227742 Segt. Andrew Clark MM.British Army 1st Btn. Seaforth Highlanders from:Midlothian 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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