Records Of The Men Of Lochbroom | 031 EWEN NEIL MACDONALD

“The young men who died almost before they had gazed on the world, the makers and doers who left their tasks unfinished, were greater in their deaths than in their lives. They builded better than they knew, for the sum of their imperfections was made perfect, and out of loss they won for their country and mankind an enduring gain.” – John Buchan, Nelson’s History of the War

Records state that he died on the 19th of August 1916 and not on the 18th.

He is also commemorated locally on a family grave in Clachan, Lochbroom: “L/CPL. EWAN H. MACDONALD 1ST / 4TH SEAFORTH HIGHRS KILLED IN ACTION IN FRANCE 18TH AUGUST 1916. AGED 24 YEARS.”

Information kindly shared by Peter Newling: Ewen Neil Macdonald from Newton Loggie was a son of William Macdonald and his wife Mary. They farmed the land at Newton which had been formed into a single farm of 40 acres arable and 1000 acres pasture in the middle years of the 19th century and lived in the house there which is so conspicuous seen from Ullapool. In 1911 Ewen and his brothers were working on the farm, with his sister Jane also there on dairy work. Later Ewen became a tenant of Inverlael Farm jointly with his elder brother William, and it was from there he went to enlist in June 1916. He joined the 4th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders. This was the Territorial Battalion formed in the years before the Great War and had a high proportion of local men. They were mobilised at once on the outbreak of war, went to France early on and were possibly the first territorials to be given full responsibility for a front line sector. The Battalion was truly local, E Company manned from Ullapool and Lochbroom, D Company from Gairloch. One quarter of all Ullapool/Lochbroom deaths in WW1 were in this Battalion. Ewen Macdonald went to France very soon after joining, as part of a draft replacing casualties. The 4th Battalion having been involved in the Somme battles was moved north on 14th August 1916 to billets in Armentieres in Picardy. This was by comparison a “quiet area” according to the Battalion History, but there was still occasional shelling and trench mortar fire. On 19th August the unit’s diary noted that two men were killed and one wounded “by a bomb”. Ewen Macdonald was one of them. He was aged 26.