Norman MacLeod's WW1 Service
The wartime service of Norman MacLeod, one of the most extensively documented episodes in the family history.
Prior British Army service
Sometime in the 1890s Norman joined the British Army — the 1st Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (per his 1914 AIF statement), serving about 5 years including in India and possibly the Boer War. In 1939 he described the unit as the 3rd Seaforth Highlanders (service number 8393). Tracing the record is complicated by another Norman McLeod, also from Barvas, who served in the same units at the same time.
AIF service timeline (WW1)
- 1 Oct 1914 — enlists in the 16th Battalion AIF at Morphettville, SA (service number 1305)
- 2 May 1915 — shot in the chest at Gallipoli
- 2 Jun 1915 — transferred to H.S. Della, repatriated to Manchester Hospital, UK
- 3 Mar 1916 — rejoins the 48th Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir, Cairo (the 48th was formed from sections of the 16th plus new recruits after Gallipoli)
- 3 Jun 1916 — arrives in France en route to the Western Front
- 6 Aug 1916 — suffers shell-shock at Pozières; 10 Aug embarked for Southern General Hospital, Birmingham, via Boulogne and H.S. Cambria
- 28 Aug 1916 — marries Catherine Gunn in Glasgow (see the marriage)
- 11 Feb 1917 — rejoins the 48th Battalion in France
- 11 Apr 1917 — wounded in the right leg and left in the trenches during the Australian retreat at Bullecourt; captured by the Germans, declared MIA, becomes a POW
- 17 Dec 1918 — repatriated to the UK, admitted to Lewisham Military Hospital with influenza (Spanish Flu?)
- 20 Sep 1919 — discharged from the AIF in London, having requested to be demobbed in the UK
Aftermath
His UK address (10 Grove St, St George's Cross, Glasgow) recurs across his AIF papers. In March 1939 he made a Statutory Declaration seeking replacement of his lost WW1 medals. Andrew Whillas Jnr later sought British archive records with limited success.
Related pages
- Person: Norman MacLeod
- Timeline: 1890s, 1910s
Sources
- Whillas–McLeod family history spreadsheet (Rev 4), 1890s and 1910s sheets; AIF enlistment/discharge papers; 1939 RSL medal-replacement declaration.