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1st Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders
30th Oct 1914 Reliefs Complete 
20th Dec 1914 Enemy explodes mines
29th December 1914 Military funeral
2nd Feb 1915 Bullet Controversy
9th May 1915 The Battle of Aubers Ridge: The Souther pincer Richebourg L’Avoue. At 4.06am: sunrise and all very quiet on this front.
5.00am: British bombardment opens with field guns firing shrapnel at the German wire and howitzers firing High Explosive shells onto front line. German troops are seen peering above their parapet even while this shelling was going on.
5.30am: British bombardment intensifies, field guns switch to HE and also fire at breastworks. The lead battalions of the two assaulting Brigades of 1st Division go over the top to take up a position only 80 yards from German front. (2nd Brigade has 1/Northants and 2/Royal Sussex in front and 2/KRRC and 1/5th Royal Sussex in immediate support; 3rd Brigade has 2/Royal Munster Fusiliers and 2/Welsh in front, with 1/4th Royal Welsh Fusiliers in support). Heavy machine-gun fire cuts the attackers down even on their own ladders and parapet steps, but men continue to press forward as ordered.
In the area of the Indian Corps, the lead battalions of the Dehra Dun Brigade of the Meerut Division (2/2nd Ghurkas, 1/4th and 1st Seaforth Highlanders) were so badly hit by enemy fire that no men got beyond their own parapet and the front-line and communications trenches were soon filled with dead and wounded men.
5.40am: British bombardment lifts off front lines and advances 600 yards; infantry assault begins. Despite the early losses and enemy fire the three Brigades attempted to advance across No Man's Land. They were met by intense crossfire from the German machine-guns, which could not be seen in their ground-level and strongly protected emplacements. Whole lines of men were seen to be hit. Few lanes had been cut in the wire and even where men reached it they were forced to bunch, forming good targets for the enemy gunners. The leading battalions suffered very significant losses, particularly among officers and junior leaders. Around 100 men on the Northants and Munsters got into the German front, but all were killed or captured. The advance of the supporting battalions suffered similarly, and by 6.00am the advance had halted, with hundreds of men pinned down in No Man's Land, unable to advance or fall back.
6.15am: A repeat of the initial bombardment is ordered, with the added difficulty of uncertain locations of the most advanced troops.
7.20am: Major-General Haking (CO, 1st Division) reports failure and asks if he should bring in his last Brigade (1st (Guards)). He offered his opinion that it would not be successful.
7.45am: A further one hour bombardment starts, ordered by Lieut-General Anderson (CO, Meerut Division). Its only impact is to encourage German artillery to reply, bringing heavy shelling down onto British front and support trenches. German fire continued until about 10.30am.
8.00am: First reports reach Haig, but they underestimate losses and problems. Haig also hears of early French successes in Vimy attack; he resolves to renew the effort in the Southern attack, with noon being the new zero
hour. This was subsequently moved when it was learned from I Corps how long it would take to bring supporting units up to replace those that had suffered in the initial attacks. The new attack at 2.40pm would again be preceded by a 40 minute bombardment. The various movements of relief forces were achieved only with much confusion and further losses under renewed enemy shellfire. The time was again moved, to 4.00pm. In the meantime, the German infantry in the Bois de Biez area was reinforced.
3.20pm: Bombardment repeated and seen to be a little more successful, blowing gaps in the wire and in the enemy front-line.
3.45pm: Bareilly Brigade, moving up to relieve the Dehra Dun, loses more than 200 men due to enemy shelling.
3.57pm: The leading companies of the 1/Black Watch of 1st (Guards) Brigade, brought in to replace the shattered 2nd Brigade, went over the top despite the 1/Cameron Highlanders being late to arrive and moved at the double across No Man's Land. Some reached the German breastwork just as the bombardment lifted; most were however killed or captured in the German firing trench although a small party reached the second position. The two lead companies of the Camerons, coming up on the left of the Black Watch a few minutes later, suffered heavy machine-gun casualties in crossing between the front lines. At approximately the same time, the two fresh battalions of the 3rd Brigade, the 1/Gloucestershire and 1/South Wales Borderers began to advance but were cut down without reaching the enemy. Meerut Division orders Bareilly Brigade to advance, even though it is clear that conditions are unchanged: few men even reached a small ditch 20 yards in front of their own front line, and the Brigade suffered more than 1000 casualties within minutes.
