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Auction: 18003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 419

Three: Private W. Laird, 1/6th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, who died of wounds on 2 August 1917, the final day of the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, the opening attack of the Battle of Passchendaele

1914-15 Star (S-5016 Pte. W. Laird, Sea: Highrs.); British War and Victory Medals (S-5016 Pte. W. Laird. Seaforth.), nearly extremely fine (3)

William Laird enlisted at Cambuslang, Lanark, and served in France from 21 January 1915 with the 1/6th (Morayshire) Battalion (Territorial Force) of the Seaforth Highlanders, which formed part of the 51st (Highland) Division. Joined in France in May by the rest of the Division from Bedford, within a relatively short period of time, Laird was in the thick of the action:

'On 4 June 1915 the 6th Seaforth Highlanders took over the front line from the Canadians just to the north of Festubert. The trenches were in a bad state and much battlefield debris lay about, including the bodies of the dead'(The 6th (Morayshire) Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders, in the Great War 1914-1919, by Derek Bird, refers).

On 15 June 1915 the 6th Seaforths faced their sternest test so far when they supported an attack by the 5th Seaforths north of La Bassee Canal; manning their parapets, the men opened rapid fire on the German lines, only to face German artillery retaliation which forced the occupants to shelter as best as they could. Many casualties were sustained from enemy shellfire:

'It was the shrapnel that did the trick. The Germans were putting them over very neat, right on top of the trench every time. It is their trench mortars that are best though. You can see them coming just like a football, with a spike in it, through the air, and then they fall almost perpendicular. When they get a trench it is good-bye to about thirty yards of it' (Ibid).

In 1916 the Battalion was in action on the Somme taking over the line near Hamel. It participated in the attacks on High Wood and The Battle of the Ancre, taking Beaumont Hamel and capturing over 2000 prisoners. In 1917 it took part in the Arras Offensive and the Battle of Pilckem Ridge; the latter accounted for 31,820 British casualties and losses in just four days.

William is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, which is situated on the main communication line between the Allied military bases in the rear and the Ypres battlefields; as such, it was the location for a number of casualty clearing stations during the war and contains 10,121 identified casualties. In 1922 it was one of the cemeteries visited by King George V during his pilgrimage to the Battlefields of the First World War.


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Sold for
£110