Over 400 men of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) were, at some point, captured and made prisoner by the enemy during the Second World War. Almost 150 of these were men of the 2nd Battalion who were captured during the Battle of France and subsequent retreat from Dunkirk.[1]
German Prisoner of War tag, issued to 14383490 Rifleman Robert Smith, 2nd Cameronians. The tag was issued at Stalag VII/A, Germany’s largest POW camp, and is engraved with Smith’s prisoner of war number, 132263.
The plight and welfare of these men was of immediate concern to the Regiment. A number of initiatives and funds were soon in place to provide prisoners with both practical assistance, in the form of food and comfort packages, and with moral support – by way of letters of encouragement, reassurance, and the promise that they and their families would not be forgotten.
As early as November 1939, Major-General Sir Eric Girdwood, Colonel of the Regiment, outlined his plans for a Prisoner of War fund. The fund would be used to send comfort packages to men of the Regiment who were prisoners of war. A similar scheme had been successfully operated in the First World War, administered by Mrs Evelyn Vandeleur, and run out of the Riding School in Hamilton.[2] Evelyn was the wife of Colonel C. B. Vandeleur D.S.O., a Cameronian officer who had himself been a prisoner in the First World War and would find fame as the first British officer to successfully escape and make his way back to Britain.
The new Fund would be administered by Mrs Irene Grant, wife of Major D. C. Grant, Officer Commanding the Regimental Depot Party at Hamilton Barracks. The prisoners’ relief-parcel service was operated by Mrs Jessie Sandilands, wife of Lieutenant-Colonel V. C. Sandilands D.S.O.
The wartime editions of the regimental magazine, The Covenanter, include regular lists of donors and subscribers to the Prisoners of War fund. Donations poured in from the extended regimental family; veterans of the regiments, widows of soldiers killed in service, families of those currently serving – all contributed money to improve the lot of Cameronians in captivity, and at a time when many people would be experiencing hardships of their own. Donations were forthcoming from friends of the Regiment from as far afield as the United States of America, and from closer to home; the post office in Falkland, birthplace of Richard Cameron after whom the Regiment takes its name, collected £20 in public donations and gifted this to the Prisoner of War Fund.
At a regimental level, various fetes, revues and entertainments were put on by the Regimental Depot and Infantry Training Centre at Hamilton to help boost the Comfort Funds.
Programme for a revue held at Hamilton Town Hall in March 1940, to raise money for the Comforts for the Troops Fund.
In 1941, the Regimental Band from the Depot in Hamilton carried out a highly successful fundraising tour of Lanarkshire, where they managed to raise several hundred pounds.
Letters from Cameronian prisoners of war tell just how greatly the men appreciated the efforts of those at home:
January 8, 1943
Dear Hon. Secretary and Committee: Your parcel sent to me dated 25/9/42 arrived safely 31/12/42. As this is the first clothes parcel I have received since becoming a prisoner of war, no words can adequately express my sincerest thanks for this very welcome gift and my utmost appreciation of the noble work of committee and workers. Yours faithfully, L. Addison, Regt. No. 3247334, Stalag XXB.
The Covenanter May 1943
The families of men who were taken prisoner endured constant worry and concern over the welfare of their loved one. It would often takes many weeks or even months before a soldier would be confirmed as a prisoner of war. In the first instance, men were simply reported as ‘missing’. It was only once their whereabouts in a prison of war camp could be confirmed, usually in collaboration with the Red Cross, that their status would be changed to ‘prisoner of war’.
Pamphlet issued to the wife of Rifleman Robert Smith, taken prisoner in Italy on 19th March 1944.
The parents of Lionel Neighbour were informed that their son had been posted as ‘missing’ on May 31st 1940. Lionel was one of many men of 2nd Cameronians reported missing during the retreat and subsequent evacuation at Dunkirk. It wasn’t until the morning of August 30th, however – three months later – that a letter arrived from Lionel, stating that he was a prisoner of war. During that time, Lionel’s parents had no news concerning his whereabouts and were starting to fear the worst. The relief of a very concerned mother and father is evident in their reply to their son’s letter:
Letter to Lionel Neighbour from ‘Mum & Dad’ on learning that he was alive and a prisoner of war.
