Captain James McLaren

Captain James McLaren, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He was killed in action in France on 21st November 1917 during the Battle of Cambrai and is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial, Louveral, France. He was the son of Duncan McLaren of Fairnington, Kelso. His brother William also fell ( see above ). Cambrai was the first time Tanks had been used in battle in large numbers ( 437 ) and on good ground to effect a break through in the German lines. The first photograph shows Highlanders jumping a captured trench and the second a group of Highlanders checking a German dugout in a captured trench. The Battalion was part of the 154th Brigade in the 51st ( Highland ) Division and after the War an impressive Memorial was raised in its commemoration. It was erected on the Somme overlooking ” Y” Ravine which was taken when the Division stormed the German positions in Beaumont Hamel on the 13th November 1916. A Plaque on the Memorial reads in both English and Gaelic ” Friends Are Good On the Day Of Battle”.

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