When Ian came home he spent these weeks in Teenie’s house at Baravullin. The atmosphere was a mix of excitement and apprehension for the wedding, worry because there was still no news of brother Kenny and a distinct coolness from Teenie’s father, who had no real desire to give up his youngest daughter and housekeeper. Family and friends came around. Calum was home on leave and Katy’s husband Gillies had been repatriated a couple of weeks before Ian.
Ian tried to contact Bob Potter in London but he had disappeared into the throngs of chaotic post-war London. However he had Bob Shand’s mother’s address in Forres so he sent a letter not even sure that he was alive. But alive he was, and was delighted that Ian had remembered him. It had taken him four months to reach Odessa and he had arrived home just a couple of weeks before Ian. He agreed to come down to Oban to be best man.
The big day arrived and Ian Grieve Black aged 39 and Christina Carmichael MacKenzie aged 29 became man and wife. R. G. Shand was best man and Elizabeth Campbell, Teenie’s cousin, was bridesmaid. Jessie MacKenzie, George’s daughter, was flower girl and Donald MacKenzie reluctantly gave his daughter’s hand in marriage.
The minister proposed a toast in Gaelic and then said, “I will now repeat that in English for the benefit of the uneducated.”
The joke went down well with the locals and was received without too much rancour by the best man who was used to the Highlanders’ clannish ways although he couldn’t speak a word of Gaelic. After the minister had finished Bob had to read all the telegrams of congratulations from the family members who couldn’t get there. They were all in Gaelic and the Benderloch folk had a great laugh at his efforts.
The minister then turned to Teenie’s father, “Well, Donald MacKenzie, you always have plenty to say. Let’s have a few words from you.”
“Today, I have nothing to say,” came the tart reply.
Calum in the meantime had slipped out to get his accordion. He came back in to a loud cheer and played an Old Scottish Waltz. Ian took his bride up to dance. The floor slowly filled with friends and family, many of whom, like Ian, were still in service uniform. Ian and Teenie smiled happily as they waltzed around the floor. Ian shook one hand loose and touched his breast pocket. It was still there, the photo he had kept precious for the last four years. Today she was just as pretty as the photo.
The waltz finished, there was a shuffle of chairs and Uncle Dugald Black tottered up to stand beside Calum with a fiddle in his hand.
“Gentlemen take your partners please for a Highland Schottische.”
Donald MacKenzie sat grim faced while his wife Jessie was obviously keen to keep her long-standing promise to dance at Teenie’s wedding. George and his wife exchanged glances as they danced by. Annie quickly passed George to his mother who equally quickly took the opportunity to get up and dance. Annie leaned forward and spoke quietly but firmly in her father-in-law’s ear.
“Get up and dance, you old bugger. It’s your daughter’s wedding,” as she took his arm and hauled him to his feet.
Ian and Christina Black
11 June 1945
EPILOGUE
This story is based on verifiable facts and all dates and places have been thoroughly checked. Some author’s licence has been used in order to bind together a readable story. All the characters are real and all of the principal characters bear their real names except little Tommy McCafferty and prisoner Pete Daly. Nearly all the buildings mentioned are still standing except the hutted prison camps. The branch railway line from Connel to Ballachulish is sadly gone and the bridge is now a road bridge.
I was lucky to find two old ex-Argylls with vivid memory but most of the surviving POWs have now passed on. I welcome any comments from those I haven’t met as to the accuracy of what I have written. Since I wrote the first edition of this book I managed to track down Bob Shand with the help of Tanya Gilbert of the Forres Gazette. He now lives in Grantown on Spey and spends the winters in the Canary Islands. In the same week that his mother heard Bob was home she got a B104 to inform her that her younger son had been killed in action.
Ian Black died in 1984, and his brother Donald before that in 1972. Christina, my mother died aged 88 on 18 October 2004. She was still singing the old songs the last time I saw her before she died.
Kenny MacKenzie never returned to Benderloch. He died of pleurisy on April 2nd 1945 near the town of Bayreuth in Germany while still on the long march. The news was first broken to his mother by a friend in the street and Ian Black was sent south to investigate. The official notification did not come till much later in the year. I found no evidence that any of the 8 Argylls died on the march but Ian’s neighbour Duncan Ferguson was badly disfigured by rifle butting. Only one of the regiment died in captivity. One Barcaldine lad, Alistair Campbell, died in the battle at Belloy and is buried in the public cemetery there.