Monday 2nd September 1940
Dear Lionel
I hope you will be able to realize that the amount of joy and pleasure your letter gave to us all is almost indescribable. We were officially informed from records that you were reported missing on the 31st May. Every day and every week since then we have been hoping to receive some word to say that you were alive until quite recently when we all began to give up hope. When the wonderful news arrived, we could hardly believe our eyes. We see your letter was written on the 21st June but we only received it on Saturday morning the 30th Aug. I hope this letter will not take as long to reach you. And was everyone at the “Duck-in-the-pond” and elsewhere pleased also. They have all asked us to send you their kind regards & best wishes and we all sincerely hope it will not be so very long before we shall see you again, in the meantime we all wish you as good a time as is possible under the circumstances. We are all very pleased to know that you are keeping well and being treated decently. If they treat you as well as we treat our prisoners of War I know that you will not come to much harm. Well Lionel son, kept smiling, it may be a long lane yet, although I hope not, but an ending to this terrible affair must come sometime, and then I hope we shall all meet together again and have one glorious celebration. Things are much the same as when you saw us last here at Stanmore. I am still with the old firm and have recently obtained a couple of contracts. Mum, Emily, Winnie, little Michael, Pat, Brenda, Joan & Tommy are all keeping very well. Joan has now left school and is trying to get a job near home. We are not anxious for her to commence work, but if she can get one locally it will keep her out of mischief. Phillip, Stanley, Charlie & Jack are all keeping fit and well at the moment. Charlie passes out in a couple of months. Well Lionel son, there’s one item of very bad news to tell you – Poor Clive was killed in action on the 3rd Aug. Jack Neighbour is still busy and he and the family are all keeping well, this also applies to Uncle Ben and Aunt Phylis. Also Grandpa Neighbour is still keeping well, at any rate he was when we saw him last which was about 3 weeks ago. Hope to hear from you again very shortly and if there is anything you require and we are allowed to send it, you can rest assured we shall do so. We all send you our fond love and best wishes.
Yours affectionately
Mum & Dad
On 19th March 1944, around 35 men of ‘B’ Company, 2nd Cameronians, were taken prisoner while engaged with the Axis forces around the Anzio beachhead. Among those taken prisoner were Robert Smith and Reginald (Reg) Poynter. Robert had left a wife and young son back home in Glasgow when he joined The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). Reg had been married to his beloved Millie for little over a year when he enlisted in January 1943. The two men, along with their comrades who had been taken prisoner, would endure months of hardship as they made the long journey from Rome, through Austria, into Germany, and ultimately to Poland – covering most of the distance on foot through a series of gruelling, forced marches. Robert’s wife was given a map of Europe by the Red Cross, on which were marked the various Italian and German prisoner of war camps. As news trickled in over the weeks and months as to her husband’s current whereabouts, Mrs Smith would write a number next to the name of the camp in which her husband was detained. Given the men’s constant movement and the delays in forwarding letters and parcels to prisoners through the Red Cross, it was almost impossible for these prisoners to correspond with their families back home. The map was Mrs Smith’s only means of keeping in touch with her husband.
Section of the Red Cross map issued to Mrs Smith, who has numbered the camps Stalag 344 and Stalag VIIIB – the last two camps in which her husband was detained.
Reg Poynter somehow managed to keep a diary covering much of his time as a prisoner of war. Through this we get some measure of the stress, loneliness, anxiety and physical hardship that was typical of life as a prisoner of war. Being unable to communicate with Millie back home and reassure her that he was alive was a daily torture for Reg. His diary is filled with little messages to Millie, written in lieu of the letters that he was so seldom able to send, and even then never knowing if she would ever receive them.
Mon. 27 (March) – Still in this dirty camp waiting to be moved and we had everything taken from us. I could [do] with some of Millie’s home cooking and a smoke.
Tue. 28 Well Millie, food is very bad, we are starving, all looking very weak, one loaf of Black Bread between five a day.
Wed. 29 Oh Millie, how I miss you, and worried wondering how things will turn out, wish this war would end.
Thur. 30 Shall be pleased to move from this camp, the food is the same and the fleas are eating us away.
In this extract Reg has been a prisoner for three months. Here he describes the march north towards Germany.
Fri. 16 (June) I’ve said to Millie sometimes not to waste crusts, but Millie would always see I had the best, now I am in need of them, the old saying ‘waste not want not’.
Sat. 17 We moved out of here, walked 18kg [km] through the night and slept on a football field in Florence, then when daylight came we walked –
Sun. 18 – all the way back to the same camp as we could not get through for bombing. I am very tired, stiff and hungry.
Memo. When we marched through Florence, some of the boys tried to escape. Jerry just shot them and left them in the road for trucks to run over – what a terrible sight.
