After the final bombardment the 7/KOSB waited for the release of gas and smoke against the German lines. However, the adverse conditions blew the gas back to the British positions, seriously affecting the troops manning the trenches. At 06.30 hours the 7/KOSB received the order to attack, but no one moved. Piper Laidlaw was standing by his company officer, 2/Lt Martin Young, who yelled to him, ‘For God’s sake, Laidlaw, pipe ’em together.’ Disregarding the gas and enemy bombardment Laidlaw got over the parapet with 2/Lt Young and proceeded to march up and down their sector playing ‘Blue Bonnets over the Border’. The KOSB reacted to the skirl of the pipes and 2/Lt Young’s call and ‘went over the top’, led by the piper. Other troops in the brigade, the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and the Highland Light Infantry closely followed. The lone piper was an obvious target but incredibly was not hit while he was alone in no-man’s-land. Laidlaw ran forward with his attacking comrades, playing all the time. As they approached the German lines Piper Laidlaw was hit in the left ankle and leg with shrapnel, but continued to limp along as best he could, changing the tune to ‘The Standard on the Braes o’ Mar’ before being hit a second time in the left leg.
Laidlaw himself recounts that, ‘I kept on piping and piping, and hobbling after the laddies until I could go no farther, and then, seeing that the boys had won the position, I began to get back as best I could to our own trenches.’ He dragged his bagpipes back too, keeping them with him at all times. The shell that wounded Laidlaw also hit his officer, 2/Lt Young, who refused to allow stretcher-bearers to take him to the rear, insisting on walking to a dressing station. He died from blood loss the next day. Gen. Sir Philip Christianson, who was a lieutenant of the 6th Camerons on 25 September at Loos, recalls that his battalion ‘was in close support of the KOSBs and heard quite clearly a piper piping them into action. It was an act of intense bravery under intensive fire. As we passed through the KOSBs I saw a badly wounded piper sitting on the ground in a severe state.’
The KOSB suffered heavily. The Battalion War Diary states that, ‘Casualties for first 1,000 yards heavy – including all officers of the Battn. with the exception of three.’ By the time 7/KOSB retired from the battle on 27 September, the War Diary records they had suffered 656 casualties for their three days fighting. Laidlaw’s exploit won him the Victoria Cross and the French Croix de Guerre avec Palmes. No. 15851 Piper Laidlaw was promoted to corporal on the day of his gallant example, for distinguished service in the field. His VC was gazetted on 18 November 1915, and part of the citation makes it clear the enormous risk to which Laidlaw exposed himself:
During the worst of the bombardment, Piper Laidlaw, seeing that his company was shaken from the effects of gas, with absolute coolness and disregard of danger, mounted the parapet, marched up and down and played his company out of the trench.
Daniel Logan Laidlaw was born on 26 July 1875 at Little Swinton, Berwickshire, and was the eldest surviving son of Robert Laidlaw of Coldingham, Berwickshire. His mother, Margaret, was the daughter of Robert Logan of Jedburgh. He went to the National Schools at Berwick-upon-Tweed and Lesbury, Northumberland. Little seems to be known about his early years but he first joined the Army on 11 April 1896 and served in India in the 2nd Durham Light Infantry until June 1898. While serving with the 2nd DLI he received a certificate from the Secretary to the Governor stating that he had been ‘employed on plague duty in Bombay from 22 March to 1 May 1898’. He was claimed out of the DLI by his eldest brother in 1898 and served in the KOSB as a piper until 11 April 1912. He married Georgina Mary, daughter of Robert Harive of Kilburnie, Ayrshire, on 11 April 1906 at the Baptist Church, Alnwick, Northumberland. By this time his family was living in Alnwick. Daniel and Georgina had four children before the war: Andrew Robert, born 3 February 1907; John, born 26 July 1910; Margaret, born 21 August 1911 (the year he received King George’s Coronation Medal); and Georgina, born 10 December 1913.
After returning from India, Daniel Laidlaw was put on the Reserve and from 1912 to 1914 engaged in various civilian employment, including working as canteen manager at Alnwick Co-Operative Stores at Alexandria and at the horse breeding centre of D. and D.H. Porter at South Doddington. In Alnwick he spent much of his spare time acting as Assistant Scout Master of Alnwick to his brother-in-law, Scout Master Goodman. Laidlaw re-enlisted in the KOSB on 1 September 1914 and was posted to the 7th (Service) Bn, going to France in June 1915.
