|
The estate proprietor
at the time was Vice Chancellor Sir John Stuart. He gave a handsome
donation and offered a site for a Battery. The area chosen is now
part of the local playing field. Later a Drill Hall was erected
and this handsome building in the middle of the main street is today
our Village Hall.
From the beginning,
a high standard of training was given. A drill sergeant was appointed
under the command of Capt. David Ferguson, a local farmer. The men
held regular parades and practised firing a large gun, which remained
outside the Drill Hall until it was removed as scrap of the war
effort about 1940.
Some of the
men attended the famous "Wet Review" in Edinburgh in 1881.
It was held to celebrate the coming of age of the Volunteers but
the weather was extremely wet, the men had no shelter or change
of clothing, so that many of them got chilled and there was a great
deal of illness afterwards, e.g. pneumonia.
Over the years
there were a number of reorganisations, but after the Haldane reforms
of 1908 the Lochcarron men decided to form a Mountain Brigade jointly
with recruits from Stornoway. They were now part of the Territorial
Force and had greater responsibilities.
At the beginning
of the 1914-18 War they mobilised with the 51st Division, undertook
further training at Bedford, and in April 1915 were with the 29th
Division in Gallipoli, being the first artillery to land. Later
they were the first artillery to cross the Bulgarian frontier and
served there with distinction for two and a half years.
You will find
a War Memorial next to the Village hall, recording the names of
those who gave their lives in two World Wars. Many of them lie in
foreign lands with no known grave, but we remember them.
By Helen Murchison
Drawings by Vicky Stonebridge |