After almost six months of being a prisoner of war, Reg arrived in Poland where he would remain until his liberation by the Russians on 16th March 1945.
Fri. 8 (September) Parcel day so had a good feed, the weather is very warm like midsummer, there’s been a cricket match today and football tomorrow.
Sat. 9 I am not too bad, only worried about my next move which I think is tomorrow. I am very fed up of this life & wonder how I stick it.
Sun. 10 Moving to a new camp in Poland, it looks like the mines – just fancy, after all I’ve been through, now come to this.
Memo. Yes, its the mines alright, in Poland in a new camp, which is OK. food not so good and no parcels.
Both Robert Smith and Reg Poynter would make it home once again and be reunited with the loved ones they had been separated from for so long. Their final prison camp in Poland, where they had been forced to labour in local coal mines, was liberated by the advancing Russian Army. After another series of gruelling marches ahead of the Russians, the men finally made it to the Allied lines, malnourished and suffering from the hardships of prison life, but alive.
The 1st Cameronians spent the duration of the Second World War in India and Burma, fighting the Japanese. A number of 1st Battalion men would ultimately become prisoners of war of the Japanese, and endure terrible hardship and cruelty at the hands of their captors. Many of these men would spend the duration of their imprisonment in the notorious Rangoon Gaol, such as Rifleman Leslie Spoors, who wrote a memoir of his time as a prisoner of war under the Japanese:
“I was captured on the 19th April having been wounded in the arm with shrapnel the day before. We were all wounded – that’s why we were taken so easily, we couldn’t make a run for it. We were taken to a group of Burmese huts where our boots were removed, and the laces used to tie our hands behind our backs. More and more men were brought in during the night until eventually we were cramped together on the floor. It was a Sunday when we were put into the huts and we were there four days and four nights. We had nothing to eat all that time and nothing to drink although we made feeble attempts to drink our own urine. All our body wastes just collected beneath us in the huts. I thought we might never see the light of day again. But we did, for after four days we were freed from the indescribable stench. Captain Bradford-Martin had been brought into the hut during the first night, along with his batman. On the third day, we heard rain on the roof, a Mango shower as we called it, and Bradford-Martin decided to try and break through the thatched straw. Whether he intended to escape or just get a drink I never knew, but his batman followed him. They had both got through the hole they had made when two shots were heard. The batman fell back through the hole – Bradford-Martin was never seen or heard of again. It wasn’t long before the Japs came in and if the batman wasn’t already dead, they soon made sure that he was.”[3]
The rather grainy photograph, above, comes from The Covenanter, and shows liberated prisoners from the 1st Battalion at a tea party held in their honour by General Sir O’Connor (who himself had been a prisoner of war in Italy). Five of the men shown are former prisoners (judging by the thinness of their arms presumably they are the two men seated left, the man seated right, and the two men seated at the front). Their names are given in the article as: Sergeant McKenna, Rifleman Sherwin, Rifleman Spoors, Rifleman Leggatte, and Rifleman Martin.
Life as a prisoner of the Japanese was particularly brutal – the death rate among allied prisoners under the Japanese being almost seven times higher than those under Germany and Italy. Men of Lanarkshire’s local TA unit, the 155th (Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment Royal Artillery, suffered particularly at the hands of the Japanese following the fall of Singapore in February 1942 – 90 of their number would die as prisoners of war.
There were some amazing instances where Cameronian prisoners of war were able to escape. An Evening Times article from May 1st 1944, quoted in The Covenanter , recounts one such story:
The remarkable escape of a Blantyre soldier from a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Burma was fully described to a ‘Times’ correspondent on his unexpected return last week to his sister’s home at 5 Watson Street, Blantyre, Lanarkshire.
He is Rifleman John Cook, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), and has been on service in India for five years. About a year ago, Rifleman Cook, with a number of his companions, was taken prisoner, but after six months in captivity he managed to escape.
Their prison camp was in a clearing in the heart of the jungle, which was guarded day and night, and the food supplied to the men was a disgrace. The men had little opportunity of conversing with each other, but freedom was naturally uppermost in their minds.
One night the opportunity did present itself, and Cook and six of his companions decided to make a bold bid for freedom. In the darkness they made their way past the guard but their escape was detected and in the hue and cry which followed, Cook was the only one to gain his freedom, but he does not know what happened to his companions.
After wandering through the jungle for days and living solely on water melons and what fruits he could find, he ultimately reached a Ghurka camp.
As a result of his sufferings he was very ill for some time and completely lost his voice. Afterwards, British officers arrived and had him medically attended to.