Following his exploits on 25 September at the Battle of Loos, Laidlaw, now a corporal, was decorated by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 4 December 1915 while still recuperating from his wounds. He later returned to his unit and was promoted to sergeant-piper on 12 October 1917. After the war Laidlaw was finally demobilized on 3 April 1919, having served with the Colours for a total of 20 years and 6 months. Like many others, after the Armistice Laidlaw found regular employment difficult to obtain, though he made great efforts, moving around Berwickshire, Northumberland and Durham seeking work in industry or on the land. His worst period was when the post-war slump hit the Sunderland shipyards where he used to work, leaving him out of work for eight years.
He attended the VC garden party at Buckingham Palace on 26 June 1920 and the ceremony at the Cenotaph later that year on 11 November. Laidlaw, like Meekosha VC (see page 262) and others, was grateful for the railway companies’ free ticket policy for VCs attending these functions. He was also present in Westminster Abbey on 11 November 1920 when the unknown warrior was laid to rest there. Indeed, Laidlaw often appeared in London as a guest at Scottish functions. His wife bore him another son in 1920, whom he named Victor Loos Laidlaw.
In 1929 he re-enacted his own legendary exploit, starring in the film ‘The Guns of Loos’, and later that year attended the British Legion dinner for VCs on 9 November 1929. Laidlaw took part in another film in 1934, ‘Forgotten Men’. In the same year ‘the piper’ as he was universally known, sailed to Norway, to pipe the ‘Lads and Lassies’ of a Scottish dance team, a pastime that he had been involved in for some years since the war, giving concerts and providing the music for Scottish dance groups.
Laidlaw tried to set himself up in business as a chicken farmer to escape his long period of unemployment. In 1938 he became sub-postmaster at Shoresdean, a small village a few miles from Berwick-upon-Tweed. His ‘office’ was nothing more than a wooden shed standing in his front garden. He often played his prized ‘Loos’ pipes which he kept in his sitting room with his bronze medal and the other decorations he had won. He also told a reporter at this time that his once black hair had turned white within a few hours of his VC action at the Battle of Loos. When war came again his son, Victor Loos Laidlaw, joined the KOSB in 1940, aged 20. After the Second World War Piper Laidlaw was present in Whitehall on 8 June 1946 for the Victory Parade and attended the dinner that night.
Daniel Logan Laidlaw, ‘the Piper of Loos’, died at Shoresdean on 2 June 1950, and was buried two days later at Norham, Northumberland. Hundreds of people thronged the entrance to Norham Churchyard. Mourners came from miles away, some from Bowsden, Atterdean, Alnwick and other places where he and his family had lived. Many of the mourners had served with the KOSB, although the majority were friends. Mr A.G. Lindsay Young, whose brother Lt Young had been Piper Laidlaw’s platoon commander at Loos, had read of his death in the newspaper and had come down from Cleish Castle, Kinross, to attend the funeral. Another mourner had heard about his death on the radio and travelled up from Coventry. Nearly all the menfolk of Shoresdean village were there, having been conveyed by special bus. A service was first held at ‘the Piper’s’ home by the Revd W.A. Gainsborough of Ancroft North Moor, then Laidlaw’s coffin, draped with a Union Jack, was borne slowly into Norham Church by four pallbearers, all of whom were serving soldiers from the KOSB depot at Berwick. Canon J.A. Little conducted the short service and mourners stood to attention as the body was laid to rest. Bugler Kerr sounded the Last Post and the party of KOSB, led by their CO, Maj. D.W. McConnel, stepped forward to give the salute; afterwards McCon
nel laid a special wreath on behalf of the regiment.
There is a plaque on the north wall of the nave in St Cuthbert’s Church in Norham, Northumberland dedicated:
IN PROUD MEMORY OF / PIPER DANIEL LAIDLAW, VC. / THE PIPER OF LOOS / THE KING’S OWN SCOTTISH BORDERERS.
A ceremony also took place at St Cuthbert’s Churchyard on 2 June 2002 to place a headstone over the grave of Piper Daniel Laidlaw VC – “The Piper of Loos”. The project was organised by the King’s Own Scottish Borderer’s Museum in Berwick-on-Tweed and by members of the Laidlaw family.
His Victoria Cross group was donated to the National War Museum of Scotland on 25 September 2005.
