STORY OF THE TYNESIDE SCOTTISH

The Tyneside Scottish consisted of four battalions numbered 1st through 4th Tyneside Scottish, all raised at Newcastle during the early months of the war. The parent regiment was the Northumberland Fusiliers in which they became 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd battalions, forming 102nd Brigade of the 34th Division; the brigade commander was the author of this history, and the divisional commander was Ingouville-Williams (“Inky Bill”) who was to be killed on the Somme in July 1916. The division embarked for France in January 1916 and the first major action was the opening of the Somme offensive on 1st July in which the division suffered the highest losses of any division on that day, some 6,400. The brigade’s objective was La Boisselle where today the Lochnagar crater is preserved as a memorial. This history records brigade losses as over 2450 of which 940 were killed, including four battalion commanders. Subsequently the brigade was in the Arras offensive in April 1917, First Battle of the Scarpe, and it is at this point that this history ends with the departure of author back to the UK.
This is not intended as an official history, rather one for ‘home’ consumption so the formation and training of the brigade and the personalities in it get a good airing. Life at the front is well covered with chapters on raiding parties, rigours of winter in the trenches, spies in the British lines and of course the disaster of 1st July.