Rifleman Cook is home on 28 days’ leave and expects that he will soon be back to his former health.
The most famous regimental escape story must belong to Lieutenant-General (later General Sir) Richard O’Connor, who had been a regimental officer with The Cameronians and would ultimately serve as Colonel of the Regiment. O’Connor had been captured by the Italians in North Africa in April 1941. O’Connor and a number of other senior officers would escape from their Italian prison camp in late 1943, and make their way back to Britain. O’Connor would go on to command VIII Corps during the invasion of Normandy in the summer of 1944.[4]
No account of Cameronian prisoners of war would be complete without mention of Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) J. D. Frost, who was famously captured leading the 2nd Parachute Battalion at Arnhem during Operation Market Garden. Frost would be immortalised on screen, played by Anthony Hopkins, in the blockbuster movie “A Bridge Too Far”.[5]
John Frost, of Arnhem fame, as a newly joined 2nd Lieutenant with The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 1933.
An article in the January 1945 edition of The Covenanter relayed the news of Frost’s fate after Arnhem:
Missing – Now P.O.W.
In our last issue, reported that Lieutenant-Colonel. J. D. Frost, D.S.O., Parachute Regiment, had been reported missing at Arnhem. We now learn from Colonel Frost’s sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Frogley … that he is a prisoner of war in Germany. From information received, it appears that Colonel Frost was hit in both legs by splinters from a trench mortar bomb and was taken into a house with the rest of the wounded. The house caught fire that night and a truce was made with the Germans, who took all the wounded to their hospital at Arnhem. Next day they were removed into Germany. Colonel Frost was later operated on by a French surgeon, and is now walking again. His many friends will be pleased to learn that he is safe and well and that their fears for his safety have been unfounded.
[1] These figures are based on the work of Mr Adrian Smith, who has been kind enough to share his research with me on numerous occasions.
[2] During the First World War the Riding School was still part of the Duke of Hamilton’s estate. It is now home to The Cameronians regimental museum displays as part of Low Parks Museum.
[3] Extract from “Rangoon Gaol”, privately published account of Rifleman Leslie Spoors.
[4] For a full account of O’Connor’s military service, capture and escape, see The Forgotten Victor by John Baynes.
[5] See Frost’s autobiographies; Nearly There (for his service with The Cameronians) and A Drop Too Many (for his wartime exploits with The Parachute Regiment).
This year sees the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Great Britain entered the War on 3rd September 1939; after six years of bitter fighting on land, sea and in the air, the War finally ended in 1945. Germany surrendered to the Allies on 8th May 1945. Only after atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, did Japan finally surrender on 15th August 1945, bringing the war to a final close.
A display of Highland Dancing in the liberated Belgian city of Ghent, March 1945, by men of the 2nd Cameronians.
Low Parks Museum had planned to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the War with a commemorative exhibition, exploring a number of personal stories and experiences of men from The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and the Lanarkshire Yeomanry (with our friends in The Lanarkshire Yeomanry Group). Current events have sadly put the exhibition on hold for the time being but it is hoped we may be able to feature some of the planned content in the Museum at some point later in the year.
While the Museum itself is currently closed in line with Government guidelines, we will continue to bring you stories, photographs and collections content through the regimental collections blog. The material that would have formed the basis for our exhibition will be covered in a series of blog posts over the coming weeks and months. We will continue to highlight and promote new posts through the Low Parks Museum Facebook page, so please make sure to ‘like’ the Page to keep up to date with our latest content. We are always interested to hear of your own family stories, so if you have any photographs, stories or objects from the War that you would like to share, we’d love to see them on the Facebook page.
Our first Second World War – 75 yearsOn post will be landing very soon, so stay tuned!
There are literally hundreds of excellent photographs in the Cameronians regimental museum collection. One could argue that photographs are one of our richest resources, in that they provide visual documentation of the Regiment’s history, and the men who made it.
Unfortunately, we aren’t always able to make best use of a photograph as, to put it simply, we don’t know much about it; who does it show, when was it taken, what event is being depicted? For the majority of the photographs in the regimental collection, this information simply hasn’t been recorded.
At a guess, less than a quarter of the photographs in the regimental collection bear the names of the soldiers shown. Formal, posed, group photographs of a Company, Platoon or sports team might have a title and a date, but rarely individual names.