4.35pm: 1st Division orders another 10 minutes shelling but it is seen to have no effect.
4.40pm: Large explosion at German ammunition dump in Herlies, hit by a long-range British heavy shell. Smoke clouds drifting towards British lines caused a gas alarm. Br-Gen. Southey (CO, Bareilly Brigade) reports that further attempts to advance would be useless.
5.00pm: General Haig, hearing of the continued failure of the Southern attack, orders 2nd Division to relieve 1st Division with a view to a bayonet attack at dusk, 8.00pm.
16th Oct 1915 The Derby Scheme
1st Dec 1915 Derby Scheme Armlets
11th Sep 1915 Last day of Derby Scheme Recruitment
10th Jan 1916 Group System Reopens
9th February 1916 Call Ups
2nd Nov 1917 Illness
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
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These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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Those known to have served with1st Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders during the Great War 1914-1918. - Barbour Andrew Gallacher. Pte (d.28th Jul 1916)
- Bonner Robert Henderson . Pte. (d.9th May 1915 )
- Causer Albert Victor. A/Sgt
- Clark MM. Andrew. L/Sgt.
- Clark MM. Andrew. Segt.
- Coombs Robert. L/Cpl.
- Cull Samuel. Pte. (d.8th Dec 1916)
- Fetch John Stephen. (d.2nd Nov 1917)
- Green Harold. Pte. (d.22nd Feb 1917)
- Gunn John. Pte. (d.9th May 1915)
- Houghton Frederick James. Pte. (d.22nd Apr 1916)
- Houghton Frederick James. Pte. (d.22nd Apr 1916)
- Jess Samuel. Pte. (d.7th Nov 1914)
- Knight Richard Thomas. Pte.
- Lang John. Pte. (d.20th Apr 1916)
- Lawrence William. (d.7th Nov 1914)
- McGregor Peter Archibald. Pte. (d.31st Jan 1915)
- McIntosh John. Pte. (d.24th Nov 1916)
- McMillan Andrew. Pte.
- Morton John. Sgt.Mjr. (d.9th May 1915)
- Morton John. CSM. (d.9th May 1915)
- Orr Peter. Pte. (d.27th Apr 1918)
- Ponter William Thomas. Sgt.
- Rayne James Alexander. Cpl. (d.24th April 1916)
- Ross Charles. Pte.
- Steedman William. Pte. (d.13th November 1914)
- Ware VC. Sidney William. Cpl. (d.16th Apr 1916)
- Warne Archibald Clarence. Pte. (d.22nd February 1917)
- Woods Henry A.. L/Cpl.
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please Add a Name to this List
Records of 1st Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders from other sources.
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Pte. Harold Green 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders (d.22nd Feb 1917) Harold Green was killed in action 22nd February 1917 age 21 and is commemorated on the Basra War Memorial in Iraq. he was the son of Albert and M. Green, of 54, Hebrew Rd., Burnley.
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Pte Andrew Gallacher Barbour 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders (d.28th Jul 1916) Andrew Barbour was born in Camlachie, Glasgow on the 11th of September 1897. He died on the 28th of July 1916 in the Persian Gulf, records state he died of disease.
He was my grandfather's brother.
His older brother died in 1918 in France and Flanders.
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CSM. John Morton 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders (d.9th May 1915) Company Sergeant Major John Morton served in Agra in 1914 then fought at Aubers Ridge. He died in action on 6th of May 1915. He came from the Motherwell area of Lanarkshire.
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Pte. Archibald Clarence Warne 1st Btn., B Coy. Seaforth Highlanders (d.22nd February 1917) Archibald Warne was killed in the 2nd Battle of Kut.
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John Stephen Fetch 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders (d.2nd Nov 1917) John Fetch died of peritonitis after a night march in November 1917. In a letter to his parents, John's commanding officer recalled the bravery that John displayed whilst continuing to march despite being in intense pain. He is buried in Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery.
