UNVEILING a rare German gun sparked a moving moment for Argyll and Bute’s World War One Steering Committee chairman.
Seconds before pulling away the cloth, covering the minenwerfer or trench mortar, Patrick Stewart, not attending in his capacity as Argyll and Bute’s Lord Lieutenant, recalled his great uncle’s death, in a trench near Loos, thought to have been the result of a round from such a weapon.
Mr Stewart told the watching crowd: ‘My great uncle John Balfour Jones was a Lance Corporal in the 7th Battalion Cameron Highlanders and was killed by a round from a 17.5cm trench mortar on September 10 1915.