Gaelic
CHA TILL GU BRATH
GU LA NA CRUINNE
PRIVATE ALEXANDER MCCRIMMON
The Gaelic translates as 'he will not return until the great day of doom and burning', the Last Day, the Day of Judgement . You would be forgiven for assuming that this was a quote from a hymn, but it isn't. The lines come from the chorus of MacCrimmon's Lament, a lament for a piper from the Isle of Skye killed in the 1745 Rebellion:
No more, no more, no more returning,
In peace nor in war is he returning;
Till dawns the great day of doom and burning,
MacCrimmon is home no more returning.
Alexander McCrimmon came from Skye; he was born there in 1871. This is not to say that he was related to the MacCrimmons of the lament who for three hundred years, 1500 to 1800, had been hereditary pipers to the Clan MacLeod. But nor is there anything to say he wasn't. His father, Donald, was a shepherd. In the 1891 census, Alexander was a groom in Snizort; in 1901 a fisherman in Minginish. In 1910, at the age of 39, he left Skye and emigrated to Australia where he worked as a station hand.
McCrimmon enlisted on 15 January 1917, embarking for Britain on 10 February with the reinforcements for the 1st Battalion Australian Infantry. By 31 May he was in France. On 16 September the battalion went into the trenches at Hooge; McCrimmon was killed that day. The war diary gives a detailed description of the day's activities, remarking on the intermittent shelling but not mentioning any casualties.
One of McCrimmon's brothers, also living in Australia, chose his inscription, nor was he the only Scottish soldier to have it as his epitaph. It was a haunting phrase for the Scots, even without any Skye or MacCrimmon connections, and one that became even better known as a result of a poem by Ewart Alan Mackintosh, who was killed in action in November 1917, 'Cha Till Maccruimein'. This is the last verse:
And there in the front of the men were marching
With feet that made no mark,
The old grey ghosts of the ancient fighters
Come back again from the dark;
And in front of them all MacCrimmon piping
A weary tune and sore,
"On gathering day, for ever and ever,
MacCrimmon comes no more".
BUINIDH NA
NITHEAN DIOMHAIR
DONTIGHEARNA
PRIVATE NORMAN MCDONALD
Norman McDonald's inscription was chosen by his father, Alexander McDonald, who lived in Portree on the Isle of Skye. It is written in Scottish Gaelic and is a quotation from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy Chapter 29 verse 29:
"The things that are secret belong to the Lord our God."
Gaelic is not really a written language and the version of the quotation I found was spelt:
Buinidh na nithe diomhair do n' Tighearn ar Dia.
And what does it mean? One needs to see the context. Moses tells his people of the covenant with God, and of what will happen to them if they fail to keep it: the anger of the Lord will be kindled against them destroying their land and bringing sickness among them.
"The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."
I think Mr Alexander McDonald believed that the war was God's punishment for nations not keeping the word of His commandments:
"And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass growth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zebolm, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath."
Deuteronomy 29:23
The words of Deuteronomy, describing the punishment God will visit on his disobedient people, seem to describe very well to the devastated landscapes of the First World War battlefields, especially the wasteland of the Western Front.
GU BRISEADH NA FAIRE
SERJEANT MALCOLM FISHER
Malcolm Fisher was a clerk in the Clydesdale Bank, Dundee. A married man, he enlisted in the 14th Battalion the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders on 27 May 1915. After training, the battalion crossed to France in June 1916. Fisher died of wounds in a Casualty Clearing Station in Chocques five months later.
Serjeant Fisher's wife, Catherine, chose his Gaelic inscription; it translates as 'until day break'. It's not part of a quotation from the Song of Solomon 2:17: Until the day break and the shadows flee away. The Gaelic for this is: Gus am bris an la, agus an teich na sgailean.
"THUG THU BARRACHD
ANN AM BEUS"
PRIVATE HUGH MACINNES
Hugh MacInnes's inscription is a quotation from a Gaelic song, a lament, 'Cumha na-h-Oighe', 'Lament for a Maiden'. Despite my best endeavours I had been unable to find a translation for it until Stuart Sinclair saw my Twitter plea. He took it to a Gaelic speaker, Stewart Macleod, who sent a complete translation of the song. The phrase 'Thug thu barrachd ann am beus', from the second verse, means, 'you displayed superiority in manners'. Although the song is written about the death of a young woman, the grief it describes is just as applicable to those mourning the death of a young man. The inscription appears to have been chosen by Mrs Flora MacInnes, Hugh's mother.
Maid of my heart, maid of my love!
Cold today is your resting place,
Your leaves have withered, your bloom has faded,
And they have laid you in the earth.
I am so grief-stricken and wretched,
Missing you night and day.
They locked my joy in the grave,
And neither lamenting nor sorrow will release her.
You were gentle, you were kind;
Every element was in love with you.
It was your soft smooth brow,
That first enticed my love for you.
You displayed superiority in manners,
You were fairer than hundreds.
Your form was without fault or blemish;
Sad is my state, missing you.
You have vanished, star of virtues,
You left the sky too swiftly;
It was the cloud of death that tore you from me,
And ill starred and melancholy is my course.
You were as a guiding light to me,
Radiant star, jewel of my eyes,
I am now like a rudderless ship,
With no harbour in mind without you.
But there is a sky up in heaven
Over which passes neither mist nor cloud;
A bright sky of the greatest beauty
And you will be radiant there anew.
Shine down into my heart
And guide me to the land
Where it is my desire to be with you,
Forever, without want, without care.
Calum MacPharlain 1853-1931
Private MacInnes enlisted in Canada where he had joined the Canadian Bank of Commerce in January 1911. Born and educated in Oban, Argyll, where his father was a crofter and the ferryman for the Kerrara-Gallanach ferry, Hugh MacInnes enlisted in Manitoba in January 1916. He was killed in action on 30 October 1917 during the Battle of Passchendaele. He had already been wounded twice on that day but had voluntarily remained on duty.
GUS AM BRIS AN LA
PRIVATE HUGH MCGILP
Hugh McGilp was one of three brothers killed in the war, only two of whom have graves. His father appears to have chosen his brother Archie's inscription, a factual account of the family's tragedy (see previous inscription). Hugh's mother chose his, a quote in Gaelic from the Old Testament, Song of Solomon 2:17, Until the day breaks (and the shadows flee away).
If I'm reading the cemetery records correctly, Hugh's body appears to have been exhumed on 23 January 1929. He had originally been buried with eight others as unknown British soldiers. By 1929 the War Graves Commission knew who eight of them were and according to the exhumation records could identify Hugh individually by his kilt and his size ten boots.