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Pte. Richard Thomas Knight 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders Due to several step-siblings in the family, grandad, Richard Knight left to join up when he was still underage, we believe at 16 years old, which was reached in September 1915. He served in Palestine, which makes me think he was with the 1st Battalion. He had no Scottish connection but a theory is that recruits were placed where numbers were low, hence he joined the Seaforth Highlanders.
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Pte. John Gunn 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders (d.9th May 1915) John Gunn was born in 1894 son of Murdo and Anna Gunn of 5 Knockaird, Port-of-Ness Stornoway Isle of Lewis.
He enlisted into the 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders.
John went to France on the 3rd of November 1914. He was killed in action on the 9th of May 1915 aged 21 he is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial. John received the 1914 Star War and Victory Medal.
His brother Donald was also killed in action in May 1917.
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L/Cpl. Henry A. Woods 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders My grandfather, Harry Woods, was a Lewis gunner in the Seaforth Highlanders. He described landing in Basra as one of the most beautiful places he ever saw. He was wounded in the legs by shrapnel and contracted malaria in Mesopotamia.
I have a photo of him in uniform in Cairo. His unit took part in the campaign in Gaza and Palastine. North of Jerusalem his unit was charging a trench when he took shrapnel through his open mouth, knocking him down and paralyzing him. Field medical units placed him in a pile of dead. When he was being stripped of his gear and clothing it was noticed that he had tears in his eyes and so was still alive. He was eventually brought to a hospital in Alexandria where he was recuperating on Armistice day.
A very, very lucky man.
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Segt. Andrew Clark MM. 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders Andrew Clark was a career soldier who joined the regular 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders in 1907, and served in India and then on the Western Front.
He arrived in France, direct from India, with the rest of his battalion and other regiments belonging to the Dehra Dunn Brigade of the 7th Meerut Division in October 1914. He was wounded some time in 1914/1915, and sent home to recuperate. He ended up at the depot in Cromarty. There he met and married Helen Gairn Finlayson.
In May 1917 he was again sent to France, but this time to join the 8th Btn. which was one of Kitchener's new battalions. (His original Regiment, the 1st Seaforth had been sent to Mesopotamia in December 1915.)
In July 1917, he was involved in a raid on German trenches as a result of which he was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in the field. However, on July 31st, which was the first day of 3rd Ypres, he was wounded by machine gun fire and lay in a shell hole for three days before being recovered. As a result, gas gangrene set in, and his right arm had to be removed.
That was basically the end of his military career. He struggled thereafter to look after his wife and three surviving children but the stress and hardship was too much and he and his wife parted company in the 1920s.
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L/Sgt. Andrew Clark MM. 8th Btn Seaforth Highlanders Andrew Clark joined the 1st Seaforth in 1907 and went to India, where he remained until his Battalion was recalled and sent to France in 1914. They landed in Marseille in October 1914, and thence to Northern France and Flanders.
Some time in late 1914 or early 1915, he was wounded and sent to Britain. When he recovered, he was sent to the Depot in Cromarty, where he met and married Helen Gairn Finlayson. He remained at the Depot for some time where he was involved with training new recruits. In April 1917 he was sent to France again to join the 8th Bn., as his own, the 1st, had gone to Mesopotamia in December 1915.
In early July, he was involved in a raid on German trenches and subsequently received the Military Medal for Gallantry in the field.
During the 3rd Battle of Ypres,on July 31st, when he advanced with his regiment, he was wounded and lay in a shell hole for three days before being found. As a result, gas gangrene had set in and his arm had to be amputated. The first his wife heard of this was when she received a letter from the war office asking her to join him in Orpington where he was recovering from his wounds.
From there on, his life and that of his family became very difficult. The British Government was not very generous to wounded men and employment was hard to find with only one arm. He died of cancer in 1946.
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Pte. John Lang 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders (d.20th Apr 1916) John Lang died 20th April 1916 and is commemorated on the Basra War Memorial in Iraq.
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Pte. Frederick James Houghton 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders (d.22nd Apr 1916) Frederick Houghton lived at 1 Park Street, Burnley, Lancashire. He died 22nd April 1916, aged 19 and is commemorated on the Basra War Memorial in Iraq.
