S/41440 Herbert Malcolm Mackenzie
Herbert Malcolm Mackenzie was born in St. Margaret’s Hope on 16th November 1898, the sixth (and youngest) son of Hugh Niven Mackenzie and Mary Mackenzie (née Sinclair). Herbert trained as a watchmaker in the family business, before he was called up aged eighteen for service in the British Army.
Herbert attested on 1st March 1917 and travelled to Fort George, where joined 2/2nd Lovat Scouts and was allocated the service number 6734. 2/2nd Lovat Scouts had moved to Norfolk in April 1916 and changed their role from mounted troops to become cyclists in a home defence and training role. Herbert joined them in Norfolk, making patrols there and in Suffolk. Hebert was transferred to join 3rd Cameron Highlanders and was allocated the service number S/31808. 3rd Camerons had been stationed at Invergordon since August 1914, responsible for the protection of its naval base, while also training soldiers before they joined the Regiment’s battalions serving overseas.
After Herbert had completed eight months training, 3rd Camerons transferred to Ireland, where the Sinn Fein rebels were becoming an increasing distraction to the war effort. Herbert, however, was ready for active service and had just reached the age of nineteen, which was then the minimum age for a posting overseas. Herbert was processed through the Camerons’ Depot in Inverness and travelled out to France to join 5th Camerons.
B Squadron of the 2/2nd Lovat Scouts in 1917
Herbert landed in France on 26th December, but was posted next day to join 1/6th Seaforths, in 152nd Brigade of 51st (Highland) Division. It returned to the line near Cambrai, when a German counter-offensive following a successful British November offensive had been stopped. The Highland Division’s leading role in the BEF’s three main 1917 offensives, the Battles of Arras, Passchendaele and Cambrai, cost it nearly 11,000 casualties. Herbert and two Lovat Scout friends from Kirkwall, Duncan Webster and Thomas Heddle (who had both also just reached age nineteen), joined 1/6th Seaforths on 1st January 1918, as replacements for its recent losses.
Herbert’s Seaforth service number was S/41440. 1/6th Battalion was the Regiment’s Morayshire Battalion, which already included several other Orcadians. Isaac and Andrew Newlands, whose older brother, John, had been killed during the Battalion’s advance on 31st July, first day of the Passchendaele offensive, befriended Herbert. A cousin, Thomas Newlands, joined up in 1915 on the same day as the three Newlands brothers and had transferred with them to 1/6th Seaforths.
When Herbert joined 51st Division, the British Army was going through a difficult time. The BEF had continued its 1917 offensives, and also increased its front in early 1918, to cover a near collapse of the French Army, but the resulting heavy casualties had political costs at home. Lloyd George’s determination to limit its manpower (to prevent further costly offensives) forced the BEF to disband and amalgamate many of its battalions, reducing those in all of its 47 British infantry divisions from thirteen (including one of Pioneers) to only ten. The Russian Revolution had allowed the Germans to transfer many divisions from the Eastern to the Western Front, switching from a mainly defensive to an offensive posture there. Herbert and his comrades spent the winter fortifying their lines to fight a defensive battle there in the spring.
Serving in the trenches was often dangerous, but the conditions there, especially in the winter months, were also hard on the health of the soldiers of both sides. Herbert was admitted sick to a field ambulance on 13th February 1918, passing through No. 3 Casualty Clearing Station and No. 5 General Hospital in Rouen to reach No. 4 Northern General Hospital in Lincoln on 8th March. Herbert needed nearly six weeks treatment there, to recover from PUO (a fever of unknown origin), before his discharge on 18th April. Herbert probably then had some leave and returned home to Orkney to visit his family.
On 29th April Herbert was posted to the Seaforths’ Depot at Fort George. He remained there until joined the 3rd Battalion at Cromarty on 7th June. On 12th July Herbert crossed from Dover to Calais, but did not return to 1/6th Seaforths (which during the German Spring Offensives had been involved in heavy fighting, in which Duncan Webster, Isaac and Andrew Newlands were all killed). On 23rd July Herbert joined 7th Seaforths, in 26th Brigade of 9th (Scottish) Division, in Flanders.
9th Division had also been involved in desperate fighting during the German offensives, when eight Orcadians were killed serving in 7th Seaforths. On 19th July 9th Division captured Meteren in a successful attack which signalled the Germans had lost the initiative, so Herbert would have found upbeat morale in his new unit. However, Herbert’s health was still fragile and he was again admitted to a field ambulance on 7th August. He was diagnosed with gastro enteritis and passed through a Calais hospital to reach Perth War Hospital on 20th September.
Herbert’s treatment in Perth Hospital lasted 63 days (during which the Armistice was signed in France), followed by a convalescent spell at the impressive Blair Atholl Castle north of Pitlochry. Herbert was posted back to 3rd Seaforths at Cromarty on 3rd December.
On 24th May 1919, Herbert was posted to Glencorse, to join the Machine Gun Corps and changed service number for the last time to 192882. Herbert trained as a machine gunner, before joining a draft for 85 Machine Gun Company. It had been stationed in Constantinople with the rest of 85th Brigade since 14th November 1918, part of the Allied garrison in the Turkish capital, while the rest of 28th Division was stationed on both sides of the Dardanelles. Herbert left Dover by ship on 6th September 1919 and reached Chanak on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles on the 25th. Herbert probably travelled by train to Constantinople, the ancient city that was a Christian fortress for many centuries, then a Moslem one for many more.
Herbert spent just over three months in Constantinople, before he embarked on 11th December to return to the UK for demobilization. That process was completed on 27th January 1920, when Herbert left the Army and became a civilian again.
Herbert returned to his trade as a watchmaker in the family shop in St. Margaret’s Hope. Herbert had taken the business over when his father retired, before he married on 4th August 1932 Leila Mary Dunn in Aberdeenshire. They had three children, Hugh, Leila and Herbert. Hugh became a doctor and travelled out to Canada, but Herbert joined his father in the family business. Herbert Mackenzie Snr. died in Balfour Hospital, Kirkwall in 1965, aged 66.