(Raerinish and Crossbost.)
Population last Census, 780 (Males, 379; Females, 401)
THIS district includes the townships of Raerinish and Crossbost. The total number of men who saw service during the war was 232 or nearly 30 per cent, of the population as at last census. The fatalities amounted in Raerinish to 28 and in Crossbost to 10, or 18.8, and 12 per cent, respectively of the men engaged.
There were five cases of families having five sons each on service at the same time. These were the sons of the late Duncan Macleod, 7 Raerinish, the late Angus Macleod, 1 Raerinish ; the late John Macleod, 18 Raerinish ; the late Torquil Macleod, 42 Raerinish, whose two sons-in-law were engaged, and Murdo Mackinnon, 8 Raerinish.
One of the most distressing deaths was that of John Macieod, 33 Raerinish, of the Royal Navy, and, at the outbreak of the war a Coastguardsman at Stornoway, who was bayonetted by a sentinel at North Berwick through some mischance in the early months of the War. John Macleod was one who impressed all with whom he came in contact as a sailor who typified in an extraordinary degree the dauntless spirit of the British Navy. Other losses quickly followed. A Raerinish man, Kenneth Macleod, 7 Raerinish, fell in the duel between the "Carmania" and the "Cap Trafalgar," and a Crossbost man, Alex. Mackenzie, 4 Crossbost, was the first man of the Lewis Mountain Battery to fall.
As the war went on men who had been born in the district joined up from North America, South America, and Australia.
It was touching to read letters from some of these to their parents communicating their intention, and explaining that they considered it their duty to "do their bit." Long may our country breed such sons ! As remarkable a case as any of these was that of Roderick Thomson, 29 Raerinish, who left Fidigary School in September at the age of fourteen, entered the Nicolson Institute, obtained the Intermediate
Certificate in April, joined the Army three months later, and in three months more was in the trenches in France at the age of fifteen.
Several men belonging to the district were interned in Holland at the time of the capture of Antwerp by the Germans, four more at least were prisoners in Germany, two of whom were forced to work in the trenches on the German front against the Russians. Another of the four made his escape from Germany to Holland, at the third attempt, and just prior to the Armistice. This was Murdo Macmillan, 17 Crossbost, and he was accompanied by an Australian and a Londoner. They travelled by night and hid by day, and after suffering many hardship succeeded in getting across the frontier. The fourth, who was a wounded prisoner, lay for a considerable time in an hospital in Germany, and on his recovery was transferred to Saxony, and there employed under a farmer in agricultural work. His was the most favourable fate, and he succeeded in winning the esteem of the farmer, his wife, and family. He relates how the farmer's wife wept over the dethronement of the Kaiser.
Perhaps the event of the actual war which created the greatest sensation in the district was the first report of the Battle of Jutland. This was natural, seeing our population is, to such a large extent, sea- faring. Second only to this in the effect produced was the near approach to Paris in 1914, and again in 1918.
But the sensation caused by these events, great as they were, paled by comparison with the dumb stupefaction, the utter collapse that took away all men's breath when the tragic story of the loss of the "Iolaire," on the 1st of January, 1919, began to get abroad. What man living in Lewis can ever forget that fatal New Year's morning ! Beautiful and touching in the extreme were the lines "Home at Last," appearing in the following issue of the "Stornoway Gazette," and expressing in fitting language the thoughts that filled all our hearts when that most melancholy of the war's events took place.
It is not possible within the brief space which the editor of this book can allow to enter more fully into details that mainly concern the district, but we may be allowed to express the gratitude which we must all feel to the soldiers and sailors who have returned home for their valiant defence of their country ; our resolve to hold for ever our heroic dead in grateful memory, and by our efforts to establish a nation in righteousness to prove that these sacrifices have not been made in vain ; and our sympathy with their sorrowing friends, whose chief consolation must be that Britain's sons have fallen in as just and noble a cause as any for which a nation ever drew the sword.
A. G. BURNS.
Schoolhouse, Fidigary.
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