LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| The Cairn | [Frontispiece] | |
| Before the Unveiling* | Face page | [4] |
| The Moment of Unveiling* | ” | [6] |
| Some of the Wreath-Bearers* | ” | [10] |
| The Day after the Unveiling | ” | [12] |
| * By kind permission of The Daily Mirror. | ||
9TH (SCOTTISH) DIVISION MEMORIAL
THE FINAL PAGE.
The history of the Ninth Division opens upon the day when certain ragged regiments—without uniforms, without rifles, without experience; fortified by nothing but their own native courage and great expectations—came tramping into Aldershot shortly after the outbreak of War, the First Division of the New Army and the First complete unit of the First Hundred Thousand. The final page of an immortal record was written and turned upon the afternoon of Palm Sunday, 9th April 1922, on the Point du Jour, a hilltop just outside Arras, with the unveiling by one of its own illustrious leaders of a memorial commemorating the service of the Division upon the soil of France and Flanders.
It was a perfect spring afternoon, with a bright sun, and the old familiar larks in full song overhead, as the little company which had crossed from Dover the previous day began to gather at the point of assembly. All ranks were represented, and all ranks had travelled there in a single party, without distinctions of seniority or service, upon their common errand of commemoration.
The road out of Arras climbs and winds steadily for some three miles. Then comes a curve in the hill, and the Memorial is suddenly visible, standing up against the sky at the highest point on the road to Douai, dominating the valley of the Scarpe. It is in the form of a great cairn, and stands some twenty paces back from the road, on the north side, in a little half-acre of soil which, as General Furse most movingly reminded us, is now “for ever Scotland.” The plot has been left exactly as the War left it. For this was the left of the third and final objective of the attack allotted to the Division on 9th April 1917. The surrounding country has been reclaimed and tilled again, but the half-acre of the Ninth Division still remains a war zone in miniature. There are trenches; a dug-out; here and there you may discern rusty barbed wire and derelict ammunition. But there are mitigating features. Round the base of the cairn heather brought from Scotland has been planted; broom is growing on the top; gorse and whin-bush, too, have been planted round about. And these, one hopes, will abide and flourish long after the hand of time has smoothed away the last grim disfigurements of war from this “corner of a foreign field” to which they find themselves so strangely transplanted.
Here, then, on the road two hundred yards from the Memorial, our simple pageant was marshalled, and the procession moved off, headed by its pipers, to the appointed place. General Furse and General Tudor led the way with the officiating clergy. Next came the wreath-bearers, some twenty in all, each carrying a great laurel wreath decked with regimental colours. Behind, in fours, marched the main body, most of them in uniform and all wearing their medals. Last of all came mothers, wives, sisters, sons, and daughters, headed by a little company without whose presence the ceremony would have been incomplete indeed—certain women in black, carrying certain private and particular wreaths of their own.
By kind permission of] [“The Daily Mirror.”
From the Memorial to the road runs a little roughly-flagged pathway. The pipers took their stand on either side of this, while the procession halted, turned left, and stood aligned in the road, facing the Memorial, which was veiled in three flags—the Union Jack, the Tricolour of France, and the Royal Standard of Scotland. Each unit was duly played into its place by familiar music—the members of the Highland Brigade by “Highland Laddie,” of the Lowland by “Blue Bonnets over the Border,” and of the South African by “The Atholl Highlanders.”
And here let a word be said about the rest of the assembly. Naturally there were present representatives of France—General Huguenot, commanding the First Division of the French Army; M. Delatouche, Sous-Prefet; Mm. Leroy and Dupage, Maires of Arras and St Laurent-Blangy, and certain others. There were numerous little processions and deputations come to wish us well and bear us company. There was a body of French Comrades of the Great War, most of them partially disabled, who had marched out from Arras to take their stand beside us. There was a procession of young boys, Military Cadets in uniform. There was a procession of very small children, tramping sturdily up the hill from their shattered city, carrying bright-coloured flowers, a pleasant foil to the sombre distinction of our own laurel wreaths. There was a half-troop of French Cavalry. There was a detachment of French Infantry, standing in the road, an immovable wall of horizon blue, just behind our own line of khaki. And behind these and all round, banked up on every eminence, stood a crowd—an extraordinarily attentive and reverent crowd—of some hundreds of French civilians. Their demeanour throughout was a most memorable feature of a memorable afternoon. Standing for more than an hour in solid masses, listening to a language which they could not understand and words which they could barely hear, they never once by sound or movement disturbed for a moment the course of our simple ceremony.
