Steel and Tartan

The 4th Cameron Highlanders in the Great War

Patrick Watt

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780752465777
• eBook ISBN: 9780752483511
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

In the summer of 1914 Scotland prepared for war.

Steel and Tartan charts the adventures of the 4th Battalion, Queens Own Cameron Highlanders – from their training in Bedford with the Highland Division through to five major engagements in France, including the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the Battle of Loos, to eventual break-up in March 1916 at the hands of the British Army administrators. Of the 1, 500 men who fought with the Battalion, over 250 were killed and either buried in one of the many British war cemeteries in France or else left where they fell, their names etched on one of the memorials to the missing.

Using previously unpublished diaries, letters and memoirs together with original photographs and newspaper accounts, Patrick Watt tells the story of the gallant officers and men of the 4th Camerons: those 'Saturday night soldiers' who went so eagerly to war in August 1914.

1

FOURTEEN NEW DIVISIONS

Alexander Fraser – a future commanding officer of the 4th Camerons – was born in the Highland village of Beauly on 6 May 1865. His father, also Alexander, was an agent for the Commercial Bank of Scotland and his mother, Elizabeth Spray, was the daughter of the vicar of the Parish of Kinneagh in Ireland. Young Alexander led a privileged life, being educated at Inverness Royal Academy and Inverness College before progressing on to study law at Edinburgh University, graduating in 1890.

In the spring of 1883, shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Alexander Fraser joined the 1st (Inverness Highland) Volunteer Battalion of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders. He joined as a private soldier and served with them in that capacity until leaving for university in 1887. On his arrival in Edinburgh, Fraser again sought out the military, joining a volunteer battalion of the Royal Scots, the Edinburgh Volunteer Regiment, with whom he served until November 1889.

After completing his degree, Alexander Fraser returned to the family home at 67 Church Street in Inverness and took up employment as a solicitor in 1890, and as a notary public two years later. The year 1890 also saw Fraser obtain a commission in the Inverness Volunteer Battalion as a 2nd Lieutenant. Clearly, he must have excelled in his new role as he was promoted full Lieutenant in 1892, Captain in 1898 and Major in 1905. Fraser took every opportunity to advance himself in his military pastime, undertaking qualifications in musketry, organisation and equipment, tactics and military topography.

In the meantime, Alexander Fraser met and married Isabella Menzies, the daughter of Colonel Duncan Menzies, the former commander of the 1st Sutherland Highland Rifle Volunteers. They moved after their marriage to the house Westwood on Drummond Road, a 20-room mansion in the south of Inverness. Alexander and Ella had nine children: Duncan Menzies in 1894, Elizabeth Sibell in 1896, Mary Millicent in 1898, Muriel Janet in 1900, Alexandra Dorothy in 1903, Eleanor Beatrice in 1905, Alexander Redmond in 1908, Margaret Iris in 1910 and Frances Alice in 1912.

Alexander Fraser’s private life couldn’t have been better and his professional life soon followed suit. Along with business partner David Ross, he founded the legal firm of Fraser & Ross where he became factor for the Highland estates of Culloden and Ferintosh. He became a prominent member of the local Freemasons, rising to become the Right Worshipful Master of St John’s Lodge in Inverness. He also took a keen interest in all things to do with the town, taking appointments with several organisations, including the Territorial Force Association for the county, as secretary of the northern branch of the Royal Arborical Society, as Clerk to the Deacons Court of the United Free High Church and as President of the Sanitary Association of Scotland.

In 1908 the Minister for War, Richard Haldane, decided to reform the organisation of the volunteer and militia units of the British Army. In their place would be a newly created set of 14 divisions of the Territorial Force. The 1st (Inverness Highland) Volunteer Battalion became the 4th Battalion, Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders. The renamed battalion was to take its place in the newly created Seaforth and Cameron Brigade of the Highland Division.

