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1914
'He saw a nation in her need:
He heard the cause of Honour plead :
He heard the call, and gave it heed."
When the news flashed over the world on the 4th of August, 1914, that a
sudden, onslaught by Germany on the sanctity of treaties and the liberty
of free peoples had actually been made, and that Britain had that night
declared war on Germany, men caught their breath. Then from. every town
and village, out of every county and parish they went, that the world
might be delivered from a dreadful menace. The call was continuous and
insistent, and the response was equal to it : till the great struggle
closed with victory on the 11th of November, 1918.
The men of Stewarton were not behind the rest. Some of them were already
in the Regular Army; some were in the Territorial Regiments, the Royal
Scots Fusiliers and the Ayrshire Yeomanry; others joined up before the ink
was dry that signed the fateful declaration of war: and others again went
later as their country needed them.
If a record of the service of all these could be printed it would include
more than six hundred names—a " noble six hundred." They faced hard work,
dreariness, anxiety and danger for as long as it was required of them ;
and every return after short leave was a re-dedication. Some were awarded
the Military Medal, others were promoted and mentioned in dispatches. More
than one Military Cross came to men connected with Stewarton. One got the
D.S.O. ; and one, once a schoolboy at Stewarton, won the V.C. Some were
called on to languish as prisoners of war in Germany; and one at least of
these) after two fruitless attempts, succeeded in escaping and returning
home. Many will carry the marks of wounds and sickness to the end of their
lives, and many, alas! did not return.
This little book is prepared as a humble and grateful tribute to the
memory of the Unreturning Brave, those from Stewarton town and parish,
who offered their all for a sacred cause, and sealed their devotion with
their lives.
STEWARTON'S FIRST CASUALTY.
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The first to move out from
Stewarton were the local company of the
Territorial R.S.F. They mustered in the Drill Hall and marched to
Kilmarnock en route. for their training ground. On the march it was
noticed that Sergeant-Major John Crubb was ill. He was formerly a
regular soldier, and had been for some years the Sergeant-Instructor of
the Stewarton Company, living" with his wife close to the Drill Hall. When
the company reached Stirling he had to be taken to the Royal
Infirmary
there, and he died within a few weeks. |
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1915
HOLDING THE ENEMY IN FRANCE.
The the opening months of the campaign in France the brunt of the attack
was borne by the Expeditionary' Army. " perhaps the finest fighting force
for its size that ever took the field." Drafts of Territorials were soon
thrown in to stem the rush of the (Herman hordes, but it was not till May,
ID];"), that the Royal Scots Fusiliers were despatched from home shores.
They sailed on the " Mauritania " straight to the Dardanelles, the
Ayrshire Yeomanry following in September.
Meanwhile news came that Private JOHN GEMMELL and Private STEPHEN KERR
had fallen on the French front.
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Private J. GEMMELL was the son of Mrs.
William Dempster, Brookwood. He -was a regular soldier, enlisted in the
Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders eight years before. He had spent 18
months in China, and was on duty in India when the war broke out. On his
regiment coming to England he was able to spend a few days at home before
going to France in December, 11)14. On the 23rd of April, 101,'), the flay
the Germans first used poison gas, he was struck by a- shell at Hill 60,
and killed in action. |
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Private STEPHEN KERR, Lochiel's Cameron Highlanders, eldest son of Mr. and
Mrs. Arthur Kerr, 31 Deans Street, joined Kitchener's Army in November,.
1914, the first to join of a group of seven young lads afterwards known as
the " Darlinton Squad." Trained at Invergordon, he went overseas in
April. 1915. On the 1st of May. also at Hill C/0. he was killed by
shrapnel which burst over Ilis battalion while they were acting as
reserves. STEPHEN KERR was the first of our citizen soldiers to give his
life in the great crusade. |
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