When all were in position, and the visiting delegates made welcome, the service of dedication began. It was conducted by the ex-Moderator of the Church of Scotland and Dean of the Thistle, Dr A. Wallace Williamson, assisted by the Rev. C. N. de Vine, M.C., and concluded with the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, in which all joined. Then suddenly the pipes broke into “Lochaber No More.” General Furse stepped forward and touched a cord. The unveiling flags slipped to the ground, and the inscription stood revealed, carved on a great block of granite set in the base of the cairn:—
REMEMBER
WITH HONOUR THE
9TH
SCOTTISH DIVISION
WHO ON THE FIELDS
OF FRANCE
AND FLANDERS
1915-1918
SERVED WELL
Above the inscription, cut deep into nine lesser blocks set one above another and reaching to the very summit, came the tale of the battle honours of the Division—Loos, Delville Wood and Longueval, the Butte de Warlencourt, Arras, Passchendaele, Gauche Wood to Albert, Wytschaete and Messines, Meteren, and Ypres to the Scheldt.
By kind permission of] [“The Daily Mirror.”
With such a record to inspire both speaker and audience, General Furse’s spoken tribute, which followed, could not fail to be profoundly impressive. His words, which are recorded fully below, were of the simplest, and that very fact enhanced the nobility of his theme. His text, obviously, was written on the cairn behind him. His first words were most appropriately devoted to setting forth the difficulty experienced by the Committee in selecting the most fitting spot upon which to erect the Divisional Memorial. Finally Arras had been chosen. “The reason,” said the General, “why we finally settled on this spot was that five years ago to-day the Ninth Division covered itself with conspicuous glory over the battle-ground we see to the west of us. Its success on that day was complete and convincing. This was indeed its ‘Point du Jour.’ It was its third and final objective. It was won on the hour ordered. The Division on that day made a further advance, took more prisoners, and at a comparatively smaller loss to itself, than had fallen to the lot of any single Division in any single day up to that date in the War.”
Yet, as General Furse most justly pointed out, the passer-by had merely to glance up at the list of battlefields upon the cairn to realise that the service of the Division had not been limited to the Arras district, or indeed to any particular point in France or Flanders. Its record ran gloriously from end to end of the Western Front.
Next, in setting forth the reasons which influenced the Committee in their choice of this particular form of memorial, the speaker enlarged upon the composition of the Division—the fact that it contained units from England, The Channel Islands, South Africa, and Newfoundland, which rendered it more truly Imperial in its composition than any other Division in the British Army. “But,” he added, “it was born in Scotland; it was named after Scotland; it was fed throughout the four years of its active life in the main from Scotland; its symbol was the thistle of Scotland; and it is but right, therefore, that its monument should be fashioned in the form beloved of Scotland.”
Then followed an affecting tribute to the dead, enhanced by a reminder that in every year of its active service the Division lost in battle casualties alone not less than a hundred per cent. of its full strength. Some of its most conspicuous members were mentioned by name. Next came a most appreciative reference to the loyal co-operation and complete harmony which had always existed between “our splendid Infantry” and other arms of the Division. “I do not believe,” said the speaker with simple truth, “that there was any Division in the whole Army in which this spirit of fellowship and good comradeship burned more brightly or achieved greater results.”
The General’s speech ended in a note of justifiable pride—pride that our Division, though the Ninth in the Old Army, should have been the First in the New. “First of the new Divisions raised for the War, First of these Divisions to come to France, almost the First in the respect won from a hard-fighting enemy, First to cross over on to German soil when victory had been achieved, the Ninth Scottish Division will, I am convinced, remain for all time First in the affections of those who had the real honour of serving in it. Ours was indeed a royal fellowship, not only of death but of service.”
