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1st February 2022
The First World War lasted four terrible years. The carnage from battlegrounds mounted into tens of thousands. Many more young men came home horribly maimed to be treated in hospitals such as the Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers
The creation of the hospital in 1916 was in fact a direct response to the need for specialised medical facilities to deal with the unprecedented number of service personnel returning home from the trenches.
Erskine supporter Colin Middlemiss from Clydebank has sent in this article. An insight into one family's experience with the Great War.
“During 1898, my great uncle, Thomas Donaldson was born in Galashiels, Selkirkshire. As a youth he was a member of the Scout movement. Around 1914 he became involved with Bob-a-Job week. During this week young scouts did small jobs or errands for a shilling.
Late in 1916, he joined the Army, and became a Private with the 1/4 Battalion of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was posted to Turkey. On joining received the so-called King's Shilling. During the conflict he suffered an injury to his right leg.
Family legend has it that somewhere in Turkey, Thomas bumped into his future brother-in-law James Middlemiss, (my grandfather) who was also serving there. Apparently James told the young Thomas who was eighteen at the time, to get his leg seen to by medical staff. It seems this advice was ignored, as his injury turned poisonous. (Youth know best!).
On 17th April 1917, Thomas was involved with fighting at the Battle of Gaza, and on this date was reported missing in action. A few weeks later, it was discovered Thomas was in fact a prisoner of war. On the 1st November 1917, came the tragic news that Thomas had died from his injury, while still incarcerated. He was just nineteen years old.
(Stock Image)
Thomas is remembered with honour at Haidar Pasha Cemetery, Turkey. He is also commemorated in the Galashiels Book of Remembrance in which there is a photograph of Thomas in uniform, and is also listed on the Galashiels War Memorial.
Oh, what different jobs he did, both for a shilling”.
"The King or Queen's Shilling" is a slang term referring to the payment of a shilling, given to new recruits of the Armed Forces. This occurred mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries, although it dates back to the English Civil War. The award officially stopped in 1879, but the term is still used on occasion to this day.
Bob a Job Week began in 1949, for one week a year in April, all Scout groups across Britain ‘hired out’ their Scouts and Cubs for “Bob-a-Job week”, issuing them with job cards and instructions to go round to local homes, knock on strangers’ doors and ask for any small jobs the householder needed doing But it was abolished in 1992 due to health and safety rules.
To find out more about Erskine’s work please visit our website at www.erskine.org.uk follow on twitter @ErskineCharity via Facebook www.facebook.com/ErskineVeteransCharity or listen to Erskine Veterans Radio at Erskine.org.uk/radio
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