But the pipes out here sound grand. It’s a great thing to be a Scotsman and it’s tremendous to be in a Scottish regiment with its pipes in this land of France. When the pipes play and we go swinging along we feel so much better than the poor, blue-coated Frenchy and we strut mightily proud thro’ the streets of France. And at concerts with the tobacco smoke and the songs and the atmosphere it awakens memories of the great broad moorlands and the swirl of the wind and the clean sky and how we hate the Sassenach intruder. It must be the remains of that primitive instinct that made the Highland raiders come from their mists and their hilltops with their plaids wound tightly round them, and holding a good claymore come down into the lowlands to garner what they could by force and steel.
It’s a great life this and it makes one realise the reality of humanity and how all men are equal and there are no classes and no schisms but all together doing their bit for the benefit of the whole. And yet there are officers and there are leaders and with the most democratic army in the world there is respect for the Officers aye, and tell it not to the labour parasite, there is love also; real deep affection between those in authority and the men they lead.
Well I’m getting off the point and only talking. We have an RC padre in the Brigade and he’s absolutely Tip Top. No finer fellow could be imagined. He’s Irish of course and he tells a good story and he’s always giving and he’s got a delightful brogue. Well he went on leave when the Calais Conference was on and got a divisional car down to CALAIS. There owing to mismanagement he couldn’t get across because there wasn’t any boat at all you see. So the other brass hats there they swore a bit and expressed themselves on the great staff capability of our army and the padre I’m afraid did likewise and then the happy thought of luncheon. Behold a big restaurant. Into this they strode and on opening the dining room door who should they find but Kitchener and the conference at lunch. The brass hats thought they would go and find some other little pub but the padre stood his ground. We’re going to pay for what we eat he said so here goes. But to avoid any unseemly squabble no doubt K sent out and told them to come in and they came and dined in the same room. K was at the head of the table, Joffre on his right, AJ Balfour on his left and all the others round about but Sir John French was not there – only Sir Douglas Haig was. Lunch ended, K sent word that he was sorry that the transport had failed and if they liked the destroyer accompanying them was at their service.
Oho said the padre. I’m a bit of a sailor and I’ll go. But the others trembled. The waves were very strong and the ship was very wee. However they took courage and embarked. Eight of them Colonels and such like were stuffed in a tiny cabin and battened down ’cause it was too rough for them to get out above. They were told that the ship was to start. It whistled and then they got off at an awful rate with unfortunate results to the inhabitants of that black hole. One elderly Colonel smashed his eyeglass, another stood upon his false teeth and the padre found his head on another’s stomach, and it got worse and worse as the boat tossed and twisted and they all got as sick as dogs and they all rolled about mixed up on the floor and when they reached the other side – fortunately for the dignity of the British Army it was dark – they had to have ropes tied round their middle and get hoisted ashore.
Well I think I have drivelled enough now and I must stop. I hope you all have a jolly time and I will write again when Xmas has been and tell you all what it is like. There is nothing about leave yet.
With love to all and best wishes for Xmas, hoping all are well, from DB Keith.
20.1.16
Hotel Folkestone, Boulogne-sur-Mer
My dear Mother,
Here I am no further yet. We had to stay overnight at Folkestone and again overnight here and today we go up. I was not sick crossing but it was pretty rough. I saw Julia in London and Uncle John as no doubt they told you. I met Strang at Folkestone and we have stayed together all along. You might tell father he can draw £20 out of Coy if he wants as I have a balance of about £30 just now. The journey has not been too tiring with the frequent breaks. Well I’m just stopping now hoping you are all quite well, with love from DB Keith.
24.1.16
10th Cameronians BEF
My dear Mother,
Back in billets here again and going into the trenches very soon. We’re awfully busy getting through old work that has accumulated.
I saw Julia and Tiny as I told you and had quite a good time. We had a big concert with George Grossmith, Harry Ainsley, Arthur Prince, Henry Leoni, etc – Gaiety London people here yesterday. It was very good indeed. Save it was rather out of place that the first song was ‘Peace Time’.
I travelled back with Strang and saw Georgeson yesterday and today. There’s nothing however to report. Hoping all well, with love from DB Keith
11.2.16
My dear Mother,
I got the grouse and rabbit and several letters and a parcel and letters from Tiny for all of which many thanks. About venison the last that came was quite good but slightly mouldy – but we cut that bit off and the rest tasted very good.
We have been out of the trenches now for several days and go back soon. It seems likely that before the middle of March the Germans will make a strong push – perhaps it will be their last effort, one really cannot tell.
We are having quite a good time here on the whole and I don’t think I would change where I am if I could. I will try and write oftener but we are very busy indeed. I haven’t seen George since he came out again and won’t probably see him as we don’t relieve his battalion this time.
I hope everyone at home is well and father keeping fit. I myself am as well as ever I was and we are quite a jolly crowd out here.