General Furse concluded with a few graceful sentences of thanks and appreciation, delivered in their own language, to the French delegates grouped at the foot of the cairn. As his voice died away the whole company stood to the salute, while the French military band played “God Save the King,” followed by “The Marseillaise.” Thereafter the French officials delivered short, clear, and most appropriate speeches.
Then came the most moving episode of the afternoon. The kilted pipers resumed their station on either side of the stone pathway and began to play “The Flowers of the Forest.” Up this avenue of wailing pipes marched the wreath-bearers, two by two, in slow time; first, Lord Sempill, the first member of the Division to set foot in France in 1915, representing the Eighth Black Watch, accompanied by Cameron of Lochiel, representing the Fifth Camerons; then representatives of all other units. The wreaths were hung high upon the cairn, upon stone projections occurring at regular intervals round its circumference, until the entire cairn was ringed with green laurel and fluttering ribbons. A last great wreath, the gift of women to whom the Ninth Division had meant something more than most, was laid at the foot of the cairn beneath the inscription. Lastly came the votive offerings of the French delegations—bright spring flowers in most cases—until the whole base of the cairn was a mass of colour. The last wreath was laid by some very small French girls.
Then the French band played the National Anthem again, and the formal ceremony was at an end. The Ninth Divisional pipers stepped on to the road and broke into “The Barren Rocks of Aden”—the march which had played the Division into Brussels in the course of its victorious advance into Germany—and the French troops fell into column of route and marched away down the hill; but hundreds of onlookers remained to make a closer inspection of the cairn and the wreaths, and in particular of a row of rough-hewn blocks of stone, each inscribed with the name and crest of a Divisional unit, set in line on the ground facing the edge of the road, to mark the boundary of this our little corner of Scotland, until the end of time.
Two predominant impressions remain. Firstly, the completeness of the arrangements. There had been little or no rehearsal of the ceremony, but everything passed off without hitch or hesitation. For this our thanks are due to those responsible, especially General Furse, Colonel Kennedy, and Captain Darling. Secondly, the very representative and very united bearing of our party. Men were there from all ranks, all units, and each country and Dominion concerned. General Furse reminded us in his speech that the cairn had been dedicated not only to the memory of the dead, but to the service of the Division as a whole. That was undoubtedly the right and just view to take: yet for us who stood there on that sunny April afternoon and watched the flags flutter down from the face of the inscription, the ceremony had but one significance—the rendering of the final tribute to those who were taken by those who were left. And it was a pleasant thought that a worthy company should have gathered upon the Point du Jour from all parts of the Empire for that end.
By kind permission of] [“The Daily Mirror.”
9TH (SCOTTISH) DIVISION MEMORIAL
THE UNVEILING AND DEDICATION
ARRIVAL AT ARRAS AND PROCESSIONAL ARRANGEMENTS.
The party for the unveiling numbered about 130 of all ranks, and left London under arrangements concluded by Captain W. Y. Darling, M.C., 11th Royal Scots, at 8.30 on the morning of Saturday, 8th April. The route taken was by Calais and Amiens. Arras was reached at about six o’clock in the evening, and all ranks were accommodated at the Hotel de l’Univers and Hotel de Commerce.
On Sunday afternoon the party were conveyed by automobiles to the point of assembly, near the Point du Jour, where a procession was formed in the following order:—
A detachment of French troops—33rd Infantry and 3rd Engineers, with Regimental flags, under the command of Colonel Potez—formed a guard of honour lining the road facing the Memorial.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MEMORIAL.
The site is a square forty yards by forty yards, at Point du Jour road junction. Two trenches cross there, and they and the general state of the ground are as the battle left them. The cairn stands in the centre of the square.
← Main Road from Arras. To Douai. →
The Day after the Unveiling.
Owing to the many shell-holes and the unsettled state of the ground, it was found necessary to sink a circular raft of concrete, reinforced with steel rails, twenty-four feet in diameter and five feet thick. The cairn stands on this, circular in plan, eighteen feet in diameter at the base, fourteen feet at top, and over thirty feet high, and is on a mound of earth which rises about two feet from the general ground level. It is built of large rough blocks of grey Belgian granite, from the quarries of Soignies. Stones containing red iron stains and quartz seams were specially selected. The stones diminish towards the top. The largest are over six feet long, and the highest over three feet high. The stones are built up dry, naturally keyed together, or wedged with smaller stones.
