Preface

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION (1915)

THIS terrible war which burst on an astonished world a year ago, and which, after a course of unexampled violence and destructiveness, is apparently far from its fateful crisis, is of supreme and undying interest to the Island of Lewis. In no part of His Majesty's Dominions, home or oversea, has a rural community of under 30,000 souls made a finer response in manhood and efficiency to the call to Naval and Military service in defence of the Empire and its Allies, and all that the Empire champions—freedom for the man and the State all over the habitable world. This Hebridean contribution to the Forces by land and sea is remarkable, alike in numbers and variety of service, and this record, with the subjoined statistics, collected and arranged with great care by Mr William Grant, deserves, and will receive, handsome acceptance from Lewis men and women and their friends everywhere. Many who are unacquainted with the interesting story of the Island and its more recent development are excusably surprised at the large quota of Lewis soldiers and sailors at present in the service of the Crown. For some enlightenment on the past and on the present, it may be stated that the Island has had a very substantial military tradition for centuries, since it, with other Highland districts, emerged from the "dark ages" of internecine tumult and barbarity. The episode of the Fife Adventurers early in the 17th century probably marked the critical stage in the transition to organised military practice and enlistment. At the Battle of Auldearn in 1645 a Lewis regiment was practically annihilated. Only three escaped, and among the killed was the Chamberlain of the Lewis (Donald Ban, brother of the Laird of Tulloch). But the Island was still turbulent, for Cromwell had a garrison in Stornoway, and in 1654 an unsuccessful siege of the strong Castle of Stornoway is recorded. In the '15 twelve Lewis officers were nominated in Inverness, and at Sheriffmuir the Islanders, under Seaforth, formed part of the second line. Lewis gave serious concern to the authorities for a time thereafter, and a regular Government force was got ready to operate against its defiant clansmen. In the '45, again, a Lewis Company with its local officers took the field. Passing down the years, we find that in 1793 and 1794 Francis, Lord Seaforth. raised two battalions, in the first of which three hundred Lewismen figured. The second battalion took the distinctive and far-famed title of the "Ross-shire Buffs." In 1804 another battalion was raised for the "Buffs," and the Island contributed a large proportion. In a word, the renowned 78th Regiment had a fertile recruiting area in Lewis. Indeed, such was the drain on the population by recruiting that the Rev. Colin Mackenzie, Parish Minister of Stornoway, writing for the "Statistical Account" in 1795, says — "By reason of the multitudes levied for the Army and Navy, the great number of sub-tsnants, and the many hands wanted for the fishing boats, labourers and farm servants are become very scarce and difficult to be found." Since the Napoleonic struggle the military tradition has been continued and extended, and Lewis, in the Navy, the Army, and Militia, has long been represented from every village in the Island. The fighting record is magnificent. The Royal Naval Reserve was started in Stornoway in 1874, and for a long time was drilled annually at the Battery Station there—in its day the largest single station in the Kingdom. The physique and efficiency of the Reservemen were surpassed by none, according to official reports. In later years actual service aboard a man-of-war has been insisted on, and the local Training Station was discontinued. This splendid R.N. R. contingent, numbering about 2000, promptly answered the mobilisation summons of the Admiralty on the memorable 2nd August last year. It must, however, be kept in mind that the connection of Lewis with the regular Navy has been very close for fully a century, though the recruitment was not large, and that in this war up to date several Lewismen of the regular Navy, apart from R.N.R. seamen, have conspicuously distinguished themselves. The people will cherish the memories of the Heligoland Bight, the Falkland Islands, the North Sea Battle, and, with special regard, the brilliant exploit of the "Carmania." The old Artillery Volunteers (1st Ross-shire), Stornoway, was supplanted some years ago by the new organisation, the Ross Mountain Battery (T.F.), and the Stornoway Company thereof is now valorously fighting in the dreary and blood-soaked slopes of the Dardanelles. With the Company are serving 41 of the Secondary pupils of the Nicolson Institute, actually on the working roll of the school when the war broke out, and former pupils also in large numbers have contributed to the splendid war record of this distinguished school. Nothing redounds more to the high credit of the Island's endeavour in this world conflict than the voluntary enlistment of young men of Lewis birth or extraction, both at home (though furth of the Island), and in the Colonies, the States, the Argentine and elsewhere in foreign parts. From Canada alone some 250 Lewis lads are now in the trenches in Flanders. And the Island will remember with just pride that all through the progress of the war there has been a modest, but steady, local recruiting for all branches of the Forces—Regular, R.N.R., and Territorial. Alas ! that with all this military enterprise and pageantry the toll of life and limb by land and sea has been distressingly severe. Already the death casualties alone are well into the third hundred, and every week now little groups of men, maimed or hopelessly war-worn, are finding their way to the family hearths in all parts of the Island. Lewis is sorely stricken, and the patriotic devotion and the resignation of the inhabitants will, there is every reason to fear, have to face greater tribulation before Peace resumes its reign. Many pages will have to be added to this Roll of Honour. To all of us the abiding consolation remains that those who never come back have laid down their lives in one of the greatest causes In the history of mankind. Let us at home have an unflinching faith in the certainty of a triumphant issue to this stupendous struggle, and do our part, however humble, with a deep sense of personal obligation. There is a direct and very telling appropriateness at this moment in the words of a real poet : — "Say not, the struggle naught availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been they remain. If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars; It may be, in yon smoke concealed, Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers, And, but for you, possess the field. For while the tired waves, vainly breaking, Seem here no painful inch to gain, Far back, through creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, flooding in, the main. And not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light; In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly ! But westward, look, the land is bright !" —Clough- With this beautiful and inspiring vision of ultimate victory the Roll may fitly open. As a last word let the hope be expressed that the sons and daughters of the Island at home and abroad will unite in erecting a worthy and permanent local memorial and cenotaph to their countrymen who have suffered and died for their sakes in a noble cause.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION (1921).

