241721 L/Cpl. James Albert Whyteside British Army 1st Btn. Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders from:Glasgow My father, James Whyteside, headed from Glasgow to Inverness to enlist shortly after war was declared in 1939. Up to that point he had been training as a lawyer's clerk.
I knew that he had been evacuated from Dunkirk and used to show me the stump of his big toe that been shot off! Otherwise, he really didn't speak about his experiences.
He died in 1978 and it was only recently that I was able to find out more. We now know he was the 1st Battalion in Belgium and France and was made an acting Lance Corporal, probably because of the horrendous loss rate in the battle of France.
We could not understand why he joined the Cameron Highlanders as there is no obvious family association with either the Regiment or Inverness. Perhaps in his youthful enthusiasm (he had turned 19 in August 1939) he just wanted to join a kilted regiment. His father had served with the Scottish Rifles in WWI (he lost a leg and subsequently infection killed him when my father was 11 or 12, so our other theory is that my grandmother, who was not a great one for detail, confused the Cameron Highlanders with the Cameronians when talking to my father about his dad.
After returning to Britain, I know that my father was posted to Wick as we have a photo of him dated that year in uniform at the beach. Volunteers were being sought for the RASC, which offered higher rates of pay for clerks, and being a trained clerk this must have seemed an attractive option to my dad. Unfortunately, he was posted to Singapore just in time to become a POW of the Japanese - an experience that affected him very badly both mentally and physically.
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