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Scottish Archives for Schools > Index of resources > Leaving it all behind > Unit 3 - Realities of war > Source 2b |
Source 2b - Despair and suicide,
August 1916 |
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Some servicemen, driven to breaking point, only went as far as wounding themselves to escape the Front, but sadly others took more drastic action. In December 1915, a 29 year-old law clerk from East Lothian enlisted in the army. He sailed for France on 14 July 1916 with a Royal Scots battalion. Six weeks later, on 29 August, he shot himself at the Western Front before he was due to join the Scottish Rifles. The War Office listed him as ‘killed in action (self-inflicted)’. This is an extract taken from the note he left behind.
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