THE COUNTRYMAN


Close to home


Despite the global spread of the Scottish diaspora and the Grieve family, the draw of Scotland and its people is alive and well in the Year of Homecoming 2014


WORDS GUY GRIEVE


his kilt, leather apron and kit bags. He then stripped and cleaned his Lee-Enfi eld and fi tted the bayonet. He was 17, and a corporal. Old pictures show the face of a sensitive


J


and intelligent young man, proud of the two thin stripes that adorned his uniform. He had lied about his age to enlist, and his father had encouraged him, such was the naïve jingoism of the time. He had been born in China, the son of a Reverend Surgeon from North-east Scot- land and after the Boxer Rebellion his family had moved to South Africa, where I was born. On that fateful morning Corporal Grieve


marched into Delville Wood as one of 3,150 men. Regarded as one of the best fi ghting units in action, they were full of confi dence. Little did they know they were marching into a horrifi c encounter that became the highest ever colo- nial loss in the history of the British Army. Rain, mud and a tangled and shattered wood


became the last place on earth for so many of these young men. Every minute 400 German shells ripped and tore into them and hand-to- hand fi ghting followed of such fi erce brutality that it is scarcely possible to imagine. Only 780 men survived. One can only imagine the hell my grand-


father faced on that terrible day, but he was one of the lucky few. He was captured and spent the rest of the war in a German salt mine. He never really recovered, and although he became a greatly respected doctor, he failed completely as a father. I imagine that his spirit was irrep- arably damaged during his tender formative years by this experience. I vividly remember my grandmother telling


me about him as she dished out porridge, served with butter and salt on the verandah of their home in the Cape, the day heating up and monkeys calling to each other in the scrub land around us. A very Scottish lady despite having lived away her whole life, she and her sister Mary were dressed in kilts in defi ance of


74 WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK


ust before dawn on 15 July 1916 my grand- father, Tertius Grieve, a soldier of the 9th South African Scottish division, pulled on


‘xxxxx’


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210