The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) - Old Family Photos

[LuckyJim]

My grandad left behind a few old photos, some of which appear to have been taken around the time of the second world war. Among them were these two:





The first is of my grandad's brother David. My mother seems to believe that a different brother is in the section photograph. I am told the two brothers were often mistaken for twins. The lad third from the left in the back row bears a resemblance to David I would say. From what my mother recalls of conversations she and my grandfather had the youngest brother lied about his age to join the army at 15. Tragically he was killed in Burma. I think this brother may have been David but I'm not sure. The Cameronians became another casualty of the defense cuts in the 1960's. I read that the regiment had traditionally recruited from the south west of the country but my grandfather and his siblings all appear to be from Kirrimuir. My Grandad didn't serve with them but served with the Royal Horse Artillery.

[tig]

ye it definitely looks like the guy above but as you say if they looked similar then who knows really.
most regiments are usually filled with locals from around their base but people from elsewhere also join, a mate of mine went to Dundee to join the rhf and he said he was the only one in his platoon(or whatever you call it) not from the Dundee area.
and my brother joined the engineers and he was the only scot there...they where based in Dover

[LuckyJim]

Originally Posted by tig

ye it definitely looks like the guy above but as you say if they looked similar then who knows really.
most regiments are usually filled with locals from around their base but people from elsewhere also join, a mate of mine went to Dundee to join the rhf and he said he was the only one in his platoon(or whatever you call it) not from the Dundee area.
and my brother joined the engineers and he was the only scot there...they where based in Dover

I'm not sure if there was a reason why they would have chosen to join the Cameronians or if it was a case of that regiment simply needing bodies to fill boots at the time. As for my grandfather he joined up in 1935 prior to the war so he may have had more of a choice in the matter. His father had served with the RHA in the first world war so it is easier to make a connection there. I know a lot of guys still do join infantry regiments whose recruiting grounds are further afield. The brothers may have had a reason for joining that regiment but I suppose I will never know now, which is a pity as I would have liked to have known more about them.

[Polwarth]

LJ
Lots of regimental records can be searched for free on this site
FORCES WAR RECORDS - over 4 million MILITARY RECORDS & MILITARY HISTORY DATA

My Dad was in the A&SH - and their regimental museum, based in Stirling Castle were very helpful with some queries we had about other family members in that regiment. Perhaps the Cameronians also have such a museum/regimental records office.

[LuckyJim]

Polwarth,

Cheers for the link. It allowed me to search but to gain full access to the info it brought up there was a fee. I decided to take the one month option rather than subscribe for a full year so it didn't cost much ( around £9) and it brought up a few useful details. The record confirms that David died in Burma in 1942 and it includes his army number as well as his battalion so hopefully that will make it easier to find more information. I will begin gathering all the info I can on what his battalion was doing on the date he died. All I have established so far is that they were involved in heavy fighting during the retreat around that time. I will also try the regimental museum for more records. I'm finding this quite fascinating even though I never knew him and my grandfather never spoke of him to me personally. There are other pieces to the jigsaw.... old travel guides and newspaper clippings from foreign places, mystery photos. Some of it points to the possibility that the other brother did indeed also serve in the same regiment. I will have to dig everything out again and see what I have to work with.

[Polwarth]

Glad you got some info from the link. Try to find the camernians museum. I got a lot of info from the museum in Stirling.

[Lachlan09]

Hi Pol

Nice site. I've tried to find further service information on both Granddads and my Gt Uncles in WW1 to try and find service numbers etc to add to the info I have, but only 2 show up - Gt Uncle David who was KIA with 8th BW on 3/5/17 at Roeux, Arras and Gt Uncle Wullie who survived and was awarded the MC as a 2nd Lt with 1/8th Warwicks. I still don't know the service numbers of my Granddad Cpl (A/Sgt) James Gow with 1/6th BW and ?th (perhaps 11th) RSF, Granddad Peter Montgomery (piper) with 2/7th RS (pre-1917 service number) and Gt Uncle Cpl (A/Sgt) Neil Weir 1/8th A&SH and ?th (perhaps 11th) RSF.

Also, strangely, I don't know my Dad's (James William Gow) WW2 service number (too late now to ask as he died last year) who joined Royal Signals then later transferred to S.O.E. Force 136 and served in Burma.

Kew got blitzed during WW2 and many WW1 records were destroyed. It's definitely easier to find dead WW1 relatives, through the linked site or CWGC.

I once tried a thing on CWGC site out of "anorak" interest. I listed all the British WW1 "Gows" who died and considered the ages, dates of death, regiments etc. I seem to recall there were about 60 on the list. The largest number were in the Black Watch (not a huge surprise there), with the Argylls not far behind. The youngest to die was 19. The first to die was at Mons, 23rd August 1914 and the last on 10th November 1918 (in 5th QO Cameron Highlanders). The first one to die at Mons (with Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry) was followed by his brother (in same battalion) 3 days later at Le Cateau. (I cross checked with the curators of the Light Infantry museum who confirmed they were brothers from Shoreditch, London).

The battle which claimed most Gows was Loos (25th Sept-Oct 1915) - Scotland's (and Kitchener's Army's first) battle.

A bit anoracky right enough !!