Gravestone of an unknown soldier of the Seaforth Highlanders, a Scottish regiment, in Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery. © 2013 by John M. Shea
Cuidich 'n Righ (Aid the King)A Soldier of the Great WarSeaforth HighlandersKnown Unto God
"Many arms of the Service are grouped round the little marble-topped tables, for the district is stiff with British troops, and promises to grow stiffer. In fact, so persistently are the eagles gathering together upon this, the edge of the fighting line, that rumour is busier than ever. The Big Push holds redoubled sway in our thoughts. The First Hundred Thousand are well represented, for the whole Scottish Division is in the neighbourhood. Beside the glengarries there are countless flat caps — line regiments, territorials, gunners, and sappers. The Army Service Corps is there in force, recruiting exhausted nature from the strain of dashing about the country-side in motor-cars. The R.A.M.C. is strongly represented, doubtless to test the purity of the refreshment provided. Even the Staff has torn itself away from its arduous duties for the moment, as sundry red tabs testify. In one corner sit four stout French civilians, playing a mysterious card-game."
Excerpt from the chapter "The Gathering of the Eagles" in The First Hundred Thousand, by Ian Hay, a soldier in K1, the first 100,000 men of Kitchener's Army, those who responded to Lord Kitchener's call for volunteers when the United Kingdom went to war in 1914. The soldiers are anticipating and preparing for the Big Push, the Franco-British autumn offensive of 1915. Ian Hay Beith was a Scot,and wore the glengarry, a traditional Scottish bonnet with a toorie or pompom on top and two ribbons trailing behind. The Territorial Force, some units of which wore tam o' shanters, was established as part of the Army reforms of 1906 and '07. Derided here, the Army Service Corps supplied front line troops with food, fuel, weapons, and other supplies. R.A.M.C. is the Royal Army Medical Corps. General Staff officers could be identified by the red tabs on their lapels.
The First Hundred Thousand; Being the Unofficial Chronicle of a Unit of "K (1)" by Ian Hay, pp. 303, 304, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1916
1915-09-19, 1915, September, Ian Hay, Ian Hay, Beith, Kitchener's Army, K1,