” ‘B’ Company, 2nd Battalion Boxing Team, Bordon, 1936″
All useful information, but sadly no names
Often a photograph has been pasted into an album with little or no caption, or has been removed from the mount that had the title recorded. If a photograph had been handed to the Regiment in times past, or to the museum in it’s infancy when still staffed by soldiers – there was often an assumed level of knowledge and familiarity with regimental photographs and so written details weren’t always deemed necessary. In other cases, the name of a soldier may have been written on the reverse of an image, but often without details such as when and where the photograph was taken. Often this is because the family member who may have donated the photograph didn’t know more than the name of the relative depicted – and even this might not always be certain. I’m sure many of us have old family photographs that we have inherited, with only a vague notion of which great-great granddad/granny/uncle or relative that we think might be shown. How many of us regularly lament the fact we didn’t pay more attention (or take written notes) when an older relative was relating family history stories to us, or pointing out faces in the family albums? I certainly do, and I should know better!
With that said, what can we do with these unidentified photographs? Luckily, with many military photographs there is usually always some detail that can be discerned as a starting point. The type of uniform worn can usually help establish, at the least, whether the sitter is a soldier, sailor or airman, and possibly also give us a rough period for when the photograph may have been taken. The more detail a photograph contains, especially in terms of uniform, the better chance we have of being able to identify things such as a regiment or battalion, time period, and possibly a location. There are many books covering this subject alone, not to mention some excellent online research guides that can be a useful starting point for those looking to research their own family photographs. The Scottish Military Research Group have an excellent guide aimed specifically for those with photographs of relatives in Scottish units – http://scottishmilitaryresearch.weebly.com/uploads/7/3/9/1/73918079/scottish_military_research_using_family_photographs.pdf
Not forgetting James Taub’s excellent blog post on the subject of identifying Cameronians in First World War photographs – http://cameronians.apps-1and1.net/srid/
With many photographs in the regimental collection, it has been possible to identify a particular unit or even identify individual soldier(s) by close examination of the detail on show.
“Guard of Honour to Douglas Haig when he unveiled the Memorial to the Regiment at Kelvingrove”
The above photograph is a perfect illustration of this. The title tells us that the group shown were Field Marshal Haig’s guard of honour when he unveiled the Regimental memorial at Kelvingrove Park (9th August 1924). A further note on the reverse of the image records that the men shown were from the 6th Battalion – one of the Territorial regiments of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). All the men in this photograph are wearing medals related to service in the First World War; a number of those shown are awards given for gallantry, or long, meritorious service. The combinations of these awards, together with the ranks of the wearers at a given point in time, and the fact they are all from the 6th Battalion makes it possible for us to put likely names against some of the men shown. Trawling through seniority lists and other 6th Battalion notes in the Regimental magazine, The Covenanter, from the 1920s gives me potential names for seven of the men shown: rear row, second from left – CQMS A. Peat MM; front row, left to right – Sergeant John Stevenson DCM, MM, RQMS J. Hamilton, RSM J. J. Wall MM, MSM, Lieutenant A. Cullen, unknown CSM, CSM J. Williams MM, MSM, unknown CSM.
Sometimes one can be very lucky and hit the jackpot while searching through resources like The Covenanter. Take the photograph at the start of this article as an example – if you remember it was a photograph of the boxing team from ‘B’ Company, 2nd Battalion, taken at Bordon in 1936. Looking through The Covenanter magazine for May 1936 reveals a reproduction of this very photograph, along with an accompanying article, and, more importantly the names of the men shown.
The following photograph was donated by a relative of a Cameronian soldier, one of the group shown. In this instance, the name of the soldier has been recorded on the reverse; i.e. ‘Charles Henderson, extreme left, back row’. None of the other soldiers are identified, and the photograph is undated although the donor knew that their relative had served in the First World War.
Group photograph from the First World War – Charles Henderson, standing first left
The badges and other insignia on show, however, tell us much more. The badge worn on the upper arm, consisting of three coloured blocks (best seen on Charles, standing on left) is that worn by the 2nd Scottish Rifles while part of the 8th Infantry Division, from 22nd Sept 1914 until 3rd Feb 1918 when they moved to 20th Division. Some of the men also wear a wound stripe(s) on the lower left sleeve; this was introduced in July 1916. At least six of the men also wear a medal ribbon above the left-breast pocket, most likely that of the 1914 Star – these were first issued late 1917/early 1918 – the 1914/15 Star ribbon was identical to the 1914 Star, but this wasn’t issued for wear until 1919.