Today it’s turned out wet but on the whole we have pretty good dry cold weather.
I see that the men at home are being called up and at last we look as if things were going to begin at home.
I hope to write again after but have no more to say at present. With love to all from DB Keith.
13.3.16
My dear Mother,
I haven’t written now for some days. We are having quite a quiet time and the weather is not at all bad. I have got letters from Tiny and home pretty often and also parcels. Someone was asking eagerly who got the ring in Louise’s cake; well I did – but nothing else. The CO got the button and sixpence. The MO the thimble. There was quite some fun over it. Oatcakes and shortbread are arriving regularly. It will be just about spring at home and things will be looking nice. Rather the most interesting part of the year this I think at home.
Here we are very quiet and the Hun isn’t over assertive. We go out of the trenches tomorrow and get the first decent billets for a month. I haven’t had my clothes off for a month save once for a bath! So you can imagine how we are looking forward to getting out. Afterwards there is talk of getting back again for a rest – which may or may not come off – we hope it will.
The French seem to be holding up the Boche attack at Verdun and things altogether look brighter but until the Boche has another good push I don’t think he will be beaten. When he has pushed again and failed he’ll soon own up I think. It’s a good sign in one way that the Hun fleet came out and I hope we catch it and give it a good doing. The Boche will probably be very seasick after his long rest.
Leave is off at present, how long it will so continue I can’t say but events anyway will move rapidly with the spring and time will soon pass.
Hope everyone is well and having a good time. They will all be home soon. Willie will probably get some leave before he joins his ship. What does he think about it?
Well it won’t be long now I think before we get real summer out here. The days are lengthening out wonderfully.
I’ll write again soon. The Division have refused my promotion so that’s knocked on the head. With love to all, from DB Keith
16.3.16
My dear Mother,
We are now back in billets with the prospect of only two or three days more in the
trenches before coming out for a long rest. On the whole we have had a quiet time enough and the weather these last days has been absolutely perfect – out in this Garden there are yellow daffodils; the sky is almost cloudless so I think winter is about passed now.
If you are having the same weather at home it ought to be lovely. The primroses will soon be out now. Olrig should be beautiful. Are you going to stay there this summer? It would be excellent – only with this Compulsion business, work in the office will be overwhelming.
I got a parcel from Pol I think today and your letter also one from Tiny. What is Will going to do? Is he passed out of the Naval College now altogether? I haven’t seen George now for quite some time but we took over from his brigade last time we went into the line.
Archie would be in command of his Bn while Winston was at home. I wonder how he got on and how he is liked. I rather think they are in a healthier part of the line than we have had. Still there ain’t much to choose especially if the weather is rotten.
Well I haven’t any more to say just now, only hope you are all well and having a decent time, with love from DB Keith.
28.3.16
My dear Mother,
Well we are out of the line now for a little while and back at rest billets with the prospect of when we are again in the line all things wintry will have ceased – which is pleasant to look forward to. The last few days were exceptionally quiet. I don’t think we have ever had a quieter time. But this tour in the trenches was pretty hard. Mostly we had snow and trenches were tumbling in and things were bad so everyone is jolly pleased to get out.
And we start a new regime. We’re in a different Corps with the old sector – Col Ussher has returned which means I suppose Col Smith will get another regiment, anyway he will leave us and that is rotten luck as we couldn’t have a better CO no matter when we went to look for him even if it was in the 9th Div. The new people are installing new ideas. We’re to become a kind of Prussian Guard – be nice and clean and look pretty. I suppose it’s good for discipline but though it may work in summer it couldn’t have worked in winter. And I don’t know that we were very much worse off without all this polishing of buttons. Anyway there it is.
Leave is in an indefinite state, some days it’s on and the next it’s off. So I may or may not get home about the middle of April.
I haven’t seen George lately and don’t know how he is getting on tho’ I expect he’s a bit fed up now. Nearly everyone is just when this winter spell of weather and work is over and before summer comes. Time has passed quite rapidly and will pass more quickly now I expect.
I have had a slight dose of influenza these last few days and now we are back resting have been sent by the MO for a rest to a convalescent home. I’m not at all bad so don’t worry but after six months of worry with Brigade and with a new CO arriving ready to get everything spick and span I am pleased I haven’t to work away again for a few days. Things will be in a pretty awful muddle with my being away I expect but Col Ussher will just have to kick his heels till I get back – then there’ll be some clean up.
Rather unfortunate in every way that Col Smith is going away. I lose everything. We had got on good terms and he left things pretty much to me and backed me up but now this old boy won’t know me and I expect rows so I ain’t particularly happy.
