THE COVENANTER
marched out of the Burnbank drill ground not have existed!
across Kelvin Bridge up to Hillhead. They
were led by a brass band, with a pipe band William Carnegie
being added later and also, I understand
(see below) a mounted troop, Every boy Notes:
in Hillhead regarded the 1st Lanark as his
regiment and most of them had friends or 1. According to the war history of the 5th
relations in it. SR, over 450 officers and 5000 men served
in the battalion in the 1914-18War. Of these
According to the war history , the bulk of 84 officers and over 1300 men were killed
the 5th SR in 1914 consisted of young men or reported missing an over 100 officers
in comfortable circumstances. It was one of and 3000 men were wounded or otherwise
the sights of Glasgow to see them disperse disabled. Four members or ex members of
after drill at Charing Cross in their hodden the battalion won the VC.
grey uniform. A considerable number of
former members of the 1st LRV achieved 2. In 1920 the 5th SR was amalgamated with
distinction in walks of life other than the 8th Battalion of the Regiment whose
soldiering. Drill Hall was near Glasgow Cathedral to
The most notable of these were the become the 5th/8th Cameronians (Scottish
future Prime Ministers Henry Campbell- Rifles). The joint battalion operated in West
Bannerman and Andrew Bonar Law, the Princes Street. In 1938 it was converted into
scientist Lord Kelvin, who as William a Searchlight Regiment Royal Artillery thus
Thomson was a Captain in the Battalion in severing its connection with the Cameronians
1867-68 and the future founder of the BBC eighty years after its formation.
John Reith who was the transport officer of
the 5th SR in the early part of the 1914-18 3. About ten members of my family or men
war. A further notable political alumnus of who married into it served in the 1st LRV
the battalion was the turbulent Red and its successors or in other battalions of
Clydesider, James Maxton MP, who according the Cameronians. This service covered our
to the introduction to the war history was generations and a 100 years from the 1860’ s
proud to have served in it. to the mid 1960’s It was not continuous, but
nonetheless it is a record of service worth
In 1884 Will Carnegie, a farmers son from mentioning. Three members of the family,
Forfarshire (as the county of Angus was then a son and two nephews of John Forrest ,
known) came to Glasgow to work for the lost their lives in the 1914-18 War. One of
then National Bank of Scotland. He knew those Captain Lyon Malloch, won the MC
only a few people there and joined the 1st at Arras in May 1917 before being killed a
LRV as a means of meeting other young men. few months later.
In due course a mounted troop was formed
under the command of Captain William
Smith, the founder of the Boy’s Brigade,
Carnegie transferred to it. Family lore has it
the mounted troop took part in the Annual
March Out and that as a strapping farmer’s
son with considerable riding experience,
Will Carnegie was allotted the biggest and
most mettlesome horse available
Through the mounted troop, Will Carnegie
became friendly with John Forrest who lived
nearby and who worked in the city Saw Mills
at Port Dundas. Forrest introduced him to
his sister Nanny, and after a long courtship
Will married her in 1900.
Will and Nanny were my grandparents. As Back Row - 5th from left Will Carnegie and
the vehicle through which they met I and 6th from left John Forrest
the rest of their descendents should be Front Row - 2nd from left William Smith
grateful to the 1st LRV. But for it we would
7
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