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CAPTAIN THOMAS FERGUSON 6 Battalion Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) Thomas Ferguson was born into a farming family in Perth in 1881 to William Scott Ferguson and Juliana Henrietta (nee Scott). At the time the family was living at 49 York Place, Tibbermore and William Ferguson was a merchant of manure and seeds and a farmer of 20 acres. Thomas had an older brother, Charles S, born in 1880 in Perth. His younger siblings, Julia W (born 1884), William S (1885) and Harry (1887) were all born in Scone. By the time of the 1891 census the family were living at Picktonshill Farm House, Scone where William was a farmer. The 10 year old Thomas, however, was not living at home. He was a boarder at Clifton Bank School in St Andrews. Later on he and his brother William attended Reading School in Berkshire, England. At the age of 20, Thomas was back at Picktonshill Farm House and working with his father as a clerk/farmer. In 1908 he married Annie White Stewart in Perth. Annie had been born in 1885 and her parents, James and Annie Stewart of Mains of Airleywight, Auchtergaven, Perthshire, were also farmers. In the 1911 census, three years after their marriage, Thomas and Annie are shown to be living at West Kinnochtry, Kettins. Thomas was a farmer. Also living in the house at the time were their son, William Stewart (born 1909 in Carghill), a cook and a nurse/housemaid. Later that year, in October 1911, their daughter, Ann Blanche Scott, was born. In February 1913 Annie travelled with their 2 children from Glasgow to New York on board the ‘Cameronia’. Their final destination was recorded as Kansas. They came back to Scotland but returned to New York in 1919. Thomas Ferguson joined the 6 Black Watch in 1915 and arrived in France from the depot on 21 August 1916. The 6 Bn had relieved the New Zealanders and taken over the front line in front of the ruins of Houpline (Belgium). Records show that, at time, the area was quiet. The Battalion spent their time altering trenches and preparing concrete dugouts before having ten days in a rest camp at Bailleul. Another spell in the trenches at Chapelle d’Armentieres (Northern France) and then the 6 Bn had the last 5 days of September in billets at Meteren. They left by train on the 30 September 1916 from Bailleul for another tour of duty in the Somme area. In October 1916 they moved from Vauchelles to Louvencourt and on 17 October they arrived at Forceville. Their objective was to attack and capture the village of Beaumont, Hamel, 6 miles away. The Battalion had to dig assembly trenches, extra shelters and forward positions and to rehearse the attack. The weather conditions were appalling, which meant the trenches were constantly filling in and becoming silted up with mud. The attack was planned for 25 October 1916, but was postponed because of the continuous wet weather. Conditions at Beaumont Hamel The Battalion continued to rehearse its part in the attack on taped ground in the neighbouring areas. On 5 November 1916 they moved to Rancheval and on 11 November 1916 to Mailly Wood in preparation for the attack, which had been fixed for the following night. The Battalion strength was 29 officers and 666 other ranks. Zero hour was 5:45am on 13 November 1916 and was notified by the explosion of a mine in front of the 152th Brigade (left side). 6 Bn Black Watch were part of the 153th Brigade, which was on the right. The mine explosion was followed by intense and accurate artillery barrage on German Lines. The Battalion moved off but the ground was covered with thick fog, hiding every landmark. Progress was slow due to the Artillery shells exploding on the clinging mud hampering every movement. Initially there German trenches prior to the attack. was little enemy retaliation due to the thick fog, but as the men appeared in front of the German lines they were met by a heavy and destructive machine gun fire. Men were dropping on every side, making it all the more difficult for survivors to keep in touch with one another. Despite this, the first wave of A and B Companies eventually gained the German Front Line and some of the second wave also got through. C and D Companies on the left had succeeded in making fair progress and some of them gained the second and third German lines. Thomas was leading D Company but was killed early in the battle. 