A Gordon Highlander

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0408dfc3.jpg"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4eeb4be0.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="190" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Louis Francis Huntly</B></div> <div> <B>1881-1917</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="46bb4e40.png" border=0 width="180" height="228" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <I><B>We Will</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Remember</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Them</B></I></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=140 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0418dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Drax, Dracas, Dracass & Drakes</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Drax, Dracas, Dracass Drakes"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Research"><U>Research</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="British racial origins"><U>British racial origins</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DNA"><U>DNA</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My DNA"><U>My DNA</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="YDNA Project"><U>Y-DNA Project</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Basques"><U>Basques</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id27.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="When where"><U>When & where</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Old maps"><U>Old maps</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Births"><U>Births</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marriages"><U>Marriages</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Deaths"><U>Deaths</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="In Loving Memory"><U>In Loving Memory</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Relationships"><U>Relationships</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Trees"><U>Trees</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Drax"><U>Drax</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Darfield"><U>Darfield</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id50.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ellerton, Charborough Olantigh"><U>Ellerton, Charborough & Olantigh</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dracas(s)"><U>Dracas(s)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tealby"><U>Tealby</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bayons Manor"><U>Bayons Manor</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Morton Grange"><U>Morton Grange</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Thurlby Hall"><U>Thurlby Hall</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ludford"><U>Ludford</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Stainton Hall"><U>Stainton Hall</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gunthorpe Hall"><U>Gunthorpe Hall</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photos"><U>Photos</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mum"><U>Mum</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rick"><U>Rick</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jeremy"><U>Jeremy</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ian"><U>Ian</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mark"><U>Mark</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Martyr"><U>Martyr</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Waterman"><U>Waterman</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sailors life"><U>Sailor's life</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Worth Matravers"><U>Worth Matravers</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Woolbridge"><U>Woolbridge</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="W. 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He was christened at St. George's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Southwark, Surrey. As a Second Lieutenant (2nd Lt.), 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders, he was 'killed in action' on Thursday 26th April 1917 at Arras, France, aged 36 years. </div> <bR> <div> He was blown to pieces in a British front supply trench, and no parts of his body were ever identified for a named burial. Whatever of such remains were recovered were usually placed in an empty sand-bag and buried, together with identified bodies, in mass graves pending formal re-burial in a cemetery, as soon as the front moved forwards or shelling ceased and it was deemed to be safe. The Regimental Diaries show that he died with Captain A. Bothwell, MC, in the same explosion. Poor Louis must have taken the full force of the blast.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4cb29390.jpg" border=0 width="297" height="313" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>The 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders</I></div> <bR> <div> The 1st Battalion War Diary for April 1917 shows:</div> <bR> <div> 26th          HQ moved to dugout of HQ RWF, KORL and KSLI:  Heavy shelling, much sniping by night. </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> [<I>Bothwell & Huntly died that day, but the Regimental Diary doesn't record their deaths for two more days</I>]</div> <div> 27th          Further heavy shelling; hostile aeroplane brought down.  Enemy attacked KORL and 'B' Coy, repulsed, 4 prisoners.</div> <div> 28th          Front support lines shelled; Captain Bothwell and 2/Lt Huntly killed.  