Best Scottish First World War History

Best Scottish First World War History. The Flowers of the Forest. Scotland and the Great War. Today we are as far away from the First World War as the Edwardians were from the Battle of Waterloo, but it casts a shadow over Scottish life that was never produced by the wars against Napoleon. The country and its people were changed forever by the events of 1914-1918. Once the workshop of the empire and an important source of manpower for the colonies, after the war, Scotland became something of an industrial and financial backwater. Emigration increased as morale slumped in the face of economic stagnation and decline. The country had paid a disproportionately high price in casualties, a result of the larger numbers of volunteers and the use of Scottish battalions as shock troops in the fighting on the Western Front and Gallipoli, young men whom the novelist Ian Hay called the vanished generation who left behind them something which neither time can efface nor posterity belittle. There was a sudden crisis of national self-confidence, leading one commentator to suggest in 1927 that the Scots are a dying race. Royle examines related themes such as the overwhelming response to the call for volunteers and the subsequent high rate of fatalities, the performance of Scottish military formations in 1915 and 1916, the militarisation of the Scottish homeland, the resistance to war in Glasgow and the west of Scotland, the boom in the heavy industries and the strengthening of women's role in society following on from wartime employment. The Flowers of the Forest: Scotland and the Great War.
Come On Highlanders! Glasgow Territorials In The Great War. Already possessors of a proud history by the outbreak of the First World War, the men of 9th, Glasgow Highland, Battalion, The Highland Light Infantry, were right at the heart of the cataclysmic events that unfolded on the Western Front. One of the first Territorial units to be rushed to France in 1914, they participated in almost all the major British battles, Festubert, Neuve-Chapelle and Loos in 1915, the Somme in 1916, Arras and Ypres in 1917. They were closely involved in opposing the great German offensive of spring 1918, and in the big Allied push which culminated in victory later that year. Altogether, around 4,500 men served with the battalion in the First World War. By 1919, over 1,200 had died and at least double that number had been wounded. Despite this the ethos of the battalion, built up over half a century of peace and many months of warfare, survived. Alec Weir's accessible, informal style, employing many first-hand accounts, and his rigorous research combine here to produce a fascinating and detailed account of how ordinary men from all walks of life confronted and mastered the hellish conditions of trench warfare. Come On Highlanders! - Glasgow Territorials In The Great War..

Scottish Voices from the Great War. Using letters, diaries and first-hand accounts together with original photographs, here is the real story of Scotland's soldiers in the First World War. Scotland's response to the Great War has, up until now, largely been marginalized or ignored. With a proportionally higher number of volunteers than any other home nation, Scotland's youth played a significant part in Britain's war effort. Here is the first study of Scotland's response to the call to arms; the true story behind the raising, the training, life in the trenches, and the sacrifices faced by those battalions raised in Scotland. This book focuses on the experiences of those who served in the Scottish divisions. Charting the course of emotions from initial enthusiasm in August 1914 through to outright disillusionment with the continuation of the war in 1917, the author clearly shows how life at the front line produced both physical and emotional changes in those caught up in the horrors of trench warfare. Scottish Voices from the Great War.