Category Archives: Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders

Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Scotland, story, war, Wiltshire

Private George MacFarlane

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Private George MacFarlane

George McFarlane was born in Alexandria, Dumbartonshire, in 1879, and was the third of four children to George and Jane.

There is little concrete information about George Jr’s life, and most of that information comes from his army service records. These confirm that he was working as a printfield worker, employed by the local dye works to produce printed cloth.

The service papers also confirm that George had married Christina Kerr on 19th April 1905, and that they had four children: Irene, William, Christina and George. Christina had also had a son, Richard, from a previous relationship.

George had readily answered the call to serve his country when war broke out. He enlisted on 18th September 1914, and was assigned to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He is recorded as being 5ft 7ins (1.69m) tall and 135lbs (61.2kg), with auburn hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.

Private McFarlane was sent to Wiltshire for his training, and was barracked near the village of Boyton. His time there was to prove tragically short. Within a matter of weeks he contracted pneumonia, and succumbed to the condition on 4th October 1914. He was just 34 years of age, and had been in the army for 16 days.

Christina was unable to cover the cost of bringing her husband back to Scotland. Instead, George McFarlane was laid to rest in Boyton Cemetery, his headstone paid for by the men of his regiment.

Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, Captain, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, Hong Kong, Ireland, Lieutenant, London, Major, Norfolk, Northern Ireland, photography, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, story, unknown, Wales, war

Major Stafford Douglas

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Major Stafford Douglas

Stafford Edmund Douglas was born on 4th January 1863, the second of four children to Stephen and Mary Douglas. Stafford came from a military family, his father having been a Captain in the Royal Navy. This led to a lot of travelling and, having been born in Donaghadee, County Down, he then moved to South Wales.

By the 1880s, when Stephen and Mary had set up home in Portsmouth, Stafford had started to carve out a career for himself, and was a Lieutenant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, based at Edinburgh Castle.

Over the coming years, Lieutenant Douglas, who stood 5ft 8.5ins (1.74m) tall and also spoke French, travelled the world, serving in South Africa, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Hong Kong. By 1894 he had made Captain, and he finally retired in 1903, after nineteen years’ service.

On 29th April that year, at the age of 40, Stafford married Mary Louisa Harris. She was the daughter of an army colonel, and the couple wed in St George’s Church, Hanover Square, London. The couple set up home in Exeter, Devon, and went on to have two children – Violet and Stafford Jr.

At this point, Stafford’s trail goes cold. When war broke out in 1914, he was called back into duty, working as a Railway Transport Officer in Norwich. He continued in this role until 1919, before being stood down and returning home.

Stafford Edmund Douglas passed away on 15th February 1920, at the age of 57 years old, although no cause of death is immediately apparent. He was laid to rest in the Milton Road Cemetery in Weston-super-Mare, presumably where his family were, by this time, residing.