Sniping worse!</div> <bR> <div> For further information from the 1st Battalion Diaries see, <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="http://www.thegordonhighlanders.co.uk/Pages/Diary.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.thegordonhighlanders.co.uk/Pa"><U><B>thegordonhighlanders.co.uk</B></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4cd902c0.jpg" border=0 width="400" height="300" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> A reconstructed trench-museum at Vimy Ridge near Arras</div> <bR> <div> The Commonwealth War Graves Commission shows, "<I>In Memory of Second Lieutenant Louis Francis Huntly 1</I><I>st</I><I> Bn., Gordon Highlanders who died on Thursday, 26th April 1917. Remembered with honour at the Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France. Panel Number: Bay 8 and 9. In the perpetual care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.</I>" </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4f26e900.jpg" border=0 width="622" height="400" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Some members of the Huntly & Hermitage families at a family wedding in 1904,</div> <div> but without Louis, who was probably away from home in the army</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4f16f830.jpg" border=0 width="111" height="131" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Louis' parents: Frank Huntly (1859-1918) and Lizette Catherine Hermitage (1860-1914)</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4f385200.jpg" border=0 width="645" height="800" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> A piece of his Gordon tartan, with a kilt pin through it, was sent home to his widowed father (since his remains were unidentified, just like thousands of other men, this presumably came from a box of such items to send home!). His father's employers sent him a letter of condolence (see above). The whole family mourned his sad loss, including his little sister (my Nan, the seventh child, born in 1892), who never forgot him and often told me about him when I was a young child. She died in 1974, but I never forgot.</div> <bR> <div> In April 2003, after a lot of personal research, I went 'on a mission' to Arras, France, with Jonathan Nicholls, the author of '<I>Cheerful Sacrifice - The Battle of Arras 1917</I>', Alex Bulloch (now MBE), and the team from the <I>Birmingham War Research Society</I> (now the <I>War Research Society</I> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="http://www.battlefieldtours.org.uk/P2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.battlefieldtours.org.uk/P2.ht"><U><B>battlefieldtours.org.uk</B></U></A></FONT>). </div> <bR> <div> A strange incident occurred when we went to The Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France, with others who were seeking relatives there. I wanted to try and find Louis' name on the plaques. Since The Commonwealth War Graves Commission had recorded that he was 'Remembered' there on 'Bays 8 and 9', it seemed it would be an easy task. We only had 10-15 minutes before we needed to go on to another cemetery, so I rushed in straight away and was dismayed to see that there were hundreds of names, just on these panels, plus numerous other panels, and all were carved in pale stone from ground level to about ten feet high, and were very difficult to read - the task seemed completely impossible, even if I'd had all day. Time was running out, and I was about to give up, when a member of our party said, "Let me know if you see any Seaforth Highlanders." Having almost given up, and as we about to leave the cemetery, I turned to a column of names in front of me to see if I could help him instead. I looked to the top of that column to start checking it, and immediately noticed (and pointed out) some 'Seaforth Highlanders' up near the top. Then, for some unknown reason, I looked straight in front of me at eye level (if I'd stepped forward it would have been between my eyes) and there was his name, and it was filled in with dried mud to make it more visible: "Huntly L.F." of the Gordon Highlanders. I was so surprised that I challenged the poor man, who was interested in the 'Seaforth Highlanders', and asked him if he had deliberately set me up to look at that column - he was upset and quite offended - then he pointed out that the mud was dry and none of us had had time to even find it, let alone mark it with mud! Someone had been there before me, within the previous few days, and probably marked it to take a photo - but who and when? - I will never know. Maybe it was my dear old Nan!</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4c715900.jpg" border=0 width="533" height="400" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="4c915900.jpg" border=0 width="533" height="400" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>Part of the vast Arras memorial and 'Bay 8', one of the many panels.</I></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4aa264b0.jpg" border=0 width="550" height="331" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>You can see how difficult it was to read the names from this photo, and there were many hundreds on each panel.