7th (Service) Seaforth Highlanders

From Robert Fergusson STRONG's Photo Album

Seaforth Highlanders - Red Cross Hospital, Duffield

No.	Photo	Date	Comments
1.		Oct 1914	Soldiers of the 7th (Service) Seaforth Highlanders. L/Cpl Robert Fergusson STRONG (Centre). Shows five soldiers of a 'war service' (duration of hostilities only) battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders, presumably the 7th, very early in the war (1914-15). We can be fairly positive about the date because all of them are wearing obsolescent Slade-Wallace equipment belts, and spats that were both quickly replaced when the battalion's deployed to France. I'm quite intrigued as they appear to have been issued with 'drab' (i.e. brownish) khaki wool kilts and drab hose, plus a form of plain leather day sporran. The khaki woollen kilts were an emergency stop gap and replaced as soon as possible with kilts of Mackenzie sett, so this seems to me to be a quite rare image. There were also khaki cotton kilt aprons with front pockets issued to protect real tartan kilts from mud and give a degree of camouflage, but we can see here quite clearly that these are drab khaki woollen kilts of the emergency pattern described. See: Use of Drab Kilts [Frogsmile courtesy Great War Forum]
2.		1914	7th Seaforth Highlanders
3.		1914	Rushmore, Aldershot. Soldiers of the 7th Seaforth Highlanders
4.		?	Barracks
5.		?	Unidentified Sergeant, 7th Seaforths
6.		Jan 1915	Officers of the 7th Seaforth Highlanders. Alton, Hants.
7.		Jan 1915	Sergeants of the 7th Seaforth Highlanders. Alton, Hants.
8.		Jan 1915	"C" Company of the 7th Seaforth Highlanders. Alton, Hants.
9.		Oct 1916	Cpl Robert Fergusson STRONG
10.		1916	"Pictures in the Fire". Highlanders pipe themselves back from the trenches [Official Photograph, "Daily Mail" War Pictures].
11.		1916	"Findlater" exploit with mouth organs. Highlanders Rallied by Tunes Under Fire. S/2085 CQMS Ernest Samuel BEECH, DCM, Killed in action on the 12th October 1916. Commemorated on Thiepval Memorial. [7th Seaforths, Roll of Honour] Lest we forget. S/8244 Cpl James Alfred VICKERY, DCM, Killed (Missing) in action on the 13 September 1917. Commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial. [Great War Forum] Lest we forget.
12.		?	Unidentified Soldier.
13.		?	Unidentified Soldier. The CQMS has had his 'survivors' celebratory portrait photo taken in a studio with a painted backdrop behind him and there is a particularly fine view of his uniform. As well as his regimental buttons we can make out his Mackenzie kilt, pipers hose, badges of rank and divisional insignia, three vertical wound stripes and four overseas service chevrons (1915-18) on his lower sleeves. His curved regimental shoulder title can be discerned, as well as a medal riband for the 1914-15 star, and the two-piece cap/bonnet badge worn by WOs and sergeants of battalion staff. All in all it's a very fine image. [Frogsmile courtesy Great War Forum]
14.		Oct 1917	Sgt Robert Fergusson STRONG The sergeant and the CQMS above are wearing regimental buttons suggesting they are wearing their best jackets (each man issued two), given that until the early 1920s general service buttons with coat of arms were officially (by clothing regulation) universal wear for line infantry. The sergeant is stood outside a typical Armstrong design accommodation hut of the type built in large numbers at camps throughout Great Britain and Ireland during the war. Often large enough for an entire brigade the hut is assigned for B battalion, hut 17. [Frogsmile courtesy Great War Forum]
15.		1919	Barracks, Glencorse, Edinburgh. Glencorse Barracks [Wikipedia]
16.		1919	100 Years service. CQMS READ and CSM BUTLER. The photo of two old soldiers is also curious in that the junior one is annotated CSM and the more senior CQMS, implying that the older fellow eventually overtook his pal in rank. [Frogsmile courtesy Great War Forum]
18.		?	Unidentified Soldiers. Two British soldiers wearing the tropical uniform issued to British and empire units made of a stout cotton twill cloth known as khaki drill (KD). KD was used to make shirts, jackets, shorts and trousers and issued in hot climates. There was an unusual variety of patterns because some were issued from Britain, some from India (which had its own factories), some made under local contract in African colonies and some made to measure by native tailors known in Urdu as 'Durzis' (operating from stalls in cantonment bazaars). These latter operated across the length and breadth of the empire, and many were Indian (under its old meaning of the whole subcontinent) and others Chinese. Both men have tailored jackets. The sergeant on the right has had bellowed cargo pockets fitted to the skirt of his jacket and the other sergeant prefers patch pockets. One has rank on only his right arm whereas the other has stripes on both arms plus Lewis gun qualification badges, whereas the latter should be on his right arm only. Both men appear to have ball buttons that were favoured by hussars, horse artillery and the officers of some rifle regiments, although the latter were usually in black. I'm not sure if both men are from the same unit but in this case the sergeant at left is from the 4th (Uganda) Battalion of the King's African Rifles, whose helmet badge was an Arabic number 4 on a green cloth diamond shaped patch. The unit was made up predominantly from black Africans but some of the SNCOs and all the warrant officers and officers were educated white Europeans. The KAR was a large regiment with each of its battalion's made up by men from a specific British colony in Africa (e.g. Kenya, Uganda, Nyasaland, etc.). The 4th KAR fought in Africa against German troops (who had their own black 'Asksaris'), and their need for some educated white SNCOs in each unit as clerks and store's supervisors provided promotion opportunities for selected men to be attached from British units. [Frogsmile courtesy Great War Forum]
17.		April 1922	Heroic Scots. Monument unveiled near Arras [Daily Mail]
19.		?	Robert Fergusson Strong (playing guitar) and musician friends. The group photo with musical instruments is a little unusual in that it shows several soldiers wearing the hospital blue uniform with white shirt and red tie of wounded under treatment in a hospital for soldiers. The greatcoat was often worn on top if outdoors in cooler weather. One fellow has unusually mixed that hospital dress with a kilt, sporran, hose and spats, an ensemble that I've never seen before and strictly speaking in breach of regulations. Nevertheless, he doesn't seem to care as he is clearly having fun playing his fiddle! [Frogsmile courtesy Great War Forum]
20.		?	Robert Fergusson Strong and friends. Possibly at his wedding 30 January 1923.
21.		?	Robert Fergusson Strong and friends. Possibly at his wedding 30 January 1923. The colour sergeant (left) is getting ready to do his 'sword' dance. On his left sleeve cuff he has at least two wound stripes. On his right cuff he has overseas service chevrons, probably at least four suggesting a man with considerable overseas war service (at least 3 completed years plus a bit). He also wears the medal ribbon of the 1914 or 1914/15 Star on his left breast. These last two items would date the photo as 1918 or later. [Charlie962 courtesy Great War Forum]] The uppermost badges on his arms are the thistles of 9th Scottish Division. He wears the rank of a colour sergeant and so his most likely appointment is that of company-quarter-master-sergeant* (CQMS - responsible for company level logistics). However, I'm intrigued by his hose which appears to have the Mackenzie sett in cadadh emulation, whereas the Jocks of the regiment usually wore the red and white diced hose. From memory I think this was a feature of the dress of Seaforth battalion pipers, and yet he does not wear a pipers plain coloured (undiced) glengarry so it's rather confusing. *Were it not for his pipers hose he might also be the battalion's Orderly Room Clerk (ORC) with the rank of Colour Sergeant, as the appointment was rank ranged to enable career progression. Had the date been 1914 he could have been sergeant major, as in that year both CSM and CQMS appointments wore the same 3-stripes and crown above pro tem (their actual ranks still being colour sergeant at the time). Early in 1915 the CSMs were elevated to a new rank warrant officer class II and the plain crown adopted as badge of rank, leaving just the CQMS unchanged. [Frogsmile courtesy Great War Forum]
22.		?	Friends of Robert Fergusson Strong. Possibly at his wedding 30 January 1923.
23.		Sep 1923	Pictures in the Fire. H.R.H The Prince of Wales and Officers of the Seaforths. [The Tattler, No. 1158, September 5, 1923].

