100 YEARS ON............LEST WE FORGET

Norman McCormick · 30th July 2014, 04:25 PM

Hi Fernando,
My wife's grandfather was a captain in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders 1916-18 and survived the war so I have done some reading about WW1 and remembered about a Portuguese soldier who gave covering fire to Portuguese and Scottish troops when they were pushed back by a much larger force during an enemy 'push' i.e. the Lys offensive. A quick search of course gave me his name as I couldn't quite remember that much detail. One of my grandfathers joined up twice! once in 1914 and once in 1916 both times he was escorted home by the Military Police as he was in what was called 'a reserved occupation' being a marine engineer he was involved in building submarines on the Clyde. The second time he actually got to the training camp before he was 'discovered'. I believe lots of men in these reserved occupations tried to join up during WW1 and it got to be quite a headache for the authorities.
My Regards,
Norman.

P.S. Interestingly I have a pigeon message holder complete with message that my wife's grandfather brought back. It was written by him, how it came back into his possession I don't know, in it he reports sighting enemy cavalry and gives their position.

30th July 2014, 04:25 PM	#8
Norman McCormick Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 1,613	Hi Fernando, My wife's grandfather was a captain in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders 1916-18 and survived the war so I have done some reading about WW1 and remembered about a Portuguese soldier who gave covering fire to Portuguese and Scottish troops when they were pushed back by a much larger force during an enemy 'push' i.e. the Lys offensive. A quick search of course gave me his name as I couldn't quite remember that much detail. One of my grandfathers joined up twice! once in 1914 and once in 1916 both times he was escorted home by the Military Police as he was in what was called 'a reserved occupation' being a marine engineer he was involved in building submarines on the Clyde. The second time he actually got to the training camp before he was 'discovered'. I believe lots of men in these reserved occupations tried to join up during WW1 and it got to be quite a headache for the authorities. My Regards, Norman. P.S. Interestingly I have a pigeon message holder complete with message that my wife's grandfather brought back. It was written by him, how it came back into his possession I don't know, in it he reports sighting enemy cavalry and gives their position.