Scots Guards In The Great War

Includes 15 maps and plans. “In 1914 the Scots Guards (Third Regiment of Foot Guards) consisted of two battalions, both in England and two week after the outbreak of war the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion was formed; this battalion did not go abroad but during the course of the war it provided drafts of 11,201 all ranks for the 1st and 2nd Battalions. The 1st Battalion went to France with the 1st (Gds) Brigade, 1st Division on 14 August and served on the Western Front throughout the war; the 2nd Battalion joined the 20th Brigade of the 7th Division when it formed in September 1914, and landed in Belgium on 7 October 1914 and also served on the Western front for the whole of the war. Losses numbered 111 Officers and 2730 Other Ranks; 30 battle honours and 5 VCs were awarded. In August 1915 the Guards Division was formed in France and both battalions were transferred to it, the 1st to the 2nd Guards Brigade, the 2nd to 3rd Guards Brigade. ...This book is set out in chronological order, and though the battalions were not in the same division during the first twelve months of the war their actions are not recorded under separate headings. Thus both battalions were in action during First Ypres and they both appear in the chapter covering that battle. Apart from war diaries, there are extracts from letters and other contributions from those who were there making up the narrative and the result is a plain, straightforward account. From time to time the list of officers present in both battalions is given as are the names of those who became casualties during any specific action.”-Print ed.

The shared experiences and sacrifices of Scots in London in World War One - often untold stories and unseen pictures illustrate this fascinating new account.

n the 1st the 3rd Battalion marched from Merville to Laventie and went into billets vacated 2by the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards. On the 3rd it took over the left sector from the 1st Battalion Scots Guards, with the Battalion Headquarters at Wangeric Farm. Forty-eight hours in the trenches followed by forty-eight hours' rest was the routine for the next fortnight. The trenches in this sector were in a very good state, and it was possible, therefore, to go in for refinements and erect splinter-proof shelters; but the enemy's artillery was very active, and expended a great deal of ammunition on the reserve trenches and communications. During this fortnight a troop of Wiltshire Yeomanry was attached to the Battalion for instruction and did very well although it was quite new to trench warfare. On the 12th Colonel Corry relinquished command of the Battalion, and on the 14th Lieut.-Colonel Jeffreys took charge of it temporarily, pending the arrival of Major Sergison-Brooke.

This is a story of soldiers at war against the background the two battalions of the Scots Guards who served in Belgium and France from 1914 to 1918. The author's purpose is to display - by getting in amongst them - what they knew, saw, heard, felt and experienced around them and who they were as people. It is clear that the author has attempted to look and listen mostly through these men's eyes and ears - and sometimes through those of others who watched and listened nearby. In conveying how the war appeared to them, the author has not sought to achieve any wider view - nor to explain more than what is considered to be essential. What went on when the men were not in the trenches or fighting a battle holds just as much interest as when they were. The book is written in a chronological, narrative form - using as a basis the war diaries of the battalions, and supplemented from August 1915 by the two volumes of Cuthbert Headlam's History of the Guards Division in the Great War 1915-1918. The main content of the book stems from diaries, letters, notes, occasional pieces of verse, military documents and reports - as well as some press cuttings and any relevant published works. There are three key elements to the book: the first is that a great deal of the material used forms part of private collections and thus has never before; second is the intensive research which has been conducted into individual officers and soldiers; the third element is the blending together of all the research into a coherent whole so that there is a steady flow in an extraordinary story which is full of shocks and surprises, enjoyment and laughter - and (even in the most inauspicious situations) sorrow, joy and determination. These officers and men were ordinary human beings who experienced extraordinary events. In all other ways, they behaved as soldiers do, in that they did what they had to do - often misbehaving out of the line, but rarely in it; enjoying what there was to enjoy and grumbling about much else. Among themselves they had their personal likes and dislikes, but all had to depend on each other and work together. Because of the comradeship borne of the shared experience at close quarters, they got to know each other very well indeed. One cannot be but humbled and moved by their resilience amid dire adversity - not least in the winter conditions of 1916-17. It is extremely important when reading to remember that they had no idea how long the war would continue - and it is not surprising how unexpected and unreal the announcement of the Armistice was for many. The Scots Guardsmen's understanding of what others were doing at any time was limited to what they saw and heard - very rarely anywhere near the whole story and often inaccurate (and sometimes, however unintentionally, unfair). Those British soldiers who took part in the Retreat from Mons saw and were well aware of the plight of the refugees - and they could see behind them the fires as the advancing Germans burnt farms and villages. Those who landed at Ostend and Zeebrugge early in October 1914 were similarly well aware of the plight of refugees. Those in the area east of the Somme battlefields after the Germans withdrew to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917 saw the scale of calculated destruction. Those in the last weeks of the war who advanced across largely unfought-over Belgian and French territory (in the case of the Scots Guards, east of Cambrai) first met pathetically grateful civilians. Whatever else the war was about, it was also about liberation.