</I></div> <bR> <div> Another day, together with Jonathan Nicholls, Alex Bulloch, and the team, we identified two blocks of eight graves at Feuchy Chapel Cemetery, near Arras, of men that had died on 26th April 1917 and whose bodies were brought in for formal burial in a proper cemetery, from that part of the field where Louis was killed. The ones at each end of the front block were marked as 'unidentified'. Captain Bothwell MC, who had died with Louis as a result of the same shell explosion in their trench, was buried towards the right end of the row behind; we all became convinced that the 'unidentified' burial at the right of the front row was Louis - emotion over-swept me and I wept openly for my dear old Nan, his little sister, who had hoped and dreamed all her life of such a discovery - we had found him at last! </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4ecf22c0.jpg" border=0 width="242" height="300" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="4ede32c0.jpg" border=0 width="227" height="300" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I>Gertrude Elizabeth Huntly (1892-1974)</I></div> <div> <I>Louis' little sister, my dear old Nan; if only she had lived long enough for me to take her there (maybe she was 'with me').</I></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4b93b900.jpg" border=0 width="571" height="400" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I>Feuchy Chapel Cemetery 1917-1919, near Arras, France</I></div> <div> <I>Captain A. Bothwell MC, 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders, aged 25</I></div> <div> <I>The two 'unknown' graves, at each end of the front row, and Captain Bothwell's grave behind</I></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4bfde900.jpg" border=0 width="222" height="400" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="4b12e900.jpg" border=0 width="302" height="400" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="4bdd7900.jpg" border=0 width="215" height="400" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Captain Alexander Bothwell, MC, 1st Bn Gordon Highlanders was twice previously wounded. He earlier served with 1st Battalion London Regt (London Scottish). He died on 26th April 1917 aged 25. He was born at West Ham, London, the son of Alexander and Margaret Bothwell JP, and husband of Ruby Bothwell, of Aberdeen.</div> <bR> <div> Local farmers in the fields around Arras are still turning up live shells from WWI, with their ploughs. They even have to weld steel plates under their tractors in case of causing one to explode. Many farm workers have died since then end of the two World Wars as a result of these shells. We saw numerous piles of live German, and English, shells that were stacked at the edge of fields awaiting proper disposal by the authorities. (I still have a piece shrapnel inside me from a 2" Mortar-Bomb that my brother and I discovered near our home in England about 1953/4, and which exploded in our back garden; we had found it in an area of hills near our home that had been used for training during WWII - I was only four and spent some time in hospital as a result, though they couldn't remove it!)</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4c5902c0.jpg" border=0 width="400" height="300" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>Live German and English WWI shells, recently turned up by ploughs</I></div> <bR> <div> While we were at one of the WWI cemeteries, we discovered that they had recent dug some shallow footings across a field for a new footpath. The workmen discovered the remains of two English soldiers from WWI in what had been a long-filled-in shell hole. Two new graves had been dug ready for their formal burial in the cemetery a few days after we were due to leave; otherwise, we would have attended the grave-side service.</div> <bR> <div> On the Sunday, we attended a small out-of-the-way cemetery that was seldom visited by anyone (they chose a different one for each trip) and Alex, in full Highland Dress played his bag-pipes, and we read out the names of those individuals that we had lost. It was moving ceremony for us all.</div> <bR> <div> I will be forever indebted to Jonathan Nicholls, Alex Bulloch, and the team for all the knowledge, time, care, fun, tears, and love that they shared with me on that trip - it was a truly memorable experience, and one that I will remember for the rest of my days.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Some background notes concerning the Battle of Arras</U></B></div> <bR> <div> The Official History of the War: Military Operations France & Belgium, 1917, Vol. VII, by C. Falls. (page 216/7) Under Brigadier General C.L. Porter of the 76th Brigade at Arras on 9.4.1917, at 5.30pm ..... the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders took the German fourth line ..... 6.45pm ..... the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders (still comparatively fresh) ..... were to pass through the 8th Brigade and assault under a barrage ..... The Gordons advanced gallantly and made some progress, but again fire from Feuchy Chapel forced them back to the line of the Neuville - Feuchy Chapel road, where they dug in. [Wednesday 25th & Thursday 26th April were not covered by this book. The 1st Battalion was not mentioned again in this conflict. The actual 'Battle of Arras' was on Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th April 1917.]</div> <bR> <div> The British achieved considerable success at Arras, showing how much generalship and soldiery had learned from the Somme in 1916. That complete success and strategic result eluded the British is one more testimony to the inherent nature of the stalemate of the Western Front through most of the First World War.