A few words of supplementary preface are asked for now, though the revised Roll may be long in preparation. The Great War seems at an end, at any rate in its active military aspect, and the nations, weary and debilitated, are labouring in the wake of the world-wide struggle towards a haven of assured peace and orderly life and development. The "armed doctrine" of German might and presumptuous superiority, lately revealed fully to the world, has been more than successfully defied by her opponents, and there is much reason to believe that she is now surely, if secretly, laying to heart the stern lessons of a national collapse unparalleled in the history of mankind. She is certainly reaping the whirlwind where she sowed in many long years of insidious preparation against the liberties of peaceful nations. Social revolt and disorder for the time reign within her borders, and the Allies are unexpectedly confronted with the gravest anxiety as to the existence of a competent Governmental authority with which to treat in the final stages of the negotiations. In the paramount general interests of Europe they must exact the most binding guarantees from her if—what many weighty minds consider a practicable ideal—a United States of Europe, or a reasonable approximation thereto, is to displace the secret distrust and uncertainty of the old days. The glimmerings of a genuine democratic tendency on the part of a few of her present temporary rulers appear to give some faint hope that a repentant feeling is taking root. A change of heart is the necessary forerunner of a radical change in her domestic and international outlook and policy, and the very visible evidence of the overwhelming military resources of the victors will foster, if it does not enforce, this desirable orientation. Stricken Germany and the weaker nations that, to their own undoing, so disastrously backed her, cannot forget the awful past, however loud their present evasions and protests As for the Allies their proper mood seems that reflected in the words of the "Recessional": — "The tumult and the shouting dies; The captains and the kings depart : Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget—lest we forget!" and when Germany and her associates respond to this spirit, the noonday of a better world is approaching. In this short- note the main chronicle of the war cannot find even a modest summary. For our own Empire the outstanding facts are the heroic and resistless valour of our soldiers and sailors, the marvellous resource and stability of our own nation and our comrade dominions and colonies, and our restraint and determination, alike in victory and casual defeat. In the darkest hours, and they were not few, faith in the justice of our ideals and in a victorious issue never really faltered, and never in our annals have the high purpose and material might of the Empire been more acclaimed throughout the world. The story of the achievement of the Island of Lewis by land and sea is a glorious one. The recital of its losses in the finest of its manhood is, alas, harrowing ! and in no phase of the war was the cry of lamentation nor the agony of anxious hearts absent in any village in the land. The fact that out of a population of less than 30,000 over 1000 gave up their lives, not to reckon the distressingly large proportion of wounded and permanently disabled who have been straggling back to their mourning homes, has stirred the hearts and won the admiration of our kinsmen everywhere, and of the nation at large. The crowning sorrow of the "Iolaire," that inexplicable calamity of last New Year's Day, only remained to fill to overflowing the cup of universal grief for this Island. Verily, Lewis by its sacrifices has raised an imperishable monument to itself in the saddened hearts of our countrymen. May the following pages be a widespread memorial, now and henceforth, of the days of high emprise, and, unhappily, of sore trial and affliction. J. L. Robertson Esq, C.B., LL D.