No.6633 L/Cpl. Angus Macmillan

[tony paley]

A friend and colleague of mine recently managed to recover his Grandfather's Victory Medal. His Grandfather was 6633 L/Cpl. Angus Macmillan of the 1st battalion Scots Guards who was recorded as missing on 25th January 1915. Angus is recorded on the Le Touret Memorial. My pal is an ex Scots Guard himself and has been able to obtain his records intact. The information that I have been able to establish is that the Battalion was in the line near Cuinchy during a German attack and suffered heavy casualties. I wonder if any pals out there could provide more information of events that day. My pal is a very proud Scot who now lives at Hereford, by coincidence he located his grandfather's medal on the internet in South Wales. Angus was originally from Inverness and served in South Africa with the Imperial Yeomanry and re enlisted in the Scots Guards at Glasgow in 1906. Any help would be much appreciated.

Tony P

[Lost in Tilloy]

Hi Tony

There are details of this attack recorded on pages 71 to 76 of "The Scots Guards in the Great War 1914-1918" by Loraine Petre, Wilfred Ewart and Major-General Sie Cecil Lowther.

I'm afraid I don't have time at the moment to write it all out however if you wanted to send me contact details I could might be able to pass something on later.

What I will state is that the casualties for the tour of service near Cuinchy were:

4 Officers killed, 3 wounded and 7 missing.

Other ranks: 27 killed, 120 wounded and 235 missing.

Regards

LIT

[eltoro1960]

Tony from the war diary - they were at Quinchy

25th January

At 6.30 am a German deserter reported that an attack was going to take place in half an hour,bombardment first then our trenches were to be blown in by previously made mines. After an hour all happened as the deserter had said. 5RF and 40LF (Right Flank and Left Flank) got away- their story is as follows - The Germans first shelled them, then got out of their trenches and attacked half right, then threw bombs in,got to the top of the parapet and shot down into the trenches. The Germans afterwards swarmed up to the 'Keep' where Major Romilly was, there they were checked and held.

Reinforcements came up and a counter attack was delivered at 1pm but did not retake much ground. battalion was relieved at 4pm by Sussex Regt.

The trenches appear to have been only 25 to 150 yard apart.

[tony paley]

Thanks for the information it is a start and very helpful.

Tony P

[markjs]

Hi Tony

I know that it is over a year since this was posted, but my wife (Mariane) is currently researching her family tree on her mother's side.6633 L/Cpl Angus MacMillan is her great, great uncle. My wife's mother has his Memorial Plaque along with photos and other documentation. Unfortunately, for some reason, she no longer has his medals.

Angus was from Kilvaxter, Kilmuir on the Isle of Skye. We believe that my wife's mother (Flora Mhairi) was adopted by the MacMillan family as a baby but she declines to discuss this in any way. However, on the death of her aunt all the MacMillan possessions were passed down to her as the last surviving family member; this included the bits and pieces we have regarding Angus.

There are a number of anomalies that make us think that your friend possibly has the incorrect Angus MacMillan. 6633 L/Cpl MacMillan was a crofter for most of his life. This can be verified by looking at the census results for 1901 and 1911. During this time he also had 5 children, this probably would not have been possible if he was serving in South Africa at the time.

It is not entirely impossible that your friends and our Angus MacMillan are the same person and, in that case, it would be good to be able to make contact with your friend.

There is another Angus MacMillan who did serve in South Africa up until 1907; he came from Glenelg, Inverness.

We visited Le Touret Memorial in France this summer and left a cross in his memory. It has come as a massive surprise that there is a possible relation as we have always been led to believe that my wife's mother was the last living relative of Angus.

Regards Mark and Mariane

[ss002d6252]

The curious issue in all of this is that the original poster stated that his friend had a copy of the service records and so presumably had the information from them.

There is a 558 Angus MacMillan from Inverness who re-enlisted in 1908 and served with the 1st Lovat Scouts from 1903 and had proceeded overseas in August 1914.

[markjs]

This is getting even more curious. Been doing some more research, 558 Angus is the elder brother of 6633 Angus 558 Angus was 38 when he re-enlisted in 1908. 6633 Angus died aged 37 in 1915.

The curious issue in all of this is that the original poster stated that his friend had a copy of the service records and so presumably had the information from them.

There is a 558 Angus MacMillan from Inverness who re-enlisted in 1908 and served with the 1st Lovat Scouts from 1903 and had proceeded overseas in August 1914.

[ss002d6252]

Been doing some more research, 558 Angus is the elder brother of 6633 Angus 558 Angus was 38 when he re-enlisted in 1908. 6633 Angus died aged 37 in 1915.

Did one of them have Angus as a middle name or did they have 2 children with the same first name ?

[markjs]

They actually had three, one died at birth, all with the first name Angus.

Did one of them have Angus as a middle name or did they have 2 children with the same first name ?