Well I haven’t much more to say. I hope everyone is quite well and getting on all right. I may get home on leave soon. Meantime things are excellent and I’m having a good rest. With love from DB Keith
31.3.16
My dear Mother,
I got your letter and parcels all right for which many thanks. I thought I had told you I got the Canisbay stuff some time ago and I wrote and thanked the secretary for the parcel. It was not, however, Miss Forbes. I also got some time ago an excellent cake from Helen Bruce for which I forgot to thank her which you might do for me on the first chance.
Jul has a lot of people looking after her and ought to get a good start off anyway. Has Will got any idea of what kind of a boat he will get posted to – a Cruiser or TBD [torpedo boat destroyer]? It ought to be exciting for him – if he is not seasick quite jolly as mostly they get lots of opportunity for leave and relaxation.
I am still resting but expect to rejoin the Regiment any day now and am not too sanguine as to how I shall get on with Col Ussher. Everyone is fed up that he has come back. With Col Smith I got on tremendously and we were the best regiment in the Brigade. Now we will be one of the best Regiments out here but most of us will be too much civilians to get on with a man who commanded a regular Battalion four years ago – when his time was up sent in an adverse report about his second in command and who when the 10th was formed got rid of about two majors, three captains and several other officers. However, if we don’t get on I may get someone to get me a transfer into something else. All that of course is in the air but I haven’t learned to ride yet and I don’t think Col Ussher will like an adjutant who can’t ride.
I saw from the casualties that George’s lot had suffered somewhat. We have not had so much, on the whole a quiet enough time but I expect now spring has come things will not stand still.
Leave is in prospect but not mine – it will be jolly nice when it arrives.
Well I’m ending up now as there is nothing much to say. We are back out of the line for quite a time now. With love to all from DB Keith.
11.4.16
My dear Mother,
It’s a long time since I wrote you but I’ve been busy. Well first of all we’re away back ever so far and not returning to the line for a few weeks yet. And it’s a very nice country village we are in and the weather till today is excellent and we’re all getting sunburnt.
Since I came out of hospital I’ve been on three days’ manoeuvres which consisted mainly in galloping sometimes willingly and other times unwillingly across country and over ploughed fields. Happily I remained on the horse. I saw George just after I had got back to the regiment. I left him, however, rather hurriedly as the pony went off with its head down at a considerable gallop and I was more or less run away with for about three miles. However, we got home safely.
Leave at present is off. Some time soon it may probably reopen tho’ it may be a month yet before I get home.
I must stop now but will write you later. Hope all are well. With love from DB Keith
Barrogill’s letters end here. During 1917 he was hospitalised, and also received the Military Cross. By 1918 he was using his legal training and working in the Judge Advocate’s Department. One final letter has survived from October 1918 – around the time Christina was arriving in Dieppe:
28.10.18
Headquarters, Vth Corps A, BEF
My dear Mother,
Not much has happened since I last wrote – still in the same place, peaceable as ever. It’s rather an interesting place too – we’ve got a big Boche cemetery here and it could easily compare with any cemetery I’ve seen anywhere for arrangement, care and beauty. Everything is of course primitive but there’s a lot of very good solid architecture about the place and two very fine monuments – not to anybody in particular – but just the cemetery. The whole thing is worked in a design with boxwood borders, massive crosses and green shrubs. There are several of our fellows buried here and their graves and crosses are excellently looked after. I’ve never seen any of our cemeteries to come within miles of it and it makes one rather ashamed of our yarns about Boche boiling down corpses for oil to see how well he has looked after the cemetery.
Stranger things happen in war than in fiction. When arriving through one of the villages near here our people got hold of a fellow officer whom the French women had hidden for four years since the Mons retreat. At first he was suspect so they hauled him up before the first Officer who came along who happened to be a cavalry officer and on looking at the fellow this officer recognised him as a trooper whom he last saw, within a mile of the village where he was found, away back in 1914 during the Retreat.
; Well there’s no news really – I’ve just been filling in some pages as I never do manage to write any stuff. Also I hear there’s lots and lots of influenza about and hope nobody’s got any – if anyone gets it I suppose it will be Tiny and if she does I hope she looks after herself and isn’t silly about it ’cause there’s a good deal of fatality this time isn’t there.
I may put off my leave to Xmas as everybody will be home then but haven’t quite decided yet. How is George – looking fit?
If possible could you send one brace grouse to Miss Rona Johnstone, 47 Ann Street Edinburgh – that’s the wee kid Johnstone – Edith’s sister. And if you have plenty if you sent two brace (cooked) to Major HOBBS, Staff Captain, ABBEVILLE AREA APOS I, I should be much obliged. He was awfully decent to me when I was there and there are eight or so of them in his Mess. If there’s another brace to spare you might send one sometime to Captain PARKER Garrison Quartermaster, Headquarters CALAIS BASE where I was sometime ago. But there’s no hurry.
Hope all are well, love to all, from DB Keith
Sources and further reading
War Classics Page 22