225222 Pte. David Waddell Cruickshank British Army 1st Btn. Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) from:Glasgow My Grandfather David Cruickshank fought the Battle of Le Cateau, He was born in Glasgow in 1894.
He joined the 1st Battalion the Cameronians (The Scottish Rifles) early in 1914. Army number 11132.
The Regiment was training in the Highlands in Perthshire, when they were called back to Merryhill Barracks Hamilton.
The Regiment was entrained to Southampton, and crossed over to Le Havre, from there they went to Mons, where the Cams were put into a new division, the 19th, they were put to the left of the Mons-Conde canal.
After the battle of Mons, 2nd Corps was the last to get away, they walked night and day in the sweltering August heat without food and water, getting involved in skirmishes along the way.
Eventually reaching Le Cateau, the Regiment was told to make for the train station or get some rest in the town square.
The battle of Le Cateau started the following morning at about 6.30 am.
My Grandad and another Cameronian were trapped in the town, he ran down a street but the Germans were coming the other way, he ran into a doorway, where there was a local woman with a bucket of water,
a shot was fired at him but missed and hit the bucket and the lady's dress.
He had already been wounded before the battle, so he laid down in the street feigning death, as he said in an interview in Paris in 1927, the street was full of dead horses and men, so I just led there hoping the enemy would pass me by, which they did.
He crawled into an alleyway and found a garden full of flowers and shrubs, he lay there for hours, and he said he could here British Artillery firing over his head.
He crawled into a cellar of a house, where Madame Baudhuin looked after him.
This brave lady kept him for over two years, until his capture in 1916.
He was sentenced to death by a German court marshall, and Madame Baudhuin was sentenced to ten years in prison in Germany. There is a lot more to this story, some funny some sad, further details can be found on
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