The method of building was as follows. On the foundation raft a ring of stones was placed in position, forming a circular wall three feet thick. The centre was then filled up solid with concrete formed of cement, granite chips, and granite dust. The wall was then continued all round, but not in distinct rings, and the centre again filled up solid. This procedure was followed right up to the top. Thus no scaffolding was used, the cairn itself acting as a platform on which the men worked, and a hand gear hoist erected stage by stage for raising the stones. The backs of the stones are embedded in the concrete core and frequent long stones project a considerable distance into the concrete.
At the projecting cornice level the concrete core is finished with cement, weathered from the centre, and the top ring of stones is filled with earth of a depth of about two feet six inches and then is turfed over, dome-shaped.
Above the inscription stone, down the entire length of the front, are nine stones, bearing the names of the battles, their size suiting the inscriptions they bear.
Nineteen stones project from the cairn at a height of about eight feet to bear wreaths.
A sloping and irregularly paved pathway leads to the road, the ditch being spanned by a monolithic granite bridge, about seven feet square.
The four corners of the site are marked by square granite posts, about six feet high, each bearing the Divisional sign carved in a sunk circle. To the front, along the road, on the top of the bank, are twenty-six stones. Each bears the name and crest of a unit of the Division. These are grouped in brigades.
The site has been planted with clumps of gorse and broom, and the mound round the cairn with heather sent from Scotland by many members of the Division.
The contractor was Octave Bouchez of Arras, and it was built with his own local labour. Among his many difficulties was the complete lack of water. Before beginning he had to construct a tank close by, and a horse-drawn water-cart was almost continuously employed filling this from Athies.
THE CEREMONY.
Shortly before 2.30 the Ninth Division procession moved up from the point of assembly and took station immediately in front of the French troops, facing the Memorial, the inscription upon which was veiled by the Union Jack, the Flag of France, and the Royal Standard of Scotland. General Furse, accompanied by General Tudor, then took his stand at the foot of the cairn and greeted the representatives of France, namely: General Huguenot, representing General Lacapelle, G.O.C., the First Corps of the French Army; M. Delatouche, representing M. le Prefet; M. Doutremepuich, Councillor-General; M. Leroy, Mayor of Arras; M. Dupage, Mayor of St Laurent-Blangy; the Curé of Athies-Feuchy, and other officials representing: Les Mutilés et Souvenir Français, La Chambre de Commerce, La Société de gymnastique d’Arras, Les Sapeurs-Pompiers, Le Bulletin des Eglises Devastées, Les Ecoles d’Athies-Feuchy, Officers of the Garrison of Arras.
The service of dedication followed, the Rev. Dr Wallace Williamson, ex-Moderator of the Church of Scotland, and the Rev. C. N. de Vine, M.C., officiating. The ceremony concluded with the Lord’s Prayer, in which all joined.
The Memorial was then unveiled by General Furse, who proceeded to deliver the following speech of dedication:—
“When the Ninth Scottish Division formed part of the victorious British Garrison on the Rhine, General Tudor, knowing it would shortly be demobilised, called together a representative conference to decide the most fitting manner of memorialising the service of the Division in the Great War. That conference decided—most wisely in my opinion—that we should have two memorials—first, a History of the Division; second, a Battlefield Monument.
“The History was completed and published fifteen months ago, and we are indebted to Major Ewing, of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, for the admirable book he has given us.
“As to the Battlefield Monument, you have only to turn your eyes to the battle honours recorded on this cairn to realise that the site was not too easy to choose. We considered the claims of many places. Loos, where the Division—its three Infantry Brigades composed of the flower of Scottish manhood, who had left their Highland or Lowland homes in instant response to the call to arms—first experienced the shocking, awful realities, to units as well as to individuals, of a crashing battle, but proved to themselves and through themselves the amazing power of disciplined courage over terrifying opposition. Longueval and Delville Wood—that prolonged three weeks of the fiercest fighting, taking terrible toll daily—bodies mutilated and dying, but spirit ever alive and showing its noble endurance hour after hour and day after day—in the repeated attacks of the Lowlanders, in that glorious culminating counter-attack of the Highlanders, and in the hanging on of the unconquerable remnant of the splendid South African Brigade. In those three weeks we lost 7500 officers and men in the Division, and fully 60 per cent. of our Infantry. This again was a site peculiarly difficult to discard as the most appropriate for a monument to our beloved Division.