G.S. PEACHMENT
Near Hulluch, France, 25 September
The 2nd Bn, King’s Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC), was part of 2nd Bde, 1st Div., which was given the task of attacking a 600 yard frontage between Northern Sap and Lone Tree (see map on page 187). The objectives were to overrun the German front and support trenches and then cross the Loos valley in a south-easterly direction, to bring their right flank into touch with the left of the 15th Div. at Puits 14 (Pithead 14). The 2/KRRC took up their positions in the jumping off trenches with the other leading battalion, the 1/Loyal North Lancs. Just by the 2/KRRC trenches there was a slight bulge in the British front line so that the 2nd Bde front faced south-east. The British turned on the gas at 05.50 hours and smoke shells were fired from Stokes mortars. The Battalion War Diary noted various problems with these weapons, including premature bursting of charges and failure of weapon parts, which reduced the number of smoke shells fired on this section of front.
The problems did not end there. The wind then veered to the south and all the gas blew back, especially on to B Coy. All ranks had smoke helmets on, but although the gas was soon turned off, the old type of gas helmet proved inadequate and some 200 men from the 2/KRRC and another 200 from the 1/Loyal North Lancs were gassed badly enough to be put out of action. The second line companies were brought up to pass through those in the first line but at that point the advance was delayed because the wind had turned again, this time to the south-west, towards the German trenches, and at 06.20 hours the gas cylinders were turned on again. Most of the men, especially those in the jumping-off trenches, had retired to lie behind the parados in an attempt to avoid the fumes. All this time the German fire was intense.
The assault was finally ordered at 06.34 hours, the advancing troops moving forward into a pall of smoke and gas, quite unable to see their way and choking on the poisonous fumes. Untouched by the bombardment, two enemy machine-guns, positioned in sap-heads about 40 yards ahead of their main line, enfiladed the British line as it advanced. The War Diary states that, ‘On reaching the [German] wire it was discovered that it was not cut, being low and wide.’ During the fierce fighting the British front line ‘was compelled to retire in order to reorganize’ at approximately 08.00 hours. At this time, No. 11941 Pte Peachment, A Coy, 2/KRRC, noticed his company commander, Capt. G.R. Dubs, lying wounded near the barbed wire some 15 yards from the German lines. Peachment crawled over to assist him and despite intense enemy fire made no attempt to join some men sheltering in a shell-hole near by. Kneeling beside his officer in the open, he tried to bandage his wounds. While thus engaged Peachment was first wounded in the chest by a bomb. At this moment Dubs was also hit in the chest by a bullet. Despite this the wounded officer was trying to drag him to a shell-hole when Peachment received a mortal head wound from a rifle bullet. Peachment’s VC citation ends: ‘He was one of the youngest men in his battalion, and gave this splendid example of courage and self-sacrifice.’ Rfn Peachment was just 18 years and 4 months old.
George Stanley Peachment was born at Parkhills, Fishpool, Bury, on 5 May 1897, the son of Mary and George Henry Peachment, a local barber. He went to Parkhills United Methodist Church School and when it closed he moved to St Chad’s, finally attending Bury Technical School. He became an apprentice fitter’s engineer at Ashworth & Parker of Elton, Bury, and afterwards worked at the nearby firm of J.H. Riley. When war began he attempted to enlist but was turned away as being too young. He managed to get accepted at Bury on 19 April 1915, joining the 2nd Bn, King’s Royal Rifle Corps. His VC was awarded posthumously, and was gazetted on 18 November 1915. A memorial service was held on 17 October at Parkhills United Methodist Church to honour his memory. Including Peachment, there were eight VC recipients aged 18 in the First World War. Pte (Rfn) G.S. Peachment is commemorated on the KRRC regimental panel No. 101/102 on the Loos Memorial at Dud Corner Cemetery, France.
Peachment’s VC, 1914–15 Star, BWM and VM, together with the next-of-kin bronze plaque and a selection of documents, including letters of condolence written by Capt. Dubs to Mrs Peachment, came up for sale in November 1996, with a reserve guide price of £18,000–£22,000. They were bought by a private collector for £31,050. His VC is now cited as part of the Lord Ashcroft collection.
A.M. READ
Near Hulluch, France, 25 September
The 1st Bn, Northamptonshire Regt (2nd Bde, 1st Div.) was tasked to attack the enemy trenches north of Loos. Its objectives were a chalk pit just west of the Lens–La Bassée road, the group of pithead buildings known as Puits 14 a little farther south, and the Bois Hugo, which lay farther east (see map on page 187). At 21.30 hours on 24 September the 1st Northamptonshires left the Ypres–Comines railway cutting and marched up to their battle positions in the old front and support trenches. They did not reach their positions until 02.00 hours on 25 September, the day of the battle. They were immediately behind the 1st Loyal North Lancs, and also suffered when the gas blew back over the British trenches.
The assaulting battalions (2/KRRC and 1/Loyal North Lancs) made little headway ‘owing to the gas hanging in the valley between the two [opposing] lines’ (1/Northants War Diary), and after an hour or so were ordered back to the front line to reorganize.
