Death of Two Highlanders

7th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders leaving Bedford for a route march, 1914 [X414/162]

Thursday 26th November 2014: Today has seen the tragic deaths of two young Highlanders who had been billeted in Bedford. Private David Crearer of H Company, 5th Seaforths died in the Borough Isolation Hospital of inflammation brought on by scarlet fever. David came from Castletown, Caithness, from where he cycled to Thurso to work as a solicitor’s clerk. If he had lived he would have celebrated his eighteenth birthday this week. Two of his cousins, John and James Manson, are serving in the same company and a third cousin is with the Artillery.

Private John McLachlan of D Company, 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders had been unwell for 8 to 10 days, complaining of a cold and a pain over the right eye. On Thursday he was too ill for parade and was taken to St Leonard’s Hospital where he died this evening. John was from Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire. He was an all-round athlete, with a particular talent for swimming. The deaths of these two young men brings the number of Scottish territorials who have died since they came to Bedford to eight.

Source: Beds Times 4 December 1914