8/KOSB, 15th (Scottish) Division, Dec 1915 - Feb 1916

[headgardener]

I'm looking for information on 8/KOSB for the period 24th December 1915 up to 8th February 1916. Where were they? Were they anywhere near the front line? Were there many casualties during this period?

A man I'm researching, Peter Matheson, was posted to 8th KOSB on 24th December '15 and was then admitted to 11th General Hospital on 8th Feb '16 as "Not Yet Diagnosed, Mental" (total service with the battalion; approx 7 weeks). He was passed on to 'D' block, Netley, and from there to Inverness Mental Hospital where he died in early 1919. His medical papers contain notes of his assessment, but no indication as to the origin of his condition.

His brother, Donald, was killed in 1918. Donald's obit states that Peter had been invalided from France with "shell-shock" and had been in Inverness Mental Hospital ever since.

What I'm trying to ascertain is whether it is likely that Peter was suffering from shell-shock, or whether he was perhaps suffering from either an organic brain disease or perhaps tertiary syphillis.

As an aside, the entry for 8/KOSB in The Long Long Trail repeats a mistake from "James' British regiments" in stating that 8/KOSB arrived in France in July 1917; it was in fact 1915. Don't know if this is worth pointing out to anyone involved in this site.

[Colin W Taylor]

The Battalion history for 7/8th Bn KOSB can be downloaded from the link below. The 7th and 8th Battalions were amalgamated due to heavy casualties in about April 1916.

http://www.archive.org/details/borderbattalionh00ediniala

I hope this is of help. The war diaries would be your best bet - a quick look on the PRO website will give you details of the documents in question, or a search of this forum might reveal someone who has them and may share (sadly I've only got Jun, Jul and Aug 1917 for the7/8th.)

I hope this helps

Colin

[Colin W Taylor]

The book I mentioned previously refers to the following incident for the 8th Bn around February 1916.

To quote:

'Whilst the 8th Battalion was in reserve at Philosophe,a shell landed in a small room at the top of a

house occupied as a billet. There were nine casualties; one man was killed outright, three subsequently

died of wounds, and the remainder were wounded. The explosion was confined to this one small room,

nobody in the adjoining rooms being in any way injured. There was a great strafe on at the time, and

it is difficult to say what kind of shell this was, but it was thought to have been one of our own dud antiaircraft

shells.'

For one of those wounded in the room, or unwounded outside the room looking in, such a traumatic experience could understandably lead to mental health problems. To clarify and confirm this you'll need to check the war diary or regimental history if there is one.

Colin

[headgardener]

Colin,

That's fantastic! I didn't realize that there was a battalion history, and hadn't thought of checking archive.org.

I'll have a careful read, but I had a feeling that they were in reserve during this time, so I'm a little wary about the 'shell-shock' reference. Having said that, I'd be slightly surprised if a pre-existing condition (as per my earlier suggestions) would have manifested so completely within the space of 7 weeks as to render him institutionalized. I've learned never to assume too much regarding the army's attitude at that time towards mental-health issues, but it does seem like a suspiciously short time for such a condition to emerge. I'll be very interested to see when that incident with the shell occurred.

Thanks again. I appreciate your help.