A second assault was then attempted, involving the 2nd Royal Sussex (2nd Bde, 1st Div.) attacking on the left and the 1st Northants on the right, in the face of heavy rifle and machine-gun fire. The German wire was intact and impenetrable, so the 1st Northants were forced to lie down in the open for some hours where they suffered considerable losses from the enemy’s fire. It was during this time that Capt. A.M. Read, 1st Northants, won his VC. The Battalion War Diary explained:
Capt. Read had very gallantly gone out to rally a party of about 60 men of different units who were retiring disorganized owing to the gas drifting back. The men were led forward again by him and took up a position south of Lone Tree, where they maintained themselves for some hours – Capt. Read was mortally wounded during this time.
The History of the Northamptonshire Regiment 1914–1918 cites an enemy sniper as the cause of Read’s death. Capt. Read had been partially gassed prior to rounding up the party of sixty men. The citation stated that ‘he led them back into the firing line, and, utterly regardless of danger, moved freely about, encouraging them under a withering fire’. The fact that he was a superbly fit athlete must have had some bearing on his ability to ‘carry on’ despite being gassed. His posthumous VC was gazetted on 18 November 1915.
Anketell Moutray Read, the son of Col. J. Moutray Read, was born on 27 October 1884 at Bampton, Devon, being educated at Glengarth, Cheltenham, and the United Service College, Westward Ho, where he was officer of the college cadets corps. He entered Sandhurst in 1901 and was gazetted on 21 November 1903 into the Gloucestershire Regt, serving with them for three years in India. He transferred to the 7th Hariana Lancers, Indian Army, on 12 July 1907, moving to the Northamptonshire Regt in 1911.
He won the heavyweight boxing championship in India eight times, and the middleweight twice, winning both at the same meetings. At Aldershot and Plymouth he won the Army and Navy Heavyweight Championship three times, earning himself an unequalled record in service boxing. In 1912 he joined the Royal Flying Corps and went to France with the RFC in the original BEF on 11 August 1914, being present at both Maubeuge and Mo
ns, and the retreat to the Marne. He was then attached to the 9th Lancers, and was severely wounded during the fighting on the Aisne in September 1914. He returned to the 1st Northants in April 1915, and was given temporary command because of casualties. Read had exhibited conspicuous bravery earlier in 1915. On the night of 29/30 July he brought a mortally wounded officer out of action ‘under hot fire of rifles and grenades’. His courage was again evident during digging operations on 29, 30 and 31 August. After his death at the age of 30 years 11 months, another officer, Capt. M.H.B. Salmon DSO, later paid the following tribute to Read:
On the 21 August 1915, my company was detailed for the hottest piece of trench warfare on the whole front. It was a section called Z2 and it lay, I fancy, between Guinchy and Vermelles. Here our front line on the left of the section was 17 yards from the Boche line and our wire practically touched. The section was well known and much talked about, and I had a few ‘comforting’ words with the captain I relieved – a Captain Read [A.M. Read] once of the Indian Cavalry, whom I had known well in India. One of the best, he was killed earning the VC at Loos. We relieved his company amidst a shower of bombs, our men and the Boches shouting and cursing at one another as they threw.
Capt. A.M. Read is buried at Dud Corner Military Cemetery, France, Plot VII, Row F, Grave 19. His VC is held by the Northamptonshire Regiment Museum.
A. VICKERS
Hulluch, France, 25 September
During the Battle of Loos the 7th Div.’s line faced Cité St Elie and the Hulluch Quarries some 5 miles north of Loos (see map on page 186). The 2nd Bn, Royal Warwickshire Regt, part of the 22nd Bde, was opposite Quarry Trench and the German sap called Spurn Head. The battalion went into the attack at 06.30 hours on 25 September and in the face of terrific fire reached the German front line only to find, as other units had done, the enemy wire was uncut. No. 3719 Pte Arthur Vickers, 2nd Royal Warwicks, on his own initiative, rushed forward in front of his company and, displaying immense courage, stood up in broad daylight under heavy fire and cut two gaps in the wire with bolt-cutters, thus enabling his comrades to continue their assault. His action contributed largely to the Warwickshires’ successful capture of the German front and support lines before they were checked at Cité St Elie at 09.30 hours. Vickers was, as the regimental history states, ‘justly rewarded with the Victoria Cross, the first that had been won by a soldier of the Royal Warwickshires’. The VC was gazetted on 18 November 1915; Vickers also received the French Médaille Militaire.
VCs of the First World War 1915 The Western Front Page 19