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Cpl. Sidney William Ware VC. 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders (d.16th Apr 1916) Sidney Ware was born on November 11th 1892 at Winterbourne, Whitechurch, Dorset, the son of William and Maud Ware of 1 Pine Cottage, Sutton Veny, Warminster, Wiltshire.
He was awarded the VC for his actions on the 6th of April 1916. An extract from The London Gazette, No. 29765, dated 26th September 1916, records the following:- "For most conspicuous bravery. An order was given to withdraw to the cover of a communication trench. Corporal Ware, whose cool gallantry had been very marked during the advance, was one of the few men remaining unwounded. He picked up a wounded man and carried him some 200 yards to cover, and then returned for others, moving to and fro under very heavy fire for more than two hours until he had brought in all the wounded and was completely exhausted."
He suffered injury on 10th of April 1916 and died a few days later, aged 23. He is buried in the Amara War Cemetery in Iraq.
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Sgt.Mjr. John Morton 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders (d.9th May 1915) My great great uncle John Morton, served as a career soldier for 15 years until he was killed in action. He is honoured in the Le Touret Memorial and on the west face of the Duchess Of Hamilton Park Memorial
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Pte. Peter Orr 2nd Btn. Seaforth Highlanders (d.27th Apr 1918) Peter Orr was born in 1885 at Ormiston East Lothian and enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders in 1906, serving in India prior to WWI.
The 1911 Census in India identified him as being a Lance Corporal but he had left the Army prior to his marriage in March 1914 where his occupation was given as a Miner.
He re-enlisted on 23rd August 1914, this time to the 2nd Battalion, as a Private, was re-assigned his old number and sent with the BEF to France thus receiving the Mons Star.
Peter died of wounds on the 27th April 1918 and is remembered with honour at Haringhe (Bandaghem) Military Cemetery in Belgium.
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Pte. Frederick James Houghton 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders (d.22nd Apr 1916) Frederick James Houghton served with the 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders during WW1 and was killed in action on the 22nd April 1916 age 19. He is commemorated on the Basra War Memorial in Iraq.
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Pte. John McIntosh 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders (d.24th Nov 1916) John McIntosh served in the 1st Battalion, the Seaforth Highlanders and died on the 24th November 1916. He is remembered at Monkton Memorial and is buried in Amara War Cemetery in Mesopotamia (Iraq). His medal card records the award of the War and Victory Medals.
John was born in Hebburn 1889 son of John and Annie Grant McIntosh nee McGregor of Hebburn. He was married to Elizabeth Minnie McIntosh nee Waister of High House Cottage, Monkton, Jarrow. In the 1911 census the family is living at 30 Cuthbert Street, Hebburn with John(46) a ships plater and his wife of 21 years Ann(39)having nine children all singe and at this address. John(21) general labourer at chemical plant, Simon(18)ships platers helper, William(16) ships platers apprentice, Elizabeth(13), Barbara(11), Angus(8) and Hector(5) at school. Alexander is 2 and Ann is 3 months old.
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Pte. Charles Ross 9th Btn. Seaforth Highlanders Charles Ross arrived in France on the 4th of August 1915. He was posted to 9th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders and was later transferred to the 1st battalion. (Dates of transfer unknown.)
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A/Sgt Albert Victor Causer 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders My grandfather, Albert Causer enlisted at Fort George into the Seaforth Highlanders on the 28th of April 1915 and was demobed on the 14th of August 1919. He was posted to the 10th Battalion appointed paid Lance Corporal, then posted to the 1st Battalion, promoted Corporal, appointed acting Sergeant. He served in Mesopotamia, India, Palestine and Syria between Febuary 1916 and July/August 1919.
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Pte. Peter Archibald McGregor 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders (d.31st Jan 1915) Peter McGregor is my great Grandfather. Peter is buried at Le Touret Military Cemetery, Richebourg-L'Avoue, France. I hope to travel there soon to lay flowers and to remember the sacrifice he and many others made so that we may live our lives in peace.
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