The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

[Adam Brown]

Kilmuir Easter War Memorial, Ross & Cromarty
Location: On wall of St Mary’s Parish Church. Beside B817 Invergordon - Kildary road
OS Ref: NH 757 732
Memorial Type: Cross
UKNIWM Ref: 6024





Adam

[Adam Brown]

Alphabetical list of names:

Great War

ALLAN , Charles , Private , Rifle Brigade
BLACK , David , Sergeant , Seaforth Highlanders
CAMERON , Duncan , Private , Canadian Expeditionary Force
CAMERON , Charles T , Lieutenant , Seaforth Highlanders
CAMPBELL , D Thomson , Corporal , Seaforth Highlanders
CORBETT , Colin , Gunner , Royal Garrison Artillery
ELLIOT , Matthew , Private , Australian Imperial Force
ELLIOT , Michael , Private , Australian Imperial Force
FERGUSON , Fergus , Lance Corporal , Seaforth Highlanders
FORBES , James , Private , Seaforth Highlanders
FRASER , John , Sergeant , Seaforth Highlanders
FRASER , Hugh , Private , Seaforth Highlanders
GEDDES , William , Private , Seaforth Highlanders
GEDDES , James , Private , Cameron Highlanders
GEDDES , John G , Private , Cameron Highlanders
INNES , Arthur , Sergeant , Seaforth Highlanders
MACKAY , John , Private , Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders
MACKENZIE , Donald H , Private , Seaforth Highlanders
MACLEOD , Donald , Private , Seaforth Highlanders
MACLEOD , John , Private , Seaforth Highlanders
MACLEOD , William , Private , Seaforth Highlanders
MACLEOD , James F , Private , Cameron Highlanders
MICHAEL , Robert , Corporal , Seaforth Highlanders
ROSS , Thomas , Sergeant , Cameron Highlanders
ROSS , Alexander , Corporal , Seaforth Highlanders
ROSS , Neil , Private , Seaforth Highlanders
VASS , William , Sergeant , Seaforth Highlanders

[DelBoy]

Article about casualty on this memorial Robert William Michael from the Ross-shire journal.

http://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/8438/Tracking_the_sawmiller_who_went_to_war.html

ARMISTICE Day prompted me to look up information on my father's cousin who was killed in WWI.

A few years ago I found on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website where he was buried and then tracked down his name on the Kilmuir Easter war memorial. Robert William Michael had lived in Tarbert Villa, Milntown (sic), Kildary. But that was all I knew about him.

Through the Ancestry.co.uk website I found his war records and, like all others, it made for sad reading. He had first enlisted with the Territorial Force at Invergordon in 1914 when he gave his occupation as a sawmiller.

He was in the 4th Seaforth Highlanders attached to the 154 Machine Gun Corps. By 1916 he had been in France for a while and his records show that in December that year he was in a field hospital for two weeks, his illness likely due to the dirty conditions they had to live in.

In February 1917, he was back in a field hospital with bronchitis. He rejoined his company on 2nd March and on 9th April he died of wounds in a casualty clearing station at Aubigny.

He is buried in the CWGC cemetery there. The offensive of the Battle of Arras had begun on 9th April. As Aubigny is only 15 kilometres from Arras, and as it appears that the 4th Seaforth Highlanders were in that battle, it is more than likely that this is where he received his injuries.

One of the most poignant things in the records is a copy of a note to his mother Isabella Michael enclosing Robert's personal effects and asking her to acknowledge receipt.

She replied, "I am in receipt of the personal effects of the late L/Cpl R Michael and beg to offer my thanks for the same." I was very moved reading all this. Although it is over 90 years since Robert was killed my father was fifteen at the time of his death and lived just a few miles away in Hill of Fearn.

He had mentioned it to me when I was young so it is only a generation away from me.

But Robert Michael's is just one story and I know it isn't a Lochbroom one. But this was happening to so many other young Highlanders and their families including many in Coigach and Lochbroom.

And the tragedy is that wars and young people's deaths continue and families still mourn.