William George Buchan
The campaign had begun on 1st July 1916 and involved continuous British attempts to breakthrough the German line. Progress was slow, costly and in its final stages - all told over 95,000 British and 20,00 French troops were killed (according to Wikipedia).
On the map above there is a very straight road shown in grey running from Albert (centre-left of the map) to Bapaume (top-right). The next photo shows the view looking north-east along this road near Warlencourt (which is to the left of the road) and, to the right, a feature in the landscape labelled "ancient tumulus" (a tumulus is an ancient burial mound):
The Butte de Warlencourt is depicted here, shown in white on the horizon (possibly owing a little to artistic license, it was actually about 50 feet high or 15 metres):
The 7th Seaforths were part of an attack across this landscape to capture a trench the British called "Snag", then the Butte itself. They were to be supported by the 10th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, all part of 9th (Scottish) Division.
Here is a map (north at the top) from the battalion's war diary:
At the bottom-centre of the map is a 'crossroads' where two tracks (or minor roads meet) (just above the number 23). The blue line running along the road running up and right is where the Seaforths and the A&SH formed up. The red line halfway up the map is Snag Trench (it is written on the map). In the very top left corner is the Butte with a further German trench behind it and to the right - this was the final objective.
Here is the same map but zooming in on the central section:
Google Earth gives an aerial view from roughly the same angle:
Note that from the crossroads, bottom left, you can (just about) see how the ground slopes upwards heading towards the Butte (the two red circles). An attack would be overlooked from the German side all the way.
And here is a view back down the British front line - in terms of the first map above we are about halfway up on the right hand side looking back to the bottom left corner (the buildings are L'Abbaye de Eaucort, as they were in 1916):
This shows the extent to which the road was 'sunken' i.e. had banks on either side, as marked on the 1916 map. Again, note the ground is sloping up to the right (the direction of the attack) and recall the painting earlier, there would have been no grass, just mud.
Many things about the attack were unsatisfactory. The weather had been awful, the German defences were strong, the Scottish battalions only moved into the trenches the day before and did not feel they knew the ground, and the attack was to be uphill. So why did it happen? That dreadful 'battle of attrition' at Verdun was in progress further south and the French naturally expected the British to be attacking as well to draw off German reserves. And why here? British commanders were already looking ahead to 1917 and wanted to occupy the high ground such as around the Butte as a base from which to attack.
There was a preliminary artillery barrage, but the Seaforths' war diary complains bitterly about one or more British guns 'firing short' i.e. dropping shells on their own lines.
At 2.05pm the attack started with the Seaforths climbing over the parapet of their trenches, forming up and advancing in four waves; two companies of the 10th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders advanced as well, forming a fifth and sixth wave.
As they did so German machine guns opened fire from all directions and scores of men fell, wounded or killed. Survivors took cover in shell holes. The Germans began shelling them, communications were cut and supporting machine guns and trench mortars were put out of action. While they managed to dig a new trench (see the maps in the battalion war diary) the Germans had not been moved one inch.
The Seaforths started with 18 officers and about 640 other ranks. By the end of the day 4 officers and 187 other ranks were left (70% killed, wounded or missing).
The original handwritten telegram to be typed up and sent to his father.
William has no known grave - this could mean his body was never found but the battalion war diary for the following day states he was killed with certainty so my guess is that he was found, his body was buried and the location was then lost in subsequent fighting. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial with over 72,000 other men in the same situation:
The white stone facing on the legs is literally covered with the names of the men commemorated there. This is not the section with William's name, but illustrates the nature of the memorial:
William was born on 21st June 1886 at 77 Almada Street, Hamilton:
The County Buildings survive (on the left of the photo below) but not number 77 (roughly where the cars are parked on the right):
His parents were Alexander Gray
Buchan and Sarah (nee Binning) and on William's birth record his father’s job was 'master grocer'. William was the 8th of nine children.
In the following years the family moved to 9 Cathcart Road, Hutchesontown (1891, father's job 'grocer') then 28 Westend Park Street, off of Woodlands Road (1901, father's job 'tea blender'). He attended Woodside School (recently The Stand comedy club).
In the 1901 census William had left school and was an insurance clerk (aged 14).
By 1910 the Buchans had moved to a house named Minffordd on Roman Road in Bearsden. (Minffordd is a village in west Wales, close to Snowdonia and on a bay with the better known Port Meirion and Parthmadog; previous occupiers selected the name.) I believe Minffordd to be the modern day number 34 Roman Road, on the corner of Douglas Gardens.
In 1910 William's mother, Sarah, died at Minffordd after a 2-year history of diabetes.
In the 1911 Census, William lived at Minffordd with two of his sisters and a servant, 21-year old Sarah Ferguson from Gartcosh. He was now an apprentice engineer with "McNeill's of Glasgow". It's possible this refers to Charles McNeil's company, Kinning Park Hydraulic Forge, 270 West Scotland Street:
His older sister, Mary, was a ladies' tailor and his younger sister Margaret was an assistant in Mary's showroom. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any record of the company name but they would have been linked to a new business at Bearsden Cross, Gibson's tailors (Milngavie and Bearsden Herald 25th September 1914):
Shortly after war was declared in August 1914, William volunteered for the army and joined The Sportsmen's Battalion on 3rd November 1914. There are two small mysteries: first, why did he travel to Edinburgh to do so? And second, the sportsmen battalion was a unit of the Royal Fusiliers specifically for professional sportsmen and based in London, so why did William as an engineer with no noted sports achievements get allocated there?
His medical form from 1914 describes him as 6 feet tall, with brown hair and brown eyes.
In May 1915, seven months later, we find William filling in the forms for a commission from Hut 16, Grey Towers Barracks, Hornchurch in Essex.
He specifically requested being posted to a "Highland Regiment", so seems to have realised his initial posting was a mistake.
Letter with information about his new posting: to the High School, Edinburgh, bringing bedding and camp kit, although a uniform could follow him.
He was then involved in training soldiers possibly at Ripon in Yorkshire. About two years after joining up it is not clear William had been to the frontline (through no fault of his own) and volunteered to be posted to France, arriving at the end of July 1916.
Here is the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald report of his death, in the edition of 27th October 1916:
Usually I have found the reporting to be very accurate and helpful but in this case the date of his death is wrong, and the attack was not at night-time. This makes me wonder if the information about the Sportsmen's Battalion is correct as this was raised in London and was for professional sportsmen.
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