The more we work through our photographic collections while cataloguing, or researching exhibitions and displays, the more familiar we become with things such as regimental peculiarities of uniform, barrack buildings and background scenery at camps and training facilities, and of course, with individual faces. Close scrutiny of identified faces in labelled photographs has allowed to us to pick out the same soldier in other, unlabelled images. Quite often the presence of this ‘well kent face’ is enough to give us a potential unit identification (if looking at a group photograph), and a broad time period. The more we know about a photograph, the more useful it becomes in terms of illustrating the regiment’s history.
“Sjt’s Mess, 1923”
The excellent photograph above was simply labelled “Sjt’s Mess, 1923”. A search of our collections database revealed that there was another photograph in the collection with a similar title, that version being framed with the names of those shown printed on the mount. A physical check of this second photograph confirmed that the images shown were identical. What’s more – the framed photograph is extremely large and difficult to digitise due to it being behind glass; the unlabelled copy is small enough to scan and reproduces at a very high quality. Looking through the faces, several men were familiar and could be identified in other photographs. Sitting second from the left in the front row is Company Sergeant Major John Crymble.
Close-up of CSM John Crymble
If we look closer at the First World War photograph of the 2nd Battalion above, look who’s sitting in the front row…
Of course, researching a solitary photograph is a time consuming process with no guarantee of the results. We are careful nowadays to make sure we capture as much information about any object that comes into the museum collection, whether it be a photograph, medal, item of uniform etc. It is important that we carefully record who the item belonged to, when and how it was used, and any other important details relating to an objects history and it’s owner. With this in mind, it is worth taking the time to sort through any family photographs you have and add in any details that will someday prove invaluable to future generations, budding family tree researchers, and of course, museum curators!
A heavyweight both in the film industry and the historical world is 1917 directed by Sam Mendes and starring George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman. Without giving away too much of the plot, the film is set in April 1917 during Operation Alberich, the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line following the heavy fighting during the Battle of the Somme. Two young soldiers are sent with a message, ordering the 2nd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment to halt further attacks.
George MacKay as Schofield in 1917. Note the battalion flashes of the 2nd Devons.
British officers early in the film discuss trying to figure out if the Germans had completely abandoned their positions. While the question ‘where have the Germans gone?’ is explored through these two fictional individuals, it was a real situation facing the BEF in the Spring of 1917. A way which the BEF attempted to answer this question was through the liberal use of raids. One of the most famous photographs not only of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) but of the entire First World War was captured during one of these raids to gather more information on the enemy withdrawal. On 24 March 1917, B and D Companies of the 10th Scottish Rifles were captured by photographer John Warwick Brooke as they advanced to raid the enemy positions in their front.
Raids were commonplace up and down the British lines that Spring, but the one made by the 10th will remain one of the most famous in the history of the British Army solely through the series of photographs taken that day. The Battalion lost 3 Officers and 33 Other Ranks killed, wounded, or missing, most from British shells falling short.
Other battalions of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) experienced this confusing absence of Germans as well. The 2nd Scottish Rifles even served alongside the real 2nd Devons in 23 Brigade, 8th Division. On 15 March 1917, (several weeks earlier than the film is set), their story commenced with the 2nd Devons and 2nd West Yorks advancing upon reports of the enemy retiring in front. The 2nd SR themselves sent out a patrol under Second Lieutenant A.H. Ronan on the 18th finding the village of Moislains completely abandoned. When informed of this the Battalion Commander, Major Colin Robert Hoste Stirling sent forward C Company to take the position. The Scottish Rifles then advanced through Epinette Wood and Aizecourt-le-Bas, which was defended against counterattack on the 25th. That night the 2nd Scottish Rifles was to support the 2nd Devons during a night attack, however, this was called off. Perhaps part of the background for the film?
(L) Benedict Cumberbatch in 1917 wearing the flash of the 2nd Devonshire Regiment. (R) The Flash of the 2nd Scottish Rifles also of 23 Brigade, 8th Division
The 2nd Scottish Rifles continued alongside the 2nd Devons to attack Dessart Wood on 30 March, Gouzeaucourt on 12 April, Villers-Guislains, on 14 April, Gonnelieu, on 21 April, and La Vacquerie on 5 May. It was here that the Hindenburg Line was reached and the clear open warfare of the past few weeks, also seen in the film, was ended. The 2nd Scottish Rifles, while not explicitly depicted in 1917 were certainly nearby. The places in the film while not the factual locations of the 2nd Scottish Rifles, 2nd Devons, and the rest of 23 Brigade, are real and had a Cameronian presence during the Great War.
