com
A Scottish Royal
Army Medical Corps
lieutenant at
the Front
Excerpts from the
Diary of Patrick
Cameron Macrae
(1889-1917)
Giulio Pertile shares excerpts from the
wartime diary of an Inverness-born army
lieutenant whose journal entries and sketches
from 1915 provide a lively and poignant
DR PATRICK CAMERON MACRAE, M, A, M, B" CR, B,
window into trench life in France
N
obody knows our abortive Jacobite uprising in 1719). Dr Patrick Cameron Officers’ Training Corps; he was also
destination... Thus reads Patrick grew up in Dalwhinnie, where Macrae from his president of the Celtic Society and
an early entry in the war his father John was station master, obituary notice in captain of the Shinty team. (It was with
diary of Patrick Cameron and excelled in the local schools as his Celtic Monthly, May some justice, then, that his obituary
Macrae, my great- prize copy of Wordsworth still attests: 1917 would describe him as ‘one of the most
grandmother’s brother. Patrick – a From Dalwhinnie he went on to promising young Celts of to-day.’) On
lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical the University of Edinburgh, where taking his degree in 1915 he joined
Corps – had shipped for France from he studied surgery and enrolled in the the 50th Field Ambulance, which was
Southampton two nights before on attached to the 37th Division, as
29 July 1915. He started his diary, a lieutenant.
which he regularly punctuated with Along with his diary, which he kept
sketches such as those featured on the in a standard-issue ‘Army Book 152’,
following pages, on departing from Patrick also took his bagpipes with
Southampton. Now, on 1 August, he him to the Front. He found a good
and the other men of the 50th Field excuse to take them out the day after
Ambulance were leaving Le Havre. leaving Le Havre: ‘[m]et old friend
As the train pulled out of the city he Macpherson in A.S.C. also billeted
took note: ‘First signs of war – some here – played a tune on the bagpipes
German prisoners loading wagons – for his benefit in the evening’ (2 Aug).
great burly men.’ On an idle afternoon just over two
Born in Inverness, Patrick was a weeks later at Hazebrouck, he took
Macrae on both sides of his family; Patrick’s school out his bagpipes again to strike up a
his parents had moved there from record from famous Scottish march: ‘Enjoying
Lochalsh and Glenshiel, where Kingussie Public little nap in tent on stretcher
Macraes had lived for hundreds of School, noting his Roddy playing tin whistle others
years, in the last decades of the 19th excellent adacemic out – when Brigadier General
century (Glenshiel was the site of an achievements appears at tent door much to our
32 H I S TO RY S COT LA ND - MA RC H / A P RI L 2018
World War I
H I S TO RY S COT LA ND - MA RC H / A P RI L 2018 33
www.historyscotland.com
shot by a sniper – rumour in fact Scottish-Greek cultural encounter. As the war dumbfounded colleague: The point of
almost confirmed that Belgian snipers There is a moving sense not only progressed, Patrick’s the joke seems to be the Highlander’s
are employed by the Germans behind of the Greek villagers’ fascination sketches became great, even excessive wonder at the
the lines and well paid for picking with this bizarrely costumed man, more detailed seemingly ordinary sight of a pair of
off officers – hope they don’t pick producing what probably sounded like oxen – what he calls ‘Bovids’ – pulling a
me off’ (21 Aug). It is, he notes a a kind of demonic dirge, but also of cart. Perhaps he has never seen such a
few days later, a ‘nervous business Patrick himself, in increasingly foreign sight before, or perhaps he simply can’t
being continually challenged by more backgrounds, simply playing and quite believe that ordinary oxen pull
nervous soldiers with loaded rifle on marching on. carts here in Greece as well, so different
the way’ (27 Aug). In Salonika Patrick encountered the are the context and the costumes.
Even in this experience, however, he Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Certainly to Patrick the scene would
finds occasion for a sketch: ‘Despite who had been stationed there since have been a familiar one.
the fact that the RAMC companies November; he dined together with At some point in early 1916 Patrick
were generally stationed hundreds of them on New Years’ Eve 1915. They contracted malaria, and stopped
yards behind the front line, stray bullets furnished material for more comic making written entries in his diary.
could easily reach them: Some of men takes on the Scottish-Greek encounter. Opposite: Patrick’s He did, however, continue to sketch,
at door and bullet … just missed them ‘Look, Jock! There’s a cairt passin’ an’ transfer notice, with finding material for his drawings even
and hit the wall – lots going through there’s two ‘Bovids’ pullin’ it’ exclaims the poignant note in his own illness. The sketches also
the trees. A little later while reading in one Highlander to his somewhat ‘insane’ become more elaborate. In the drawing
Dressing Room another hit the roof
just above and brought down some
plaster’ (Oct 4).
The next day, however, the room
receives a friendlier visit: ‘Room
invaded later by a kitten from
somewhere – took refuge under a chair
and surveyed me from its shelter – later
got quite friendly and gave it some milk
– Swiss condensed – which sealed our
friendship’ (Oct 5).
Patrick’s first visit to the trenches,
meanwhile, is marked by a moment
of grim comedy: ‘It’s a funny war
– Germans well informed – when
east Lancs arrive there first night –
the Germans hailed them through
megaphone: ‘Hello – are you the East
Lancs? You are relieving the Bedfords –
Don’t make such a d – d row with your
transport’ (19 Sep). At other moments
Patrick seems able to find a strange
beauty in it all: ‘went with Lcpol and
appendix case in car to CCS [Casualty
clearing station] at Bailleul – enjoyable
spin in moonlight – reflection of shells
over Ypres very vivid’ (10 Aug).
In November 1915, Patrick
was transferred to the 80th Field
Ambulance, with whom he sailed
to Salonika and the Balkan Front in
December. Written entries are fewer
in number here, but the sketches
opposite become more vivid; they also
suggest that in Greece, at the border
between Europe and the East, Patrick’s
sense of his own Scottishness became
even more pronounced. But although
Patrick initially describes Salonika as
‘a filthy town filled with murderous
looking Greeks Turks etc., ‘the
following sketch, drawn a few months
later, offers a more benign take on the
34 H I S TO RY S COT LA ND - MA RC H / A P RI L 2018
ONLINE
RESEARCH
In the first of a new series on
online research, we share some of
the History Scotland team’s favourite
websites and blogs
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