</div> <bR> <div> By the spring of 1917, Arras was the central town and main battleground of the British Armies on the Western Front and was the scene, throughout the war, of several battles fought by both the British and French Armies. The Battle of Arras was the most savage infantry battle of the war. Conscription had been introduced in May 1916.</div> <bR> <div> The Battle of the Somme lasted from 1st July to 18th November 1916, 141 days, approximately 415,000 casualties averaging at 2,943 a day.</div> <div> The Battle of Arras lasted from 9th April to 17th May 1917, 39 days, approximately 159,000 casualties averaging at 4,076 a day. The highest rate for any British offensive in the war.</div> <div> The Third Battle of Ypres lasted from 31st July to 12th November 1917, 105 days, approximately 244,000 casualties averaging at 2,323 a day.</div> <div> The Final Offensive lasted from 8th August to 11th November 1918, 96 days, approximately 350,000 casualties averaging at 3,645 a day.</div> <bR> <div> Behind their lines, the Germans erected a defensive barrier of concrete and steel bunkers, with interconnecting tunnels, it was known as the <I>Siegfried Stellung</I> (German name) or <I>Hindenburg Line</I> (British name); much of this was disguised as domestic buildings, by the addition of false windows and chimneys, or concealed behind earth banks. When the Germans retreated to this much shorter defensive position they freed many of their troops for other fronts, and operated a scorched earth policy between the original and new lines, leaving nothing for the advancing British and French armies. They destroyed all buildings and cut down trees, which were used to block the roads. Cellars were either destroyed or mined, as were the roads, and the wells were fouled; some half-demolished buildings, and anything that might be picked up by the British such as `souvenirs', were booby-trapped. The line ran from the river Scarpe in the north to the river Aisne in the south, with the British front along the northern half. The northern end of the line was at Arras, which was in British hands on 25th February 1917, but by 5th April 1917 the German front was at Neuville Vitasse.</div> <bR> <div> Arras was the most important French town held by the British Army throughout the war. The British Third Army arrived on the Arras front in March 1916, relieving the troops of the French Tenth Army, who were sorely needed at Verdun. Tunnels were dug in the chalk hills to undermine the enemy's trenches by planting mines under them. Civilian miners were employed for this purpose. Both sides made extensive use of the numerous caves in the chalk, which dated from the Middle Ages; these were under Arras and Vimy Ridge. </div> <bR> <div> German batteries lobbed shell after shell into Arras from a deep depression, north-west of Monchy-le-Preux, which was behind German lines. Another village in German hands, and even more of a natural fortress, was Roeux. High on the wooded northern bank of the river Scarpe, standing over a stream of deep caves [in the chalk hills] Roeux was protected on its southern flank by the river and its lakes and marshes, while to the north the embankment of the Arras-Douai railway provided a man-made barrier. But the Germans were not content to reply on natural defences alone. Cleverly concealed amid the outbuildings of an old château, they had built one of the largest concrete <I>mebus</I> (blockhouses) yet seen on the Western Front. Moreover, near the railway station, a derelict dye factory had been fortified and connected to the château blockhouse by tunnels. This jumble of old vathouses, engine sheds and chimney stacks - the Chemical Works, as it was known, soon became all too familiar to British soldiers - overlooked and open plain to the west; evidently fearing attack from this direction the defenders further dug deep trenches in two small copses, Roeux Wood and Mount Pleasant Wood.</div> <bR> <div> After the German withdrew, the Third Army's right flank faced an exceptionally strong section of the <I>Hindenburg Line</I>. It was finally decided that the infantry would attack on the 9th April 1917, on a front of almost ten miles, using ten infantry divisions with two in reserve - it was to be known as 'Z-Day'. It was hoped that Monchy-le-Preux would be captured on the first day. Of the twelve infantry divisions involved, all had seen much action on the Somme. Three of the divisions were Scottish - the 51st (Highland) Territorial and the 9th and 15th Divisions - which, with a scattering of Scottish battalions throughout some of the other divisions, meant that over one third of the troops attacking on Z-Day would be Scottish.</div> <bR> <div> Mostly sourced from: '<I>Cheerful Sacrifice - The Battle of Arras 1917</I>' by Jonathan Nicholls, published by Leo Cooper 1990, with the kind permission of Jonathan during my trip there in 2003.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="46d2a900.jpg" border=0 width="298" height="400" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">   <IMG SRC="46f01900.jpg" border=0 width="257" height="400" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">   <IMG SRC="47cfb900.jpg" border=0 width="251" height="400" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Views of Arras - after the Battle of 1917 - from contemporary French postcards</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="47190e80.jpg" border=0 width="400" height="232" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="49d93e80.jpg" border=0 width="403" height="232" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>