Gordon Craigie

This month, I’m remembering and honouring…

BY THE LATE 1930s, it was becoming increasingly clear that the common description of the First World War as “the war to end all wars” was, at best, overly optimistic or, at worst, a jingoistic lie. A war that saw around 20 million people – civilians and military in almost equal numbers – die worldwide had, in fact, not ended all wars but had actually directly provoked a set of circumstances that were leading inevitably to the Second World War.

Indeed, at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, a British Army officer reportedly observed, “after the war to end war, they seem to have been pretty successful in Paris at making the peace to end peace”. Although the exact figures are difficult to verify, one source claims that “close to 150,000 Scots died during the First World War, [representing] 20% of British losses”.

The Second World War would see another 75 million deaths worldwide, including around 57,000 Scots…

In 1939, young Henry McIntosh left his family behind in Dundee to join the Gordon Highlanders. After completing his training, he served in El Alamein, Tunisia, and Sicily, as part of the 51st Highland Division, before returning to the UK in preparation for the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944. The Gordons landed at Courseuelles and moved inland to Banville before fighting their way through Colombiers-sur-Seulles, Benouville, and Touffreville, reaching Escoville on 14 June. Two days later Lance Corporal Henry McIntosh died in battle at Escoville, aged 28. His final resting place is the beautifully maintained Ranville War Cemetery, around 2 miles from where he fell. Henry was my uncle, my mother’s big brother. His death was a family tragedy, as suffered by so many families, and his parents and sisters never really got over it. He was certainly never forgotten and, although I came along many (many!) years later my mum named me Gordon in his memory…