Écoust-Saint-Mein and Croiselles were both depicted in the film. The latter was being fought over by the 1st and 5/6th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) during the same month in which 1917 takes place. Both attacked towards the village of Fontaine-lès-Croisilles (to the north-east of Croisilles itself) on 14 April. The objective of the Croiselles-Cherisy Road was not reached and both battalions suffered heavy casualties. Notable figures of the Regiment including Captain D. G. Moncrieff Wright, commanding A Company of the 1st were wounded. Acting CSM of D Company, John MacLaren Erskine, v.c. was killed alongside 4 Officers and 39 Other Ranks of the 5/6th. The two battalions of the Regiment would attack again on 16, 23, and 24 April before finally being relieved.
John MacLaren Erskine, V.C. Killed in Action 14 April 1917.
While the story of the film itself is a mix of fact and fiction, exploring the real units and places help connect the story of the regiment to the big screen. The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) were present on the Western Front during the timeframe of the film and took part in many of the actions related to the story. While viewing historical fiction is a form of entertainment, it remains a great tool to encourage the exploration of the actual events which took place!
This blog post was prompted by recent discussions on Facebook regarding the whereabouts of certain items of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) regimental silver collection. Some veterans were curious as to where items of regimental significance ended up after the 1st Battalion’s disbandment in 1968, and so this blog post has been written to hopefully answer those questions and give something of an overview on the regimental silver collection from the time of disbandment to the present day.
Regimental silver laid out in the 1st Battalion’s Officers Mess, Maryhill Barracks, c.1913.
The disbandment of the 1st Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) has been touched on in a previous blog post and there is little need to go over it again in this post. Suffice to say, the decision to disband the 1st Battalion posed several logistical and administrative challenges. Chief among these must surely have been the small matter of the redistribution of officers and men from the 1st Battalion to other regiments and army corps. There was also the planning and organising required for the actual disbandment service itself – a high-profile yet sombre occasion of great significance that was attracting a high degree of media attention. While these considerable challenges were being faced, there was also the small matter of regimental property to consider.
In the March 1968 issue of The Covenanter (the Regimental magazine) the following article was published, under the title Disposal of Regimental Property:
Members of the Regiment will be wondering what will happen to our Regimental Property after the Disbandment of the 1st Battalion.
The bulk of the property in use with the 1st Battalion belongs to the Regimental Trust, and for so long as World Politics continue in their present fluctuating and critical state, there must always be a possibility that the Battalion might be resuscitated, however unlikely that this might appear today.
The Trustees have therefore decided (for the present, at any rate), to retain the bulk of our property. Utility items of Silver to equip a Battalion, will be stored, and the majority of the larger items will be loaned out where they will be appreciated, and where they will best serve to perpetuate the image of the Regiment. There will of course, also be a small requirement of items of historic interest, for the Regimental Museum.
At the same time however, there will be a certain number of smaller items which will be surplus to requirement, and which the Trustees are planning to dispose of, in order to supplement the Trust Funds. As almost all those items are from the Officers’ Messes of the two former Regular Battalions and the former 3rd and 4th Militia Battalions, the Trustees are anxious to give the serving and former officers of the Regiment the opportunity of bidding on favourable terms for those items before any attempt is made to dispose of them in the open market. In the case of the property of the two Regular Battalions, preference will be given to the bids of those who are, or were Regular Officers (or their close relatives), and in that of the 3rd and 4th Militia property, to the bids of our ex-Territorial Officers (or their close relatives).
The sorting, cataloguing and valuing of these possessions, is a complicated operation which the Trustees have in hand at the present time. Notification of the items available for sale, and the method of making bids for them, will be issued as soon as possible.
Having looked through the various lists, catalogues, insurance valuations, and correspondence generated through the cataloguing of the silver collection described above, I can confirm that it was indeed a complicated operation, especially when one considers the background of general upheaval under which this was carried out.
In the immediate run up to Disbandment, a number of formal presentations were made to high-profile persons linked to the Regiment, and to units with formal regimental affiliations. These were invariably items of silver, selected as being suitable for disposal. Included among these presentations were two pairs of silver goblets (a pair of 26th and a pair of 90th) to King Gustav of Sweden, the Colonel in Chief, a silver memento to Sir Alec Douglas-Home, and a small silver teapot to Lieutenant Colonel Leslie Dow, the last C.O. of the 1st Battalion. A number of silver bugles and regimental-pattern dirks were presented to the 7th Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles, the Witswatersrand Rifles, and the Rifle Brigade Depot.