“It would take too long to recall other than very briefly the numerous exploits of the Division on other fields of France and Flanders—the disheartening but doughty struggles with mud and misadventure near the Butte de Warlencourt; the share taken by the Division in the heroic attacks towards Passchendaele under similarly ghastly conditions; the dogged ten days’ opposition to the great German advance in March 1918, where the Division had the supremely difficult task of linking the Fifth with the Third Army from Gauche Wood back to Albert; the stubborn defence and brilliant counter-attacks at Wytschaete and Messines during the following month; the capture of Meteren in July 1918 before the tide of war had begun to turn in our favour; and finally the succession of hard-fought victories in the open warfare of October 1918 from Ypres to the Scheldt. All these names are recorded on this cairn, that those who pass by may not think that the Ninth Division’s service was confined to this particular neighbourhood.
“The reason why we finally settled on this spot was that five years ago to-day the Ninth Division covered itself with conspicuous glory over the battle-ground we see to the west of us. Its success on that day was complete and convincing. This was indeed its Point du Jour! It was its third and final objective. It was won on the hour ordered. The Division on that day made a further advance, took more prisoners and at a comparatively smaller loss to itself than had fallen to the lot of any single Division in any single day up to that date in the War.
“Knowing that a special monument to the South African Brigade is to be set up at Delville Wood, and after balancing up all the comparative claims of this and other sites, we came to the conclusion that this one was the best. I can only trust that the majority of our comrades are satisfied with that decision. I believe them to be so satisfied with the form of the monument. For myself I am convinced that a Scottish cairn built of rough-hewn stones, such as these, is a more fitting monument to the rugged, simple, and enduring war service of soldiers than sculptured group or elaborate architecture. And though the Division embraced men of England, the Channel Islands, South Africa, and Newfoundland, and was therefore more truly Imperial in its composition than any other Division in the British Army, it must be remembered that it was born in Scotland, it was named after Scotland, it was fed throughout the four years of its active life in the main from Scotland; its symbol was the thistle of Scotland; and it is but right, therefore, that its monument should be fashioned in the form beloved of Scotland.
“May I say how much we are indebted to our architect, Mr Ian Hamilton, and to our builder, M. Bouchez, for the skill and care with which they have carried out the work.
“You will notice that our little plot is purposely left as the fighting left it. It will remain a visible portion of the battlefield until Nature succeeds in obliterating the scars of war. Only in one respect are we modifying it. By planting whins and broom and heather taken from various parts of its native land we hope to make ‘this corner of a foreign field’ a place ‘that is for ever’ Scotland, and arrangements have already been made with our friends in South Africa to send here plants typical of that country to mingle with the indigenous plants of Scotland, and thus symbolise the undying link between these two countries forged in the glowing heat of battle.
“We have here to-day representatives both of the commissioned and of the other ranks of almost every regiment that fought in the Division. Each one of us will be thinking of this and that particular comrade, of this or that incident in the wonderful life we lived together. What a life-time it was! To old or young a time absolutely apart from any former experience, a time that we shall always look back to with pride in our race, a pride born not only of a four years’ weaving of heroic examples of selfless devotion to a common ideal, but of a background of good cheer and good fellowship—the outcome, in my belief, of men, for that period at least, not fearing to show themselves at their very best!
“Our thoughts naturally turn in a particular way to those we shall never meet on earth again—friends who maybe were not widely known outside their own units, or others again whose name and reputation, by reason of their rank and responsibilities, were revered throughout the Division. May I just mention three or four? Scrase-Dickins—a Brigadier, loved and respected by his Lowlanders; Frank Maxwell—whose lovely personality, brilliant courage, and winning leadership inspired every officer and man in his brigade; Eric Gordon—whose trust in his beloved Black Watch was only equalled by their confidence in him; Smyth—known as a special friend to the Infantry while still in command of his 90th Company of Engineers, and later, the fearless leader of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers in one attack and counter-attack after another; and Dawson, who fought on with his handful of South Africans in March 1918 till literally overwhelmed from all sides. How many more gallant fellows could we all mention! May I recall yet one more name—one who still lives, and whose thoughts are, I know, with us here to-day—General Lukin. Had he been able to be with us in person, his should have been the honour of unveiling this cairn; for he was in command of the Division when it won its great success here five years ago and had the fortune of serving in the Division, first as Infantry Brigadier and then as Divisional Commander for nearly two years on end.
