The wartime experiences of a Highland Lovat Scout are finally published more than 50 years after his death
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A FORMER Highland primary school headteacher has published the history of a member of the famous Lovat Scouts.
Angus MacLennan was born in Dingwall in June 1890 to working class parents and joined the Territorial Force of the Lovat Scouts in February 1914, when he was 23 years old.
His handwritten notes covering his military service passed into the public domain after his death in 1971.
They provide a very detailed account of everyday life in the regiment as it fought in four theatres during World War I.
The notes were gifted to Katherine De Jonckheere, who was the head teacher of Knockbreck Primary in Tain, who has been transcribing them and adding footnotes with the aim of getting them published as he would have wished.
She said: “The memoirs were originally handwritten by Angus over a period of years but always with the intention of them being published as he addresses the reader as such and engages with them as if in conversation.
“However, the Second World War and the death of his wife Elizabeth MacKenzie in 1942 meant this never happened and, when he died in 1971, he left no will and the memoirs entered the public domain.”
While he was living with his parents at Birchwood Cottage, in Bunchrew, he describes the excitement of the outbreak of the World War 1.
In the book he said: “Word was passed around that a mobilization notice was posted at the Clachnacuddin Stone at the exchange Inverness.
“Thither I proceeded and was satisfied! Yes, there were my orders – All members of the Territorial Force to report to their unit’s headquarters at once!”
Initially he undertook a spell of training in Norfolk and in his notes he described the everyday life, ploys and pranks of the men, plus the occasional more hair-raising incident.
He said: “That night blank ammunition was used and some blighter fired at me at point-blank range and nearly singed my eyebrows for me.”
The regiment was deployed to Gallipoli and he described the landscape and the extreme hardships faced by the men – he said that not only were the Turks a formidable enemy but nature contrived to make their lives a constant misery.
They were so highly respected that they were used as part of the rear guard during the evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula to Egypt, where they recovered from the ravages of jaundice and dysentery.
In 1916 they were deployed to Salonika to face the Bulgarian army in malaria-infested plains – before the regiment was reported to family and in the press as missing and dead after a major attack on an area known as Rabbit Wood.
Miss De Jonckheere said they were finally retrained and sent to France as mappers and observers as part of the Lovat Scouts Sharpshooters. She added: “The memoir is hardback with over 150 pages in A4 format, illustrated throughout and with appendices containing further information and pictures of Lovat Scouts.”
n The book can be obtained by emailing katherine.dejonckheere@btinternet.com or from the Dornoch Book Shop on 01862 810165.