On 12 February 1909 the commanding officer of the 4th Cameron Highlanders, Lieutenant-Colonel James Leslie Fraser, died after a long battle with illness. In his place, Alexander Fraser was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the battalion. One of his first tasks as commanding officer was to lead the Colour Party of the battalion to Windsor Castle where King Edward VII presented new Colours to each of the newly created Territorial Force battalions. Accompanying Fraser were Lieutenants Ronald MacDonald and Murdoch Beaton, and Colour Sergeants William Ross, Duncan Cameron and J. Angus.

The 4th Cameron Highlanders, as part of their obligation as members of the Territorial Force, had to attend up to 15 days annual training at a camp every summer. They were joined at these camps by the other members of their brigade, and in turn, by the remainder of the Highland Division. The camps took place at locations all over the Highland Divisional recruiting area, with training camps at Burghead in 1909, Aviemore in 1910, Tain in 1911, Burghead again in 1912, Dornoch in 1913 and Kingussie in 1914. At these camps, the men would practise marching, musketry, bombing, machine gunning and a variety of other skills.

In accordance with the Haldane Reforms, on 31 March 1908 all existing members of the Inverness-shire Volunteer Battalion resigned their positions and re-enlisted on 1 April. The men were then allocated a unique service number which would see them through to the renumbering of the Territorial Force in 1917. The new numbers were allocated in ascending order, starting from number 1 for the first man who re-enlisted on 1 April, up to approximately 1700 for those who enlisted on the eve of war in August 1914. Therefore, of the men who went to France in 1915, Company Quartermaster Sergeant Kenneth MacKenzie – who transferred from the Highland Volunteers on 1 April 1908 – was given the service number 3, and Private Angus MacDonald – who enlisted directly into the 4th Cameron Highlanders at Fort William on 9 May 1914 – was given the service number 1693. Some of the 1700 men who enlisted between 1908 and 1914 were, of course, no longer serving with the 4th Cameron Highlanders, having transferred to other regular or territorial units or resigned from military service.

The 1908 Regulations for the Territorial Force3 set out the organisation of a territorial force battalion such as the 4th Cameron Highlanders. Their total complement at full strength stood at 29 officers and 980 men organised into 8 companies named A–H based at locations throughout the recruitment area. The men of the 4th Camerons found themselves spread over one of the largest recruitment areas for any battalion of the British Army with A and C Companies based at Inverness, B Company at Nairn, D Company at Broadford, E Company at Fort William, F Company at Kingussie, G Company at Beauly and H Company at Portree.

As commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Fraser found himself based at the battalion’s drill hall in Inverness along with the rest of the unit’s training and administrative personnel. In recognition for his 25 years service in the Volunteer Battalion and then the Territorial Force, Colonel Fraser was awarded the Long Service Medal, the Volunteer Decoration and the Coronation Medal of King George V, awarded in 1911. On 23 August 1913, 48-year-old Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Fraser decided to resign his commission and concentrate on spending time with his young family and working on his numerous business affairs. Fraser did not retire completely from military life, however, as he joined the Reserve of Officers, meaning he was prepared to be called upon to serve his country in time of war. He would not be long parted from his battalion.

The new commanding officer of the 4th Cameron Highlanders was Lieutenant-Colonel Ewan Campbell. Colonel Campbell was born in Kingussie on 18 November 1856, the son of John Campbell, an innkeeper in the village, and his wife Margaret Aitchison. Campbell had strong connections to the 4th Cameron Highlanders, with both his brother John and eldest son, also called John, serving as officers.

The battalion he inherited had been well trained and disciplined by Lieutenant-Colonel Fraser and Ewan Campbell carried on his work admirably. The ‘Saturday night soldiers’ of the Territorial Force may have been looked down upon by the officers and men of the regular army but they were undoubtedly a source of pride in the towns and villages of Inverness-shire and Nairnshire. This pride followed the battalion for the next 18 months as it grew from an untried home defence battalion into an experienced and hardened military unit, the equal of any in the British Army.

