The Fallen of Lodge 19: The Great War

(Compiled by Bro. Abercrombie and posted here 11/11/08; 90 years on)

Six of our brethren were lost in the Great War.....

 "They Shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them or the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We Shall Remember Them."

A) Bro. John Forrester No. 290691 Sergeant 1st/7th Battalion "The Black Watch The Royal Highland Regiment".   Died 30th April 1917 age 25. Son of John & Janet Forrester of Ceres. Remembered with Honour at "Wimereux Communal Cemetery", near Boulogne, France. Grave 2 J 3.

Wimereux is 5 km north of Boulogne on the north French coast.   The village area formed part of an important British Army Hospital Centre - the communal cemetery was used for burials. The same area was also in the frontline of the 1940 retreat by the "British Expeditionary Force" to Dunkirk.   It was retaken by the 1st Canadian Army on 22nd September 1944. Some 2,847 Commonwealth servicemen lying buried from WW1 & 2, are unidentified.   Lieut. Col. John McRae, author of In Flanders Fields, lies there with14 British WW2 graves, 5 French and 170 Germans. Unusually, because of the local sandy soil, the gravestones lie flat. Bro. Forrester is honoured on Cupar Cenotaph-unveiled, in 1919, by Field Marshall Bro. Douglas Haig, of Lodge # 91 Elgin's Lodge at Leven. Bro.   Forrester is also featured on Ceres Parish Kirk Roll of Honour.

(B) Bro. George Hay Small. No. M2/098217, Private Army Service Corps, 346th Transport Company. Died 5th December 1917 aged 42. Husband of Margaret Macrae Small, Broughty Ferry, Angus. Remembered with Honour at Lahana Cemetery Greece: Grave 3 D 16. Bro. Hay is also Honoured on Cupar Cenotaph.

Lahana is 56km north of Thessalonika. There are 279 Commonwealth War Graves from the front at Struma Greece. It is remarkable to record that Bro. Small's regalia was returned to the Lodge in recent years (separate report and photos to come).

(C) Bro. James Hart Kellie.   No. 24242. Sergeant 56th Field Company, Royal Engineers. Died 20th September 1918 aged 24. Son of James Hart Kellie, Dundee. Remembered with Honour at Sunken Road Cemetery Boisleux St. Marc. Arras, France. Bro. Kellie is also honoured on Cupar Cenotaph.

Boisleux St. Marc is 8 km south of Arras in the Pas de Calais, France. The village was occupied by Commonwealth troops in March 1917 follwing the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. There were various casualty clearing-stations in the area with 416 burials in the cemetery.

D) Bro. A. (Arthur?) Mackenzie. Private 39549. 13th Battalion Royal Scots. Died 25th January 1917 aged 39. Husband of Ann C.MacKenzie of Hill Crescent Cupar, Fife. Buried grave I A 2 Blargies Communal Cemetery Extension.

Blargies is situated in the Department of the Oise in France. The area was used from 1916 as arms dumps and stores depots. There were also hospitals in the area. There are 250 graves for WW1 and a few WW2 casualties.

E) Bro. James Imrie Berry. Private # 18428, 9th Battalion The Black Watch, Royal Highland Regiment. Son of James and Helen Berry, Arnold's Land, Cupar Road, Tayport, Fife. Died aged 20 on 31/03/1918. Buried plot 9 B 9 Wimereux Communal Cemetery, France. Not far from where one of his Lodge Brethren, Bro John Forrester lies.(Cemetery detail as before).

F) Bro.Robert Barnett Kidd. Private # S/15107, 9th Battalion The Black Watch, Royal Highland Regiment. It is not known who the next of kin were or where Bro. Kidd lived. Died 28/03/1918. Buried in and commemorated on Bay 6, Arras Memorial, France.

The Arras memorial is within the Faubourg d' Amiens Cemetery, Boulevard de General De Gaulle, Arras, France. The town of Arras was the focus of the major  British Army offensive planned for April 1917. The area was used for field ambulance and fighting units till November 1918. There are some 2600 graves. Some 35,000 Commonwealth servicemen died in the Arras area from 1916 to 1918. Arras was occupied by the British Expeditionary Force until evacuated on 23 May 1940.It was held by the Germans until re-taken by Commonwealth and Free French forces on 1st September 1944. There are 7 burials from WW2.

Their Name Liveth For Evermore

Details of these and other fallen from the wars are here at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.