woundwort Posted 4 April , 2012 Share Posted 4 April , 2012 Although my query is based around an individual soldier, I thought this forum would be more appropriate as it's more to do with the events surrounding the capture of Beit Lidd. The background is that a friend of mine mentioned her grandfather who'd fought in the Great War after volunteering at the start despite being in a valued industry (he was a farm labourer). Although it's a close family, for obvious reasons he barely spoke about his experiences, and even destroyed many of his papers on returning to the quiet life of a farm larbourer. She was unsure even of which regiment and theatre he was in, although remembered vaguely talk of a battle in which his company was hit bad. Being in Caithness, I thought it'd be a fairly good bet he'd have been in Seaforth Highlanders generally, and 1 Bn. specifically. Last week she showed me his medals. Amongst the campaign medals (all sans ribbons) - including Pip, Squeak and Wilfred - I had a double-take as there was a DCM. Going via the London Gazette, I found the citation on page 2286/7 on 25/2/20: For marked gallantry and leadership. On 20th September, 1918, at Beit Lidd, he assumed the duties of company serjeant-major as soon as his own company serjeant-major was severely wounded. Later, when his officers were all killed and wounded, he took command of the company and led it with great resource and skill in a difficult situation. So, he was indeed in 1st Bn. Seaforth, and at the Battle of Tabsor with the 7th Meerut. Taken from page 329 of the Sword of the North: Highland Memories of the Great War (MACEARCHEN, DUGALD 1923 Robert Carruthers & Sons) In the Last of the Crusades.Transferred to Palestine, the Meerut Division took part in General Allenby's sweeping advance through Palestine and Syria, which brought about the complete defeat of the Turkish Armies. The Seaforths marched about 300 miles, besides fighting battles : during one part of the operations they in seven consecutive days advanced 92 miles. From Haifa, passing Tyre and Sidon, the Meerut Division entered Beirut the Beautiful amid the rejoicings of the inhabitants, for the Turkish yoke was broken ! Having thus borne their part in crowning the last of the Crusades, the 1st Batallion Seaforth Highlanders later, before the close of war, helped quell the unrest in Alexandria and Cairo. As greater cachet is attached to the VC, I'm not too surprised that I can't find much more about him and his actions. He was an intensely humble man not prone to ostentatious displays, so there also is next to nothing about him in local sources: just confirmation of his enlistment and his parish. I'd be interested if other forum readers are able to provide more details of the events surrounding the capture of Beit Lidd, and any personal stories of men Pte. Henderson might have fought with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 4 April , 2012 Share Posted 4 April , 2012 This from the official history, Military Operations Egypt & Palestine June 1917 to the end of the war, Part II, page 507/8 “Br-General Weir was in an unpleasant quandary. His brigade had been on the move without water since 5 am and only at Beit Lid could he hope to find it. He had been ordered to make El Mas'udiye Station by nightfall, and he calculated that he could only do so if he was in possession of Beit Lid by 4.30 pm. The mountain artillery was delayed, as the mules could not be got forward till they had been watered. He decided finally to attack at 2 pm without awaiting the guns, under a machine-gun barrage, so that if successful he would be able to give his exhausted troops a drink and about an hour and a half's rest before continuing his advance. At that hour the attack of the 1/Seaforth was launched from the south, but was finally held up at 200 yards from the village by cactus hedges, after suffering 120 casualties with a high proportion of officers. A few minutes after the beginning of the attack, Lieut-Colonel W S Leslie, GSO 1 of the division, rode up and informed him that the 21st Brigade was approaching to co-operate against Beit Lid and that the 28th Brigade would afterwards pass through to carry out the advance on El Mas'udiye by night.” A sad story: what if? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 4 April , 2012 Share Posted 4 April , 2012 The map below shows the advance of the 7th (Indian) Division. the map is from 'The Palestine Campaigns' by Col A P Wavell CMG, MC. Constable & Co Ltd., 1928 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woundwort Posted 4 April , 2012 Author Share Posted 4 April , 2012 Highly sad, yes. More and more recently I've been seeing Great War as a classical tragedy in the same terms as Troy and others. Out of interest, is Pte. Henderson mentioned at all in that book? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 5 April , 2012 Share Posted 5 April , 2012 Out of interest, is Pte. Henderson mentioned at all in that book? Sorry; no mention Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woundwort Posted 5 April , 2012 Author Share Posted 5 April , 2012 I'm none too surprised, Michael. I was chatting to an amateur researcher at the local British Legion branch, and he was unaware of this. Given that Pte. Henderson tried to efface his own history, it's not unexpected that the official chroniclers didn't mention him. Am I correct in my ascribing intense kudos to a mere squaddie who received the DCM in these circumstances? He went on to father 12 children, four of whom still are alive. This includes my friend's 78 year old father; and, the eldest, an 88 year old daughter. Her birthday was last week, and being shown a print-out of the citation from the London Gazette which I skolled and the account of the fighting you gave with the first she EVER had read about it. She was delighted. Would you be able to recommend academic histories of Megiddo and the wider Palestine campaign? I've identified Anthony Bruce's Last Crusade (2002)... is it worthy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 6 April , 2012 Share Posted 6 April , 2012 Try to get hold of a copy of Wavell's book which I mentioned earlier. I bought mine second (?) hand at a very reasonable (cheap) price. It includes good maps: the one above is from the text, but there are another three in colour which are tipped into binding at the back. Wavell's Appendix II is a very useful bibliography of the campaign, and unlike most others, he presents his in tabular form with details of the authors and the periods covered, as well as his own criticism of the various works. Good luck Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woundwort Posted 6 April , 2012 Author Share Posted 6 April , 2012 Ta'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 6 April , 2012 Share Posted 6 April , 2012 The Scottish Church in Jerusalem has a memorial to the Seaforths who fell with the 1st Battalion in 1918 see http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=5232&mforum=warmemscot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woundwort Posted 9 April , 2012 Author Share Posted 9 April , 2012 Thank you again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TullochArd Posted 8 March , 2019 Share Posted 8 March , 2019 (edited) On 06/04/2012 at 15:33, michaeldr said: The Scottish Church in Jerusalem has a memorial to the Seaforths who fell with the 1st Battalion in 1918 see http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=5232&mforum=warmemscot Erected in 1934 by the 1st Battalion on returning to Palestine and inscribed in Gaelic "s'seimh suain na sonn" which (roughly) translates into English as "sleep well brave heroes" Edited 22 March , 2019 by TullochArd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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