The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7229 p914
21/28 December 2002

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The death of a Scottish soldier: a tale of remembrance

On the evening of 28 March 1916, a middle-aged pharmacist practising in Montrose, Scotland, died of a heart attack. His grieving widow, with four of her children still at school and nobody to run the family business, sent an urgent cable to the War Office enquiring whether or not her eldest son, a serving officer with the Royal Scots on the Western Front could be granted compassionate leave. To her surprise a telegram arrived the following day stating in stark terms, "The War Office regrets ...".

Captain Ronald Rioch Davidson had just passed his 20th birthday when he was killed by a solitary German shell crashing down out of the evening air on 27 March 1916 as he led his company into the line at Shelley Farm, St Eloi, exactly 24 hours before the death of his father, one of the many tragedies that afflicted thousands of British families during the violent course of the Great War.

Serving in C Company 2nd Battalion Royal Scots, under a much-respected Captain R. S. Stewart, Captain Davidson settled in as a platoon officer and had his baptism of fire at Hooge in late July. Hand-to-hand fighting continued in and around the chateau and stables as frenzied enemy counter-attacks were repulsed after the detonation of a large mine under the strongest part of their position. It was here the enemy introduced liquid fire, taking ground warfare into a new form of frightfulness.

Attack at St Eloi

On 27 March, divisional staff ordered an attack at St Eloi where they intended to explode six large mines under German positions. Reinforcements were received, one of them being a young officer, Second Lieutenant McTurk-Rainie, 19 years old and the son of a Scottish aristocrat, whom Captain Davidson now welcomed to his company. Second Lieutenant Rainie had arrived from Scotland barely 24 hours before. The battalion, with its new second lieutenant, was ordered to the front line and rushed to the village of Voormezeele at 7pm on 27 March. In gathering darkness, C and D companies set off across the fields towards Shelley Farm to relieve the weary Royal Fusiliers. For Second Lieutenant Rainie it would be his first time in action. He, together with his "veteran" companion Captain Davidson, led their men towards the firing line in front, silent now except for the sizzle of a flare here and there and the isolated crackle of a rifle shot as a nervous sentry peered into the gloom. There had been sporadic shelling earlier in the afternoon, but the main actions of the day were at an end and neither side seemed in the mood for more. The men began to breath more easily as they approached the ruined farm, preparing themselves to relieve the fusiliers anxiously waiting to get out.

Mystery shell

What happened next is a mystery, an act of God perhaps. Somewhere in the German lines Wytschaete, or beyond the canal at Hollebreke, a nervous German gunner loosed a shell into the night sky. Down it came with all its blazing venom, straight into the path of the incoming C Company.

When the smoke cleared, Captain Davidson, Second Lieutenant McTurk-Rainie and three others lay dead. For Davidson, fate had caught up with him after nine months. For the tragic Rainie, his war was over before it had begun.

Captain Ronald Rioch Davidson and Second Lieutenant James Wilson lie next to each other at Reninghelst New Military Cemetery in Plot 1, Row D, Grave 12, and Plot 1, Row C, Grave 12, respectively.

A soldier quiet and still now.

Only he can tell me why

The woods are green in April

And young men born to die.

Do you feel the spring I wonder

'Neath the turf that you lie under,

Though the thunder and the sunshine

Only reach you as a sigh.