Haisnes, France

“Information has been received by Miss Mary Rae, is that her brother, Private Peter Rae, Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons), has been killed in action in France.

Private Rae, whose brother, Pte Robert Rae, Camerons, is at present lying ill at Manchester, is a son of the late Mr Robert Rae, Clover Row, Skinflats.

He was employed by the Anglo-American Oil Company, Grangemouth before enlisting. He was the first in the village of Skinflats to enlist after the outbreak of hostilities, and is the first to have fallen in defence of King and country.” Peter was said to be the first from Skinflats to enlist in the army after war was declared.  He was then employed by the Anglo-American Oil Company in Grangemouth.

After training, he went to the Western Front in October 1915.  The Royal Scots Greys were at Becourt until the start of 1916 when they moved to Bethune.  There was a rota of four days in and four days out the trenches at the Quarries near Vermelles, a village about five miles from Bethune.

Ten days after arriving there Peter was killed in action.  In the report of his death in the Falkirk Herald, it stated that he was “the first [from Skinflats] to have fallen in defence of King and country”, and so far as can be ascertained, this was the case.

Commemorated on the Loos Memorial  

Probably the best-known, locally and nationally, of the men named on Bothkennar Church’s memorial plaque and the highest ranking was Corporal William Stirling.  Since his service record survives, we know most about him and his parents gave plenty of information to the Falkirk Herald.

William was 25 years old when he enlisted in the army on 14 September 1914, about six weeks after the start of the war and at the height of the rush to volunteer.  Previously, he worked as a miner and lived with his parents.  He had 4 brothers and 1 sister.

He was, the Falkirk Herald said, a “notable piper”.   In fact he was well-known throughout Scotland as “a piper of exceptional merit”.  He began taking part in piping competitions when he was only 14 years old.  Among the medals and prizes he won was a special prize for pibroch playing at Oban Highland Gathering when he was “merely a boy”.  When he was 21, he won the Scottish Amateur Championship.

When he joined the 12th Battalion, his medical inspection report recorded that he was 5 feet 8 ½ inches tall, had a 37-inch chest, fresh complexion, blue-gray eyes and auburn hair.  It also noted that he was a Roman Catholic.

His battalion went in November 1914 to the south of England for training.  By the time it was ready go abroad, William had been appointed a Corporal.  It was probably about this time that he was offered the position of Pipe-Major for the Cameronians but he chose to stay with his own regiment.

In September 1915 the battalion arrived on the Western Front but, after two months, went to Greece to serve in the Salonika campaign.  Aaccording to one historian of the war, this was very much “a sideshow that contributed almost nothing, until the last weeks of the war, to Germany’s defeat,”

The first fighting in the campaign was not until the end of September 1916 when there was a major attack on the Bulgarian Army.  Three weeks later, “while raiding a village”, William was killed.

William was one of a raiding party of 200 other ranks and 7 officers who were to “search through the whole of Krastali”, a small village four miles south-east of Doiran.  They moved off at ten past midnight on the 25th.  Twenty minutes later they came under “heavy rifle fire and bombs from the front and from both flanks”.  They continued to advance by forward rushes but within 200 yards of the village they were “heavily shelled”.  Some groups got close to the village but “in view of the strength of the enemy [which was estimated at about 300] it was deemed advisable to retire and this was successfully carried out.”

The raid was a total failure.  The fact that the enemy was “well-prepared for Raid” was blamed on the noise caused by the men having to cross over stony ground as they approached the village.

Only one member of the raiding party was killed, an NCO whose body, it was noted in the report on the raid, was “recovered.”  This was William Stirling.

His parents received letters of condolence from his officers.  One officer wrote that “No matter what the nature of the task was, he was always keen and efficient and ever desired to be included when work of any danger or nature was to be undertaken.  He was universally liked.”  Another officer agreed, saying that he was “one of the most popular men in the battalion” as well as being a “fine soldier”.  He went on to say that he was “having a photograph taken of his grave and will send it to you as soon as possible.  He was a gallant soldier fighting for his country.”

William Stirling is commemorated in the Karasouli Military Cemetery, Greece

This cemetery is on the outskirts of the town of Polykastro (formerly Karasouli) and about 45 miles from Thessalonki.