County: Stirlingshire
Issued on: Return
Date of presentation: 17/03/1902
Number issued: 8
Gold badges, to:
7237 Private M. CRUM
8460 Private A. MURDOCH (absent - in S. Africa)
PRESENTATION TO VOLUNTEERS RETURNED FROM THE FRONT.
On Monday evening, in the Dobbie Hall, the active service volunteers who had returned from the front were entertained and gold badges and purses of sovereigns were presented to them. The I Company of the 4th V.B. Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders assembled at the Drill Hall, and, with the pipe band, marched to the hall. Mr James Jones, Torwood Hall, occupied the chair …….
The Chairman said it must be very gratifying to the returned Volunteers and their comrades, as well as pleasing to every one to see such a representative gathering as they had upon that platform, and also such a turn-out of the people in the hall that night, all met to do honour and show their appreciation of the gallant and patriotic services rendered by their Volunteers in South Africa. (Applause). They all read with pride and pleasure, and with swelling hearts, the heroic and daring deeds of their forefathers, whose prowess, genius, perseverance, and determination had not only won for us the liberties we now possess, but had extended these liberties or the principles of them over almost the whole earth, built up a mighty Empire, not for enslaving, nor aggrandisement, but whose foundations are justice and freedom, and, compared with which the greatest ancient empires they knew of, such as the Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, or even the great Roman Empire, dwarfed into insignificance. (Applause). While they honoured and revered their forefathers for their valour and self-denying deeds, for like qualities and deeds was it not becoming of them, yea, was it not a duty to recognise their sons and brothers who sat beside them, and who in the course of time would become the forefathers of future generations, who, answering their country’s call to arms in its hour of need and danger, left wives and children, dear friends, comfortable homes, and in many cases good situations and bright prospects, and for what? – to meet, and in deadly conflict, the most wily and determined foe our country had ever encountered, and to face hardships, disease, maiming, and death in all its worst forms, and who, by their valour and endurance had assisted, yea, mightily assisted, to uphold and consolidate and even extend this already vast and growing empire. (Applause). Referring to what the volunteers had done, he said they had marched and counter-marched through the Orange Free State and Transvaal – over shifting sand, muddy tracts, long grass, and dense scrub, and over mountain and valley, and that without shelter, nearly 2000 miles. This was more even than Peninsular veterans were called upon to perform. Then through the extreme of heat and cold, hunger and thirst, they had fought, no less than five battles in one week, or fought five days consecutively, and held in check and drove back Prinsloo’s army of 8000 men, and marched 35 miles in fourteen hours – a feat never surpassed and rarely equalled in the annals of war. (Applause). This was a fit and proper time to meet and show appreciation of their self-denying and patriotic services when so many of the people of the continent of Europe, aye, and beyond it, belittled their services and charged them with cowardice, brutality, and even inhumanity to women and children, while from every quarter came the testimony that they were invariably kind and considerate to them. (Applause). If these charges were confined to foreigners they might put them down to ignorance, malice, jealousy, and envy – the green-eyed monster – and could well afford to disregard them, but when the same thing was done by a few of their own leading politicians and newspaper and periodical writers, their hearts burned with indignation within them to know that such dastardly accusations were made upon the flimsiest of evidence, and in most cases were pure fabrications and downright falsehoods, and what is almost even worse, the perversion of facts. In any other country in Europe but their own, these men would require to make good their charges or suffer fine and imprisonment, and but for the freedom, loving people they were of speech and pen, these foul accusations would not dare be made. But after all these men were well-known, and might be easily classed the ignorant, gullible, and unthinking – the fanatical partisan whose judgement was so warped that the plainest teachings of past and present history were perverted and lost upon them, the hirelings and paid enemies of their country who were unworthy of the liberty and protection this free country afforded them. Despite all these base slanders never in the history of our country had it been so well represented in war by the intelligent, well-behaved, brave, and magnanimous manhood of our nation, and the men who sat beside them that night were fair representatives of such. (Applause). He had been entrusted with the honour of conveying to these Volunteers from the people of Larbert parish their appreciation of their gallant services, and to ask them to accept as a token of such appreciation these gifts which lay before him, and which had been so generously subscribed for by the people of Larbert parish. Addressing the men, he said – Permit me to express the hope that each and all of you will be long spared to wear these badges with honour, and hand them down to your children’s children that they may be able to look back in future years with pride upon their fathers who so worthily deserved them. (Loud applause).
The presentations were then made in due form to the following recipients: – Sgt. WILKIE, L.-Cpl. KAY, L.-Cpl. READING, Pte. ROBERTSON (Lovat’s Scouts), and Pte. CRUM. The Chairman intimating that those for Ptes. MURDOCH, PATON, and McGORRAM who are still at the front would be handed them on their return home.
Sergeant WILKIE returned thanks on behalf of himself and his comrades. In doing so he said that the manner in which their services had been appreciated and recognised that evening made them feel they had been admirably rewarded for what they had done. Since they had come home their earnest desire had been that this war might soon be brought to an honourable conclusion, and their hearts went out to those of their comrades who were still fighting at the front. In reading the daily papers one would gather that the conduct of “Tommy Atkins” was frequently anything but creditable to him, but he (Sergeant WILKIE) could vouch for the fact that the British “Tommies” had done credit not only to the nation but also to themselves. (Applause). Again he wished to thank them for the very hearty and kind way they had treated his comrades and himself that evening. (Applause).
Captain Ferguson, in supplementing Sergeant WILKIE’s remarks, said that a great statesman had been credited with the remark that “the unexpected always happened”, and had anyone told them three years ago that such a gathering as that would be held in a grand hall like that, erected through the munificence of one of their citizens, for a demonstration of this kind, they would have been fought to be romancing. Events had, however, been moving fast these last three years. After referring to the ready response for active service which had been given in the district, he said that on the platform that evening they had several of their comrades of the 1st Company, the 2nd Company they hoped to welcome home soon, and the 3rd had lately departed for the front. In all they numbered over 300 men, besides those who had enlisted in the Scottish Horse, Lovat’s Scouts, and other regiments, and were now fighting at the front. He wished to thank Mr Jones and the other gentlemen who had been the means of getting up this presentation, and he was sure they all deeply appreciated the honour that was being done them that evening. His friend Sergeant WILKIE could have given them, had time permitted, many interesting experiences of camp life, and from him and others had been received many interesting letters, but the most interesting had been the published ones. He was speaking the truth when he said that his comrades who had been at the front had never regretted going, and, if necessary, one and all were ready to go again. (Applause). The difficulty in the past had not been in getting men, but in making a selection. He concluded by saying that although the returning volunteers throughout the country had been the subject of various presentations and hospitalities, he could safely say none had been more appreciated than this one. He again, on behalf of the 4th Volunteer Battalion of the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, thanked them for their great kindness to them that evening. (Applause).
A selection of music by Fitzpatrick’s band and a number of songs were given by several local ladies and gentlemen during the evening.
