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Remembered Today:

Captain Gillies MacKirdy (West African Frontier Force)


David Earley

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I am currently researching Captain Gillies MacKirdy of the Bedfordshire Regiment who was killed in the Battle of the Ancre on 11 February 1917.

He enlisted as a private in the West Kent Yeomanry in August 1914 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Regiment in August 1915.

On 20 October 1915, he was attached to the West African Frontier Force. See Gazette:

 

993186517_1915-11-26LondonGazette.png.61af9b3d57ea8c9de55f98e43ba55149.png1637586611_MacKirdyMedalcard.jpg.1ba13ac4f9aea6db0f0e2a66a5e24a2e.jpg

 

The MIC shows that he went to Nigeria on 6 November 1915. From his file at TNA ( WO 339/37562) the next event that I can trace is a medical report dated 20 June 1916 from Zungeru hospital in Nigeria, when he was presenting with symptoms of malaria, having previously been under treatment at Kaduna hospital "for some considerable time".

He was then invalided out of Nigeria to England and after recovering joined his regiment in France in December 1916, and was killed three months later.

An obituary in his local paper refers to him as having "served in the Cameroons". 

 

Is there any source that can indicate what action, if any, he saw in Nigeria. Did the West African Frontier Force maintain a War Diary or similar? Is there any online source that can give me an idea of the role of the West African Frontier Force and its engagements.

 

As always, I am extremely grateful for the vast amounts of time that members of the forum are prepared to give up, and the tremendous knowledge that they have.

 

David

 

 

Edited by David Earley
typo
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David

 

There are eight digital War Diaries covering 4 Battalions of the Nigeria Regiment in Cameroons at Kew in the Discovery database. The ref is WO95/5387/1 through to /8.

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You could look at the online 

The History of the Royal West African Frontier Force by Colonel A. Haywood and Brigadier F.A.S.Clarke. 1964. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20181011062612/http://lib.militaryarchive.co.uk/library/Miscellaneous-Volumes/library/The-History-of-the-Royal-West-African-Frontier-Force/ or if that link won't work try

 

http://lib.militaryarchive.co.uk/library/Miscellaneous-Volumes/library/The-History-of-the-Royal-West-African-Frontier-Force/files/assets/basic-html/toc.html  transcribed version

 

Cheers

Maureen

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Thanks to you both for your input. 

I have downloaded the only one of the files from WO 95/5387 that may have been relevant, WO 95/5387/4 for the 1st Nigeria Regt, which covers the period that MacKirdy was in Nigeria, but he is not mentioned. It regularly mentions other officers coming on strength and has a full roll-call in February 1916, in neither of which he is mentioned. Pity, but thanks anyhow.

The History of the Royal West African Frontier Force helps me understand what was going on out there. As the "invasion" of Cameroon was over by February 1916, it is unlikely that MacKirdy saw much fighting before he was taken ill.

 

Cheers

David

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Incidentally, what does the entry on the MIC in the box for "Theatre of War First Served In" indicate. This appears to say 4c.

480678019_MacKirdyMedalcard.jpg.66b499334a20cea9943c99405d97af4c.jpg

Edited by David Earley
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21 minutes ago, David Earley said:

Incidentally, what does the entry on the MIC in the box for "Theatre of War First Served In" indicate. This appears to say 4c.

 

See LLT

 

4c = Cameroon

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Have a look at http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/300143.html

 

Written by Bushfighter who is a member of the forum

Edited by corisande
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30 minutes ago, David Earley said:

Thanks for that. I have scoured the BNA but didn't find that one.

 

  It's strange but I'm convinced there is a lot more in the BNA to be found...I've no idea how algorithms and optical character recognition work but I've noticed I've occasionally found records on my phone that the identical search on PC hasn't thrown up...also I've done searches for the next soldier in the list and for some reason... although he's there in the newspaper the search doesn't find him.

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