thomas Cuthbert McGeachy MGC & unknown highland regiment

[PPCLI]

Trouble is that there are several HLI candidates with the same name and I cannot narrow it down.

The only other piece of knowledge I have is that he may have been discharged on health grounds prior to the war's end (he had been a miner).

Hi Ian,

If your great uncle (he of no name) was discharged on health grounds then his MIC should give a reference to his entry in the SWB roll. In my files I have a number of pages copied from SWB rolls that cover a range of lowland territorial regiments (KOSB, RSF, HLI, Royal Scots). If you were to reveal your relative's name and possible regt. nos., I would be quite happy to have a look to see whether anyone by that name is listed.

Also, the lanyard could indicate that he was part of the Battalion Transport section, see under Equipment

Hope you manage to track him down.

Stuart

[Tom A McCluskey]

Ian,

Any chance of a closer look at the capbadge?

From this definition it is difficult to tell the difference between Royal Scots & HLI.

I haven't seen any pictures of HLI men wearing the diced glengarry during the First World War (but that does not mean that it did not happen). It would be more usual to see a Royal Scot dressed this way (albeit there are pictures of Royal Scots wearing plain glengarrys - possibly New Army & Territorials).

As Stewart stated it was commonplace for soldiers involved in working with horses to wear a lanyard at the end of which was a clasp knife with a fold-out spike for the proverbial 'removing the stones from horses hooves'. It also looks like he is wearing a 1914 pattern leather belt. Generally, the regular soldiers would already have been issued the 1908 pattern webbing before going to war.

Hope this helps. Here is a picture of the Royal Scots on Church Parade:

Tom McC

[Tom A McCluskey]

Windsor,

The picture of Thomas as a Cpl, do the Cpl's chevrons have an almost chequered-textured look to them? If they do it was a style of chevron that was worn by the HLI regiments (like the LCpl chevron that Thomas is wearing in the 1st photo).

If you look at the link below (for George Petrie Ogilvy Shepherd - 15 HLI, in 1914), you can see the chevron pattern that I am talking about:

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users.../0006photo.html

Hope this is of use

Tom McC

[Tom A McCluskey]

The picture says 1914, can't be as he has 3 overseas service chevrons

Tom McC

[ian turner]

Stuart & Tom,

Thanks for your comments. I do not know his regimental number - would love to find out so as to try for his service record.

Here's a closer scan of the badge - I included the shoulder as you can just make out the initials. Of course not clear, but it looks more like HLI than RS?

His name - Robert Muir

Cheers,

Ian

[Tom A McCluskey]

Ian,

Here is a link to all the Robert Muirs who were issued medals during the First World War:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documen...Spec=Score+desc

However, I reckon your one is Robert Muir on page 5, he is the only Royal Scot:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documen...resultcount=141

If Malcom reads this post, he may check the Regimental Number for you.

Hope this helps

Tom McC

[Tom A McCluskey]

Here is a picture of the Royal Scots capbadge from the Western Front Association's website:

The long dark bits on the capbadge I think are the red between the 'Jimmy' and the star.

Tom McC

[ian turner]

Tom,

OK - just been making myself blind peering at the original pic with a strong magnifying glass, and another blow-up on the computer. Beginning to think you are right about Royal Scots.

But I find about 5 Robert Muirs under Royal Scots on the mic listings, so I guess I shall pay my money and take my chance again (and throw away the HLI mics!)

Stuart - can you check the Royal Scots SWB rolls for any Robert Muirs?

Appreciate the help - thanks.

Ian

[Malcolm]

A difficult one. 13709 Royal Scot Robert Muir.

13708 Pvt John Rae 11th Royal Scots, died 14/07/1916

13702 Pvt John McDonald 12th Royal Scots, died 09/04/1917

13704 CSM Andrew Connelly 15th HLI died 03/07/1916

Tim may have the answer.

Aye

Malcolm

[PPCLI]

Hi Ian,

I am swaying towards agreeing with Tom about him serving with the Royal Scots, rather than the HLI. Like Tom, I can't remember having seen any photos of HLI men wearing a diced glengarry. Saying that, there seem to be so many 'exceptions' during WW1 w.r.t. uniform, equipment, etc., that he could be HLI. I've tried to zoom in on the cap badge but the resolution isn't high enough to make out any detail.

I have searched through the relevant SWB pages for which I have copies (covers just over 1000 men); there are Muirs but no Robert. Still, if he is no. 13709, then he is likely to be new army rather than a territorial (the SWB roll that I copied only contains territorial men). Royal Scot no. 13717, kia July 1916, was from Fife (good mining country). Perhaps a batch of men from Fife went to the Royal Scots; do you know the area where Robert lived and worked? I suppose it may be worth looking at the 13709 MIC to check whether it mentions an SWB entry. If you think that this is too much of stab in the dark I will check it the next time I'm at Kew, but this won't be till the beginning of March.

All the best in your search.

Stuart

[PPCLI]

TBut I find about 5 Robert Muirs under Royal Scots on the mic listings, so I guess I shall pay my money and take my chance again (and throw away the HLI mics!)

Hi again, I took so long typing put my reply I was overtaken!

If you are going to pay for MIC downloads, then just to let you know that 4402 and 350477 did not survive the war. This may save you £7.00 if they are all on different downloads.

Stuart

[Malcolm]

Yes, Stuart is correct, it is best to check the number against www.snwm.org to see if the man survived before paying £3.50 to find out!

Aye

Malcolm

[ian turner]

OK pals, I'm seven quid lighter but I managed to narrow it down to four possibles without wasting money on casualties.

Robert Muir - Royal Scots:

13709 - mic shows "Class Z". As I believe he was discharged due to health grounds I conclude that this would not be my man.

19807 - a ''different" type of mic - shows date of discharge 10/12/19

and quotes KR reference V (or P) 292 x vi - I leave this as a possible, although the date of discharge looks too late for my man.

23620 - (plus Labour Corps 490106) mic shows disch 28.1.19

25727 - (also Lab Corps and KOSB) no other entries on mic excepting the VM and BWM entries.

Robert Muir was born and lived in the Shotts area, near Wishaw. He was married with a son (as per the pic) and as I mentioned had been a miner and was discharged, I believe, due to lung problems. He lived until the 1950's and I met him briefly when I was a child. But by then the poor chap was on his way out after a stroke. I have another pic of my maternal grandfather (Robert's brother) taken appx 1918, and Robert is in civvies (of course not anything conclusive) but as his brother is in uniform I tend to think that Robert was by then out of the army. (Otherwise I would think they would both have worn their uniforms for the occasion)?

Thank you all for your continuing assistance.

Ian

[Tom A McCluskey]

Ian,

Here is a link to a list of all the Robert Muirs listed with the Commonwealth Wargraves Commision:

http://www.cwgc.org/search/SearchResults.a...d.x=47&send.y=9

With this, you can narrow the field of possible options down, as your Robert survived the war.

Also, is there any chance you can enlarge the shoulder title?

Hope this helps

Tom McC