The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

A Co, 27th Bn. · Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:12 pm Post subject: Checking In From Down South

Hi everybody.
Have just registered after lurking around the fringes reading posts as a guest for a month or so. Not sure that I will be able to contribute much in the way of Info but I will post anything I come across that I think will interest the group. I already recognize some of the members user names here and some of you will know mine from other forums.
Cheers All Ian
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In memory of the four brothers MacRae who answered the call never to return.

DerekR · Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:42 pm Post subject:

Ian,
Welcome aboard.
To which 27th Bn. do you belong?
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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.

A Co, 27th Bn. · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:24 am Post subject:

DerekR

My forum identity was chosen as a result of my first interest in WW1. It came about after a conversation with my father subsequent to a visit he had made to the battlefields of France and Flanders to visit the graves of his uncles (my great uncles). One of them, John MacRae, was awarded the MM and a Bar in 1916 but no one in the family knew anything about the circumstances surrounding the awards, so I offered to dig around on the internet to see what I could come up with. I was amazed at what was out there and established that Great Uncle John won his MM in the Battle of the Craters at St Eloi in April 1916. He was the sergeant in charge of the bombing section of A Co. 27th (City of Winnipeg) Bn. CEF in that action. Hence my choice of Forum Identity. Sadly he was later killed on Sept 15th at the Battle of Courcelette, by which time he was Acting CSM.
I have subsequently expanded my researches to include all of my relatives who fought in WW1, both those who survived and those who did not.

Cheers Ian
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In memory of the four brothers MacRae who answered the call never to return.

DerekR · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:54 pm Post subject:

Ian,
Ahhh yes, I have you now! I remember a recent posting on another forum mentioning St.Eloi.
Anyone who fought at St.Eloi has my greatest respect and admiration. The MM award to your relative was done in the worst of circumstances and thus very well earned.
Tongue in cheek I have to say that the award could have been better if he had fought with the 28th Bn.(North-west) Laughing

- my Great-Grandfather's battalion. He to was at St.Eloi and Courcelette and somehow survived.

If you've not already done so I recommend that you read the book "The Journal of Private Fraser" which tells the story of a soldier of the 31st Bn. (and the 6th Brigade) on the Western Front with a chapter on St.ELoi.
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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.