“Look once more at our inscription, and you will see that the cairn is erected to the memory not only of those who were killed, but of all who served in the Ninth Scottish Division. I have alluded already to the Highland, Lowland, and South African Brigades of Infantry. But, great and imperishable as their services were, they neither alone nor together constituted the Ninth Division. Without the help of the Artillery, the Engineers, the Machine-gun Corps, the Army Service Corps, the Field Ambulance, and the Divisional and Brigade Staffs, our splendid Infantry could not have done all they did, and the Division could not have won its high reputation. The longer the fighting went on, the more clear it became to all that unity of effort was essential to success, that the mere existence of a single will to Victory was not good enough, but that all arms must work towards that goal together, must learn to accommodate each other, and that real co-operation involved mutual trust and fellowship. I do not believe that there was any Division in the whole Army in which this spirit of fellowship and good comradeship burnt more brightly, or achieved greater results. First of the new Divisions raised for the War, First of these Divisions to come to France, almost First in the respect won from a hard-fighting enemy, First to cross over on to German soil when victory had been achieved, the Ninth Scottish Division will, I am convinced, remain for all time First in the affections of those who had the real honour of serving in it. Ours was indeed a royal fellowship, not only of death but of service. I know not how many can claim a share in that fellowship, but we cannot and should not forget that in battle casualties alone the Division lost not less than one hundred per cent. in each year of its War Service of its full strength. It may be surely said of the Ninth Division that Scotland, as well as those other parts of the Empire from which it was recruited, is ‘poorer in men but richer in heroes.’”
General Furse then addressed the representatives of France:—
“Monsieur le Maire, Monsieur le Général, Mesdames et Messieurs. La cérémonie de l’inauguration de ce monument serait incomplête si je manquais l’occasion de vous adresser quelques paroles, très courtes mais très sincères, au nom de mon Comité et de tous mes camarades de la IXième Division (Ecossaise).
“Nous éprouvons un vif sentiment de plaisir, que vous, Monsieur le Maire, ainsi que vos collégues, ayez voulu vous joindre à nous aujourd’hui, pour honorer nos morts et tous ceux qui ont servi leur pays dans notre glorieuse Division. Nous nous réjouissons particulièrement de la présence de nos camarades d’Armes Français—le Général Huguenot et ses vaillants soldats. En plus, je tiens à vous dire combien l’Angleterre apprécie l’esprit généreux et hospitalier de la France, en permettant la construction de ces nombreux monuments de guerre, qui nous attachent par leur souvenir de plus en plus à son sol.
“Nous avons la certitude que nous mettons notre monument sacré entre des mains qui le soigneront fidèlement et tendrement, et nous éspérons qu’il servira à renforcer les sentiments d’affection et d’estime qui ont toujours existé entre la France et l’Ecosse, et que les citoyens d’Arras, en regardant l’inscription gravée sur ces pierres, n’oublieront jamais que les hommes de la IXième Division étaient fiers et heureux de donner tout ce qu’ils avaient de meilleur en eux pour aider à chasser l’ennemi de leur ville.”
General Furse was followed by M. Leroy, Mayor of Arras; M. Dupage, Mayor of St Laurent-Blangy; and M. Delatouche, Councillor of the Prefecture, who replied in turn.
The wreath-bearers then advanced two by two, and hung the wreaths upon the stone projections surrounding the cairn. They were followed by the representatives of the French societies, who deposited their flowers at the base of the cairn.
The ceremony terminated with the playing of “God Save the King” and “The Marseillaise,” after which the formal proceedings were at an end.
The party returned home the same evening, arriving in London on Monday morning.
The following is a list of those known to be present:—
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