|
|
|
5th (Queens Edinburgh Rifles) Battalion, Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment)
5th (Queen's Edinburgh Rifles) Battalion, Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) was a unit of the Territorial Force with its HQ in Forrest Hill, Edinburgh with the Lothian Brigade, Scottish Coast Defences when war broke out in August 1914. On the 11th of March 1915 they transferred to 88th Brigade, 29th Division at Leamington Spa. They were training for France when orders arrived to prepare to depart for Gallipoli. They embarked from Avonmouth on the 20th of March 1915 sailing via Malta to Alexandria then on to Mudros in April. They landed at Cape Helles, Gallipoli on the 25 April 1915 and were involved in heavy fighting until the evacuation on the nights of the 7th and 8th of January 1916 when they returned to Egypt. In March they were sent to France, sailing to Marseilles, landing on the 10th of March and travelling by train to concentrate in the area east of Pont Remy by the end of March. On the 24th of April the 5th Royal Scots transferred to Lines of Communication and on the 15th of June 1916 they amalgamated with the 1/6th to become the 5/6th Battalion.
27th Apr 1915 Holding the Line
28th Apr 1915 Ground Gained
6th May 1915 In Action
7th May 1915 In Action
28th Jun 1915 British attack
28th Jun 1915 In Action
19th Aug 1915 Water Scarce
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
13th of April 1918 Under Heavy Attack 
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
|
| Want to know more about 5th (Queens Edinburgh Rifles) Battalion, Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) ? There are:5243 items tagged 5th (Queens Edinburgh Rifles) Battalion, Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
|
|
|
|
The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
- 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.
|
Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the Great War? Our
Library contains many many diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text.
|
Looking for help with Family History Research?
Please see Family History FAQ's
Please note: We are unable to provide individual research.
|
|
Can you help?
The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors.
If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
If you enjoy this site
please consider making a donation.
Announcements
- 19th Nov 2024
Please note we currently have a massive backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than
264989 your submission is still in the queue, please do not resubmit.
Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to the Great War. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
|
World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great battalion regiment artillery
Did you know? We also have a section on World War Two. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
|
|
|
Pte. John Christy 5th Btn. Royal Scots (d.28th Jun 1915) John Christy, aged 17, was s great uncle who died in Turkey. He is commemorated at Helles.
He was awarded a medal which is held by another family member. I have been looking into war history for my family.
|
Pte. George Middlemas Brown 5th Battalion Royal Scots George Brown enlisted in the Royal Scots on the 2nd May 1912. During 1915 the Battalion was posted to Egypt for training for the Gallipoli landing. In 1915 the battalion landed in Gallipoli. George came through the campaign unscathed and the battalion left Gallipoli in December 1915. He was in France in 1916.
During 1916 he transferred from the Royal Scots to the Royal Flying Corp, as a Tinsmith. His service number was then 401779. He attained the rank of Leading Aircraftsman. He was discharged from the RAF on 11th of April 1919.
|
Pte. William Irvine Dyce 5th Btn. Royal Scots (d.18th June 1915) William Dyce died on the 18th of June 1915, aged 19. He is buried in the Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery, Gallipoli, Turkey.
|
Pte. George Ure Russell Downie 5th Btn. (Queen's Edinburgh Rifles) Royal Scots (d.7th May 1915) George Downie died on the 7th May 1915, aged 17. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey and was the son of Andrew and Elizabeth L. Munro Downie of 1 West Stanhope Place, Edinburgh.
|
Cpl. Angus Mackay 1st/5th Btn. (Queens Edinburgh Rifles) Royal Scots (Lothian) Regiment (d.5th May 1917) Angus Mackay died as a POW on 5th May 1917, aged 21. Buried in the Niederzwehren Cemetery in Germany, he was the son of Alexander and Isabella Mackay, of Scullomie, Tongue, Lairg, Sutherland.
This soldier’s diary is published in the book Somewhere in Blood Soaked France by Alasdair Sutherland.
Six Mackay brothers fought in WW1. The family came from Scullomie, Scotland. George Mackay was awarded a DCM for valour. Sadly his brothers Angus (21 years), Donald (32 years) and Magnus Mackay (18 years) all died in WW1. Angus Mackay fought at Gallipoli, Ypres Salient and Le Somme. Out of the 5th Royal Scots Battalion of 800 fighting at Gallipoli, 100 survived. Angus was mortally wounded at Battle of Arras. Lest We Forget.
|
Cpl. Angus Mackay 1/5th Btn.(Queens Edinburgh Rifles) Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) (d.5th May 1917) Angus Mackay served with the 1st/5th Battalion (Queens Edinburgh Rifles) Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) and then with the 88th Brigade Machine Gun Corp during WW1. He died on the 5th May 1917, aged 21. He is buried in Niederzwehren Cemetery in Germany. The cemetery was begun by the Germans in 1915 for the burial of prisoners of war who died at the local camp.
He was the son of Alexander and Isabella Mackay, of Scullomie, Tongue, Lairg, Sutherland.
This soldiers diary is published in the book Somewhere in Blood Soaked France by Alasdair Sutherland.
|
Recomended Reading.Available at discounted prices.
|
Somewhere in Blood Soaked France Alasdair Sutherland
This book follows the life of a crofters son from the Highlands of Scotland to Edinburgh and beyond and is a very rare example of a Brave man who secretely kept a diary during his military service from the Campaigns in Dardenelles, Egypt, the Somme, Ypres and every other battle he fought in, most not as memorable and probably long forgotten but every bit as Bloody. Angus's diary gives a modest and unique version of events he lived through and also the horrific conditions which he had to face on a daily basis. The author Alasdair Sutherland paints a bigger picture of what really took place on those diary entry dates looking back in time to the battlefields filling in the detail and giving the diary more depth and perspective. This is a unique story brought to life by a very knowledgeable author who researched the subject in great detail.
Somewhere in Blood Soaked France Alasdair Sutherland
From the heat and dust of the Dardanelles to the mud of the Western Front, Corporal Angus Mackay had one constant companion, his diary. He wrote of the battles and campaigns he fought in, names that would go down in history: Gallipoli, the Somme, Ypres and Arras. Serving in the the 1st/5th Battalion (Queens Edinburgh Rifles) Royal Scots and later the 88th Brigade Machine Gun Corps, he left a record of one man's extraordinary and tragic war. In Somewhere in Blood Soaked France, Alasdair Sutherland reveals this previously unpublished account of the First World War, complete with historical context, orders of battle and extracts from official war diaries. This rare source - it was an offence to keep a record in a case of capture - offers a stirring insight into the bravery of Mackay and his companions, who were not afraid to die for their country. 'If I go under it will be in a good cause, so roll on the adventure.'
|
|
|
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors.
The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small
to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
 |
 
The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library
|
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -
We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.
|
|
Site Home
Help & FAQs
