"Friends are good on the day of battle"

51st Highland Division Monument at Beaumont Hamel

The 51st Highland Division memorial at Beaumont Hamel ideally illustrates the ethos of the Territorial Force.  The translation of the Gaelic inscription on the base reads, "Friends are good on the day of battle".  The bronze statue of a Highlander looks out across Y Ravine, where so many of those friends from towns and villages across the north of Scotland,  fell. 

In the History of the 51st (Highland) Division, the author makes the following comments regarding casualties at Beaumont Hamel:

"The casualties sustained by the Division during the month of November amounted to 123 officers killed, wounded and missing, and 2355 other ranks.  For modern warfare [ Note: this was written in 1921] these were not heavy, particularly when compared with the number of prisoners captured during the operation.  It must, however, be borne in mind that at the time of the battle, the battalions were extremely weak in numbers.  The casualties during the action represented 45 per cent of those who took part in the attack."

The War Diaries for the 5th Battalion list 94 men killed in action or dying of wounds as a result of the action at Beaumont Hamel. (Several were not in fact killed.) Of these 90 or so men, about 80 can be identified as either having been born in, or lived in, the North East area of Aberdeenshire.  The loss to many small communities was considerable.

War's End

The battalion that ended the war in 1918 was a very different unit from that which had volunteered for service in 1914.  Heavy losses in 1916 and 1917, the end to direct recruiting into the Territorial Force  and conscription, had all helped to reduce the local nature of the original battalion.  The catastrophe of March 1918, when the battalion lost 560 men, including its Commanding Officer, mainly as prisoners of war, meant that few of the men who had appeared on the 1914  Roll were present to hear the contents of the telegram of congratulations sent to them by the County Association on Armistice Day 1918. On 12th November, the Buchan Observer published the following response to that telegram:

The following reply has been received from O.C. 5th Battalion -" Allow me on behalf of this battalion to thank the County of Aberdeen Territorial Force Association for the kind telegram of congratulations.  This has been communicated to all ranks and was greatly appreciated.  We all rejoice with you in the termination of the world war and trust that the day is not too far distant when we will be all back again pursuing our peaceful vocations, having prevented, we hope, for all time the recurrence of such a tragedy."

Click here to see the War Diary for November 1918

 Click here for details of the March 1918 battle.

The Regimental Roll of the Fallen in the Great War shows the figures for the 5th Battalion as 45 officers and 817 other ranks killed. The 1914 Roll contained the names of 33 officers and 902 other ranks.

• Bewsher, F.W. History of the 51st (Highland) Division, 1914-18.  1921
• Cave, Nigel Somme - Beaumont Hamel, (Battleground Europe Series) Leo Cooper 1994
• Cheyne, G.Y. The Last Great Battle of the Somme : Beaumont Hamel 1916, John Donald. 1988
• Collins, Norman Last Man Standing : the Memoirs of a Seaforth Highlander during the Great War, (ed. Richard Van Emden) Leo Cooper 2002 [Has an extensive section about Beaumont Hamel]
• Falls, Cyril The Gordon Highlanders in the First World War (Volume 4 of The Life of the Regiment), Aberdeen University Press
• Norman, Terry The Hell They Called High Wood : the Somme 1916. London William Kimber 1984
• Ross, Robert B The Fifty-First in France,  London, Hodder and Stoughton 1918 ( A memoir of an officer in the 7th Battalion Gordon Highlanders)

About the Territorial Force or the Army in general:

• Baker, Harold Territorial Force : a manual of its law, organization and administration, introduction by R.B. Haldane. London : John Murray, 1909
• Beckett, Ian F and Simpson, Keith A Nation in Arms : a Social Study of the British Army in the First World War, Manchester University Press 1985
• Dennis, Peter The Territorial Army 1906 - 1940, Royal Historical Society : Boydell Press 1987
• Messenger, Charles Call to Arms : The British Army 1914-18, Weidenfeld & Nicolson  2005
• Stations of Units of the Regular Forces, Militia, Special Reserve and Territorial Force. London 1913-1914
• Van Emden, Richard Boy Soldiers of the Great War, Headline  2005
• Westlake, Ray British Territorial Units 1914-18, Men-at-Arms Series, Osprey Publishing,  Oxford, 1991
• Westlake, Ray The Territorial Force 1914, Newport 1988

About Prisoners of War

• Jackson, Robert The Prisoners, 1914 -18 Routledge 1989

• The 51st (Highland) Division, War Sketches by Fred. A. Farrell with an introduction by Neil Munro
• 51st Highland Division in Chris Baker's excellent site on all aspects of the Great War, The Long, Long Trail.
• 51st Highland Division by Brad Chappell
• Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth 
• Military Research Steve Farrell's useful site.  Recommended if you require a military researcher
• 4th Battalion Gordon Highlanders Chris McDonald's informative site on the Aberdeen battalion
• Bydand.net A meeting place for former Gordon Highlanders, their families and friends, run by John Calder, himself a former Gordon.

   Please contact me with any additions, corrections or comments.

  email carolyn@carolynmorrisey.com
  Melbourne
  2007