Around this time, a number of silver items were also returned to officers who had originally presented them to the Regiment.
As outlined in the article quoted above, there was also a private sale of surplus silver items where serving and retired officers of the Regiment could bid on a small memento of their service. The items offered in this sale comprised mainly of small silver items, such as cutlery, ashtrays, table lighters, tableware etc., along with a selection of trophies and presentation cups deemed not to be of great regimental significance. Proceeds from this sale would bolster the Regimental Fund, and help pay for the long term storage and insurance of the remaining items being retained by the Regiment. Items not sold through this method were sold in a subsequent general sale at Christie’s.
A follow-up article in the June 1968 issue of The Covenanter recorded the presentation of larger items of regimental significance on loan to other regiments, corps, and institutions in order to help maintain the name of the Regiment:
After separating out the items which would be wanted for the Regimental Museum, the Trustees decided that, in order to keep the Regiment’s name to the fore, in as wide and as worthwhile circles as possible, and at the same time, to save the Regiment from the heavy expense of storing and insuring large quantities of Silver for an indefinite period, the remaining items should be offered on loan to responsible institutions which could be guaranteed to look after these treasures, to keep them insured, and to restore them to the Regiment if we should ever call for their return.
Some of the more significant of these items included the silver centrepieces of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions. The 1st Battalion centrepiece was presented to Holyrood House, while the 2nd Battalion centrepiece was deposited with the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Major General Hunt (right) with the 2nd Battalion’s centrepiece at RMC Sandhurst. Pictured on the left is Major Jim Burrell, a Cameronian officer who commanded Dettingen Company at Sandhurst when the presentation was made on 27 June 1968.
Other loaned items include the presentation of the Durand Cup, a famous football trophy won by The Cameronians in India in 1906, to Queen Victoria School in Dunblane, and six regimental side-drums to St. Bride’s Church in Douglas to name but a few.
In the years following the 1st Battalion’s disbandment, a number of smaller items of regimental silver were gifted to individual’s on their retirement from service. A number of additional items were also presented to various sporting clubs and institutions as prizes for competitions.
The regimental trustees organised a series of sales throughout the 1980s and into 1990 to help raise funds for the purchase of the Riding School and to redevelop the regimental museum. During these sales a number of larger silver items were sold, including a rams head snuff mull and the ‘St Vincent’ bowls made by Paul Storr. Reserve items from the museum collection were also sold, namely items of uniform and headdress and edged weapons.
The remaining regimental silver, along with the rest of the regimental museum collections, officially transferred in 2000 to South Lanarkshire Council, at the request of the regimental trustees and with approval and conditions set out by the Scottish Court of Session. Care of and responsibility for the collection now rest with South Lanarkshire Council and South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture (SLLC) who directly manage the collection on behalf of the Council.
Silver ‘Junk’, presented to the Band of the 1st Battalion by the Hong Kong Naval & Military YMCA, 1927. After Disbandment this item had been loaned to Motherwell Burgh Council. It was returned in 2009 and is now displayed in Low Parks Museum.
Since 2000, we have continued to monitor the regimental silver loaned to other regiments, corps and institutions at the time of disbandment, honouring the agreement set out by the Regiment at that time. In some instances, silverware has been returned from loan through mutual agreement with both parties. These situations have mainly arisen whereby the unit or institution to whom the item(s) had originally been loaned have faced amalgamation, downsizing, disbandment or closure, resulting in a need to streamline or dispose of property.
A large number of items remain on loan, including the 2nd Battalion Centrepiece which has been a feature of the Mess at Sandhurst since June 1968. Several pieces continue to form part of the Mess Silver of the unit to which they are loaned.
Some regimental silver currently on display in Low Parks Museum. The 4th (Milita) Battalion Centrepiece is to the left of the display case.
A broad selection of the regimental silver collection is currently on permanent display in Low Parks Museum. In 2009 a temporary exhibition titled ‘Precious’ showcased the regimental silver and for the first time since disbandment, reunited some of the loaned items that were temporarily returned for use in the exhibition. Silver items have since featured in several other exhibitions and temporary displays.
Regimental silver displays as part of the ‘Precious’ temporary exhibition, which was showcased in Low Parks Museum in 2009.
A large selection of the silver collection has been photographed, and can be viewed on our Online Collections browser – https://www.slleisureandculture.co.uk/info/206/online_collection . Using the term ‘regimental silver’ in a Quick Search will return a good number of these items.