NOTE

    3    1908 Regulations for the Territorial Force, p.160–161.

2

PREPARING FOR WAR, AUGUST 1914 – FEBRUARY 1915

On 3 August 1914 the German Army swept through Belgium, Luxembourg and northern France with the aim of encircling Paris before moving their conquering armies across Germany to fight Russia on their eastern borders. This attack on neutral Belgium prompted the British government to declare war on Germany and prepare to despatch the British Expeditionary Force for service in France. As soon as war was declared, the government sent word to the units of the Territorial Force to mobilise for war.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ewan Campbell ordered that the eight companies of the 4th Camerons, who were spread all over the Highlands and Islands, muster in Inverness. On 5 August the five companies from Inverness, Nairn, Beauly and Kingussie went by train to Fortrose before marching to Cromarty, where their wartime posting was to man the coastal defences. The Portree, Broadford and Fort William companies joined up with the rest of the battalion on 7 August, having waited for the call to arms at their drill halls.

A list of the officers of the battalion in the early days of training was published in the Historical Records of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders:4

Lieutenant-Colonel Ewen Campbell	Commanding Officer
Major Hector Fraser	Second in Command
Captain Garden B. Duff	Adjutant
Major John Lockie	Quartermaster
Captain Robert A. Lindsay (RAMC)	Medical Officer
Lieutenant John D. Macpherson	Transport Officer
2nd Lieutenant William MacKay	Signalling Officer
2nd Lieutenant Harold B. Law	Machine Gun Officer
Captain Murdoch Beaton	A Company (Inverness)
Lieutenant David F. MacKenzie	A Company
Lieutenant Ian MacKay	A Company
Lieutenant A.J. MacKintosh	B Company (Nairn)
Lieutenant Peter M. Cram	B Company
Lieutenant James H. Leigh	B Company
2nd Lieutenant William J. Shaw	B Company
Captain James MacPherson	C Company (Inverness)
Lieutenant Frederick W. Fraser	C Company
Lieutenant Charles Campbell	D Company (Broadford)
Captain Thomas Allison	E Company (Fort William)
Lieutenant Nigel B. MacKenzie	E Company
Major John Campbell	F Company (Kingussie)
Lieutenant John Campbell	F Company
Captain Roderick MacLean	G Company (Beauly)
Captain William MacKintosh	G Company
2nd Lieutenant Murdo MacKenzie	G Company
Captain Ronald MacDonald	H Company (Portree)
2nd Lieutenant Angus Ross	H Company
2nd Lieutenant Archibald M. Fletcher	H Company

Two thirds of the officers were Gaelic speaking, which was roughly the same proportion as the men, possibly the highest percentage in any battalion in the British Army. The majority of the officers were firmly middle class with a large number being made up of members of the legal and teaching professions. In the end, several of the battalion’s officers who mobilised in August 1914 would not serve in France; Captain William MacKint...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Fourteen New Divisions
• 2 Preparing for War, August 1914–February 1915
• 3 Arrival in France and First Blood, 18 February–9 March 1915
• 4 The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, 9–15 March 1915
• 5 The Battle of Aubers Ridge, 15 March–11 May 1915
• 6 The Battle of Festubert, 11 May–19 May 1915
• 7 The Battle of Givenchy, 19 May–30 August 1915
• 8 The Battle of Loos, 1 September–10 October 1915
• 9 The Winter Campaign, 11 October 1915–31 March 1916
• 10 The Camerons on the Somme and the Battalion Nucleus, 1916–1917
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1: Order of Battle
• Appendix 2: Officers and Men of the 4th Battalion, Cameron Highlanders
• Appendix 3: Men Not Mentioned
• Appendix 4: Reinforcements
• Appendix 5: Roll of Honour
• Appendix 6: Officer Biographies
• Appendix 7: Note on Service Numbers
• Notes
• Bibliography