The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry

The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, by D.
D. Ogilvie This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
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Title: The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry and 14th (F. & F. Yeo.) Battn.
R.H. 1914-1919
Author: D. D. Ogilvie
Release Date: May 29, 2006 [EBook #18468]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE FIFE AND FORFAR YEOMANRY

[Illustration: OFFICERS AT FAKENHAM, 1915. Back Row (left to
right).--Lt. Smith, Lt. Rigg, Lt. Hutchison, Lt. Herdman. Lt. Gray, Lt.
Stewart, Lt. Marshall, Lt. Lindsay, Lt. Robertson, Capt. Osborne, Lt.
Don, Lt. Cummins, Capt. Mitchell, Capt. Ogilvie. Capt. Tuke, Major
De Prée, Major Gilmour, Lt.-Col. Mitchell, Capt. Lindsay, Major
Younger, Major Nairn. Lt. Nairn, Lt. Andrew, Lt. Sir W. Campbell, Lt.
Inglis. Frontispiece]

THE FIFE AND FORFAR YEOMANRY
AND 14TH (F. & F. YEO.) BATTN. R.H.
1914-1919
BY MAJOR D.D. OGILVIE
WITH A PREFACE BY MAJOR-GENERAL E.S. GIRDWOOD, C.B.,
C.M.G. Lately G.O.C. 74th (Yeomanry) Division

ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS

LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1921

All rights reserved

FOREWORD
Major Ogilvie has done me the honour of asking me to write a short
preface to a work which to me is of peculiar interest.
To write a preface--and especially a short one--is a somewhat difficult
task, but my intense pride in, and admiration for, the part played by the
Battalion with which the gallant author was so long and honourably
associated must be my excuse for undertaking to do my best.
From his stout record as a soldier the author's qualifications to write
this history are undoubted. His readers will be able to follow from start
to glorious finish of the Great War the fortunes of that gallant little
band of Fife and Forfar Yeomen who ultimately became the 14th (Fife
and Forfar Yeomanry) Battalion The Royal Highlanders.
There was little of moment in the operations of the Egyptian
Expeditionary Force in which this unit did not take part. In divers
theatres of war they answered the call of Empire--from Gallipoli to
Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to France--ever upholding the honour of
their King and Country and the best traditions of the British Army.
No matter what by-path of the Great War they trod they bore
themselves with the undaunted spirit of their forefathers.
The experiences of the Battalion were so full of interest as to seem well
worth placing on record--quite apart from the military importance of
the operations in which they were concerned.
The ordinary reader must consider the conditions under which the work
of this unit was carried out--often under a burning sun and again in
bitter cold, mud and torrential rain--conditions which might well appal
the stoutest heart, but here I note that the gallant author, as I expected,

makes light of the many hardships and vicissitudes that he and his
comrades were called upon to endure.
Again, when we consider how these heroes first entered the lists as
cavalry, were then called upon to serve as dismounted cavalry, and
finally as infantrymen, it surely speaks highly for that "will to win" that
they had not long before the cessation of hostilities died of a broken
heart!
Many a time during the two years that I had the honour to command the
74th (Yeomanry) Division both in Palestine and France, I noted--not
without a feeling of intense pride--the cheery "never-say-die" spirit
which pervaded all ranks of this splendid Battalion.
No matter what task was set them--no matter what the difficulties and
privations to be encountered--all was overcome by that unfaltering
determination and unswerving loyalty which carried them triumphant
wherever the fates called them.
In conclusion of these few poor remarks of mine, let me congratulate
the author on his story. If others read it with the same interest and
enjoyment with which it has filled me, I can only think that the author's
labours have not been in vain.
Further, may these remarks go forth, not only as a token to my old
friends of the 14th Battalion The Royal Highlanders, of