256910 Pte. John Beattie British Army 1st Btn. Gordon Highlanders from:Hawick, Scotland My brother has recently uncovered information regarding our grandfather, John Beattie, who served with the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders in WW1. He was captured in action at the Battle of le Cateau on 26/27th August 1914.
He subsequently spent the whole of the rest of the war as a PoW at Sennelager PoW camp near Bielefeld in north-west Germany.
His medical card has been sent to my brother and the text (in French) describes him as "fading away. He has been here a long time. He is under the orders of Lieutenant Usher whose regiment is also in internment". Despite the description, fortunately he survived the war and returned home.
His unit had landed in Boulogne, France, on 14th of August so he spent only two weeks on active service, followed by four years as a prisoner. After the war he became a police officer with the Glasgow police, where he met my maternal grandmother, Janet Beattie (nee Morrison), who was one of the first three or four female recruits into the police after the war.
She rose to become the first ever female Detective Inspector in Scotland and received a British Empire Medal from the Queen on her retirement in 1968.
My grandfather was fatally injured in making an arrest in Glasgow and died around 1935 when my father (also John) was seven years old.
I recall my father recounting that his father had been a gunner and his position had been overrun by the German cavalry, leading to his capture. We do, somewhere, still have the "comfort photograph" of him that was sent by the German Red Cross to his family at home to let them know he was alive.
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