No.	Photo	Date	Comments
24.		1916	Red Cross Hospital, Duffield
25.		1916	Unknown soldiers. This shows two British soldiers at the main gate of Duffield Red Cross Hospital where there is a flagstaff in the middle distance on the right that generally flys the BRC Red Cross on white ground. You can see the gate in the photo of Duffield Red Cross Hospital. Virtually all your hospital photos almost certainly show Duffield so you appear to have quite a rare collection connected with that institution during its existence. [Frogsmile courtesy Great War Forum]
26.		1916	Duffield Hospital. Robert Fergusson STRONG sitting in front smoking a pipe. What is the nurse holding or standing behind (centre)? It's either a doll or pottery representation of one the Queen's (Mary of Teck, or Alexandra of Denmark). Given her association with nursing the latter seems likely as she formed Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) plus its Territorial Force (and separate) equivalent. Pottery figurines of that type had been affordable and so popular since figurines of Queen Victoria and John Bull graced the mantelpiece of every patriotic working home. [Frogsmile courtesy Great War Forum]
27.		1916	Duffield Hospital. Robert Fergusson STRONG sitting on right - playing guitar?
28.		1916	Red Cross Hospital, Duffield.
29.		1916	Red Cross Hospital, Duffield. Robert Fergusson Strong, back row, fourth from left.
30.		1916	Red Cross Hospital, Duffield.
31.		1916	Red Cross Hospital, Duffield. Robert Fergusson STRONG, back row, fourth from right.
32.		?	Red Cross Hospital, Duffield. Robert Fergusson STRONG, front, second from left.
33.		?	Red Cross Hospital, Duffield. Cpl Robert Fergusson STRONG, back row, first on right.
34.		?	Unknown nurse. Mary Ann STRONG, nee THOMPSON? mother of Robert Fergusson STRONG.
35.		?	Unknown nurses. Duffield Hospital
36.		?	Unknown nurse. Duffield Hospital
37.		?	Unknown nurse. Duffield Hospital
38.		?	Unknown nurse.
39.		?	Unknown nurses. Duffield Hospital
40.		?	Unknown nurses. Duffield Hospital
41.		1916	Duffield Hospital. Robert Fergusson STRONG, back row, first on the left (with pipe)
42.		1916	Duffield Hospital. Robert Fergusson STRONG, back row, third on the left.
43.		1916	Unknown nurses and patients. Duffield Red Cross Hospital.
44.		1916	Unknown nurse. Duffield Red Cross Hospital.
45.		?
46.		1918 - 19	Three soldiers, Sgt. Robert Fergusson Strong (left). This must be right at the end of the war as the CQMS on the right is the same fellow from the fine portrait discussed earlier and you can see his wound stripes and overseas service chevrons. Additionally the central figure is wearing the later, alternative pattern of hospital blue issued in the last two years of the war. On the left the sergeant is also in hospital blue but with the drab khaki greatcoat on top and the hospital blue armband as per regulations. Presumably the photo was taken outside a VAD hospital 1918-19. [Frogsmile courtesy Great War Forum]