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Remembering Festubert ………….. 2 Days To Go! | |
13 May 2015 The Battle of Festubert began on Saturday 15 May 1915 and it is probably one of the most significant events in the history of Skye. A weekend of special commemoration events take place to mark the centenary of the Battle of Festubert, one of the earliest and most appalling of all the battles in World War 1, and shinty will play a major part in over the three days. Many lives were lost, including in the shinty playing communities of Portree and Kingussie and the clubs have come together this coming weekend to remember the fallen.
When the players of Skye Camanachd and Kingussie shinty clubs met in Inverness in the 1901 Camanachd Cup semi-final, they could never have imagined what many of they would go through in the years ahead. Shinty was a great outlet from the drudgery of day-to-day life for the Skye players. They took pride in representing their local community on the sporting field and they had skill and determination in abundance. All Skye matches were played on the mainland at that time and each game was a three-day trip. The sheer effort and organisation which had to go into getting to and from a match, far less participating on the pitch, cannot be underestimated. In the lead up to World War 1, times were hard on Skye. There was an Island population of slightly less than the current 12,000 and there was great poverty and living conditions were poor. Portree was smaller than it is today and crofting and fishing were the main occupations in the rural communities. Therefore it should be no surprise that many were attracted to joining the Territorial Army. Soldiers were kitted out in their uniforms with kilts, they were trained and attended summer camp for a fortnight each year. They also received a small allowance which was welcome in such difficult times. Following the outbreak of World War 1 on Tuesday 28 July 1914, it was natural that the Territorial Army would step up to the plate. The Skye contingent, part of the Cameron Highlanders, trained in Bedford of 6 months, where they joined up with their Kingussie counter-parts, before heading for France in February 1915. It was expected that the War would be over by the end of the year but that was not to be the case. Festubert is probably one of the most significant events in the history of Skye. Whereas previous losses from the Island were from less well-known regular soldiers, the Territorial Battalion from Skye was made up of local crofters, fishermen, joiners, teachers and so on – men who were well-known in their local communities. The Battle of Festubert began on at 10am Saturday 15 May 1915 with the first men leaving the trenches to enter no-man’s land 90 minutes later. The Battle had been preceded by a two-day bombardment in an attempt to weaken enemy lines. However, perhaps crucially, there were no high explosives available. The weather was terrible and the machine-gun laden Germans were better equipped. The Battle was an attack by the British Army, led by Sir Douglas Haig, in the Artois region of France on the western front. It was to be the first British Army night attack of the War and it was to last until Tuesday 25 May 2015. At the end of a hellish 10 days, which included numerous heroic acts during unimaginable conditions, Festubert was captured and the offensive had resulted in a 3-kilometre (1.9 mile) advance. But the cost was grave with 16,648 British casualties during the battle. It was the beginning of, as one soldier put it, “Hell let loose on earth”, and it was regarded as one of the first “killing battles” of the First World War with death on an industrial scale. The Territorial Battalions of Skye and Kingussie, many of whom had previously played shinty against eachother, were to fight side-by-side and unfortunately many were to die side-by-side. Skye lost nearly 600 men in the First World War. In Portree, 28 men went to war, only 10 survived Festubert and only 8 came home. There were 30 deaths from Kingussie alone in one night alone. At least 60 men from Kingussie – which only had a population of around 1,000 - were killed in the Great War and half of them perished at Festubert. Beauly was another shinty playing community which was gravely affected by Festubert. Beauly (it is believed with Lovat) won the Camanachd Cup in 1913 and most of their players went to war as Territorials. This included brothers Alasdair Paterson and Donald Paterson, who was a piper. Both lost their lives at Festubert. Alasdair was aged just 27 and his Grandmother suffered a heart attack on hearing the news and she never fully recovered. This all had a huge effect on the communities back home in Skye, Kingussie and indeed Beauly. World War 1 lasted until Thursday 11 November 1918 with the loss of more than 9 million lives.
Click on the following link for a detailed account of The Battle of Festubert Click on the link to read about Skye & Kingussie. Click on the following link to read about Skye's Band of Brothers Click on the following links for more information Skye & Lochalsh Remembering WW1 & Festubert and Skye & Lochalsh Remembering WW1 & Festubert |