Of Dugald’s fiddles, three are still in the family. Donald never returned to claim his till around 1950 and it was given to his son (also Donald). My father’s fiddle is now owned by my elder brother, (also Donald) and my son and his wife received one as a wedding gift from my younger brother. There are four more out there somewhere, hopefully giving someone fun. The piece of mahogany at the beginning of the story was transformed, by Dugald, into an elegant walking stick.
Ian Black was not a happy man after the war and was not an easy father to grow up with, nor an easy husband to love. He could never forget. He could not put behind him all that had happened. He tried to tell us but we never really listened. Had we listened more it might have helped a little. It would certainly have made this book easier to write.
Despite the difficult times Ian and Christina battled through (sometimes literally) and now they lie together at peace back home in the churchyard at Achnaba overlooking the loch.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book would not have been possible without the help of so many people. Limitations of space and memory prevent the inclusion of all contributors but below are some of those who merit special mention.
Several relations from near and far, notably:
Nichol Macleod of Welwyn Garden City, Maggie Winterborn from Appin, Donald Black of East Kilbride, Morvern Smith and Hector MacKenzie of Dunbeg, Oban, Lizzie Beaton of Kentallen and Mary Penning of Tasmania.
Old friends and old soldiers:
Geoff Bryden of Cambuslang, NT Quinn of Oban, WS Wood of
Livingston, Hugh MacFarlane of Barcaldine, Dennis McNeil of Appin.
Fountains of information:
Phil Chinnery of NEXPOW, Rod MacKenzie of the Argylls’ Museum Stirling, Jeremy Inglis of Oban, Mrs J Broome of Jason Street, Barrow, Bill James of Canada, Ellis Carmichael of Oban, Krystina Malczewska of Torun, Poland, Freda Clark of Dunfermline, Will Cook of the 5 US Armored Division.
Web helpers:
Immense gratitude to the services of www.google.com and www.multimap.com for hundreds of little golden nuggets.
Closer to home:
All members of my family who helped with old photos, memory
searches, helpful comments and criticism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
TEXTS
History of the 8 Argylls by Lt Col AD Malcolm
Churchill’s Sacrifice of the Highland Division by Saul David
The Last Escape by John Nichol and Tony Rennel
ESSAYS AND WEB DOCUMENTS
Memories of Baravullin Nichol Macleod
“C”Coy. 8Argylls June 1940 Captain John Inglis (with notes by J.J.D. Inglis)
6June 1940-9May 1945 Diarmid H. Macalister-Hall
From the Rhine to the Elbe Anonymous soldier 5US Armored Division
The 5 US Armored Division Karl-Heinz Heineke
Diary of a Prisoner of War Tom Brown
For you the War is Over Tommy Pte. WC Law
Lance-Corporal DE Parker Tom Parker
Death March Across Germany Gary Turbak
Journey to Odessa Jack Durey
PERIODICALS
The Newslett
ers of Ex-prisoner of War Association
OFFICIAL DOCUMENT SOURCES
Debriefing of Stalag XXA Kommandant 1945; Public Records Office WO 208/4656.
War Service Documents and letters (Ian Black); MOD Defence Records 2b.
Central Tracing Agency of the International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC Geneva).
Online database of the War Graves Commission.
Various birth, death, marriage and census documents.
WEBSITES
These are just a few of the many web sites that provided a myriad of little snippets of detail.
www.cwcg.org (War Graves Commission)
www.multimap.com (Maps of Europe)
www.tartanhen.co.uk (Appin Murder)
www.submariners.co.uk (Barrow built submarines)
www.doverpages.co.uk (Battle of Dunkirk)
www.thehouseofice.com (Erwin Rommel)
www.warlinks.com (Memories)
www.houseoflochar.com (Livingstone clan)
www.electricscotland.com (Meggernie estate)
www.uboat.net (Convoy HX 212 and U-boat 224)
www.shipwrecksofscotland.com (SS Breda)
www.scotrail.co.uk (Rail networks)
www.winstonchurchill.org (Churchill’s speeches)
www.amatecon.com (Time-line of Great Depression)
www.bbc.co.uk (War time news)
http://prisonerofwar.freeservers.com (NEXPOW)
127
Across the Bridge Page 16