224660 L/Sgt. Andrew Clark MM.British Army 8th Btn Seaforth Highlanders from:Cromarty 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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