3 other officers were killed with 7 officers wounded. It took till 9:00pm that night for the battalion to consolidate its position, but after dark the enemy resistance had died down. It had been a day of tremendous effort, fighting a stubborn enemy and operating in water logged clay country, strewn with tangled barbed wire and wreckage of every description. Total casualties for the day were 12 officers and 214 other ranks killed. Captain Thomas Ferguson was laid to rest in Auchonvillers Military Cemetery, France in grave 2 Row G Plot 13. His wife Annie, at the time residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, requested the inscription on his headstone read ‘He died the noblest death a man may die’. Thomas, Annie and their son, William living in Cargill, Kettins at the time of the 1911 census Authorisation of Thomas’s headstone Graves Registration Report showing Thomas’s plot in Auchonvillers Cemetery Extract from Cemetery FR 35 Auchonvillers Military France Extract from 6 Bn Black Watch War Diary showing Thomas’s arrival at the unit on 21 August 1916 6 Bn Black Watch War Diary of 12 November 1916 Capt Ferguson is recorded as being killed in the initial attack THE FERGUSON FAMILY Clearly the deaths of the servicemen during WW1 greatly affected the families back home. This is a brief history of Captain Thomas Ferguson’s family after the war. William Scott Ferguson, Thomas’s father, had died in December 1914 and his mother Juliana died in Bournemouth 3 years later. His wife Annie had come back from America, however she returned to New York in June 1919, with her intended final destination shown as Chicago. This time she was accompanied by her sister Helen Scott Stewart. In 1920 Annie, the children and Helen were recorded on a U.S. to Canada Border Crossing Document. They gave their last address as 2121 Penn Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota and stated they were locating to Vancouver Island, Vancouver, British Columbia to stay with a friend called Mrs Pearce. In the 1921 census of Canada the family was living and working on a poultry farm in Maple Ridge, British Columbia and had been joined by Annie’s brother James Stewart and his wife. In August 1934, Annie and her daughter Ann Blanche, then aged 22, sailed from Montreal to Liverpool on a visit to Scotland and stayed at Tignwood, Scone, Perthshire. They returned in December, leaving from Southampton to New York, with the intended final destination as Vancouver, Canada. Over the next few years, Thomas and Annie’s children married; William married Masala Margaret Butler and Ann Blanche married Charles Robert Fitz Maurice Piers. Annie married Francis James Pullen and the extended family lived in the Vancouver area for the rest of their lives. During the Second World War Annie’s son, William, was a Lieutenant in the Royal Winnipeg Rifles RCIC and was sent to Europe. He was involved with his Regiment as part of the massive operation to land troops on the Normandy beaches. The Royal Winnipeg Rifles landed on Juno Beach on 6 June 1944, but on moving inland they encountered fierce resistance. Over a hundred Canadians were taken prisoner by the Germans. A further 64 Canadians, including several dozen of the Royal Canadian Rifles, were taken prisoner on 8 June 1944, during the fighting near the village of Putot-en-Bessin. The prisoners were marched to the Chateau d’Audrieu, a Normandy estate commandeered by officers of the 12 SS. Later that day, 45 of the Canadians, including William, were murdered in batches, in the grounds of the Chateau. In 1945, after the war had finished, the murders were Winnipeg Rifles aboard examined by a United States Military Investigation. It Landing Craft Assault recommended that 5 officers of the 12 SS be tried for failing heading for Juno Beach to prevent crimes against prisoners of war. Ultimately, only Kurt Meyer, a general-major in the Waffen-SS, who had been taken prisoner himself in 1944, was put on trial by Canada. Meyer was court-martialled in December 1945, convicted of inciting his troops to execute Canadian prisoners, and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Canadian Government. He served 5 years at Dorchester penitentiary in New Brunswick before being transferred to a West German jail. In 1954, with Canada’s blessing, he was set free. A book was written in 1998 about the soldiers’ murders, called ‘Conduct Unbecoming: The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy’ by Howard Margolian. There is a mounted plaque in Audrieu in memory of the members of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles killed while prisoners of the 12 SS Hitler Jugend. Thomas’s son,Lieutenant William Stewart Ferguson, was laid to rest with his comrades in the Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in Reviers, France, grave xiii.D8. Thomas’s wife, Annie White Ferguson Pullen, died in March 1950, aged 65, in Vancouver and was buried in Capilano View Cemetery, West Vancouver, British Columbia.