STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 27 JOHN DILLON, PRIVATE ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS, AGED 24.
“The bearers are in good spirits despite the casualties and working well but had a rough time in Bernafay Wood which was being thoroughly and systematically shelled as are all the positions round about.”
War Diary of Colonel Otto Elsner of the Royal Army Medical Corps, July 5 1916.
The final name on Strathblane War Memorial belongs to 24-year old John Dillon, a stretcher bearer, who died in the Somme Offensive of 1916. His is one of two names to have been appended to the 25 others, which are arranged alphabetically. It is unclear why he seems to have been an afterthought because although he may never have fired a shot, nevertheless he died for his country. And he clearly qualified as a native of the parish, having been born in the Dumbrock area of Strathblane in 1891.
He was born at home, as was usual in those days. It is unlikely that his mother would have had medical assistance in childbirth. That would have been too expensive. At the time there was usually a woman in each area who delivered amateur help in those circumstances. She would also lay out the dead and offer other medical advice, usually involving castor oil or poultices!
His parents, Maggie and John, had been married in Milngavie in 1885 in a Roman Catholic ceremony. Maggie, a bleachfield worker, had been born in Milngavie, whereas John, a gardener’s labourer, hailed all the way from Campbeltown. At the time first child Patrick was born three years later in Kirk St Milngavie, the father was unable to write his own name. By September 1891, when John was born, the family had moved to Strathblane and on his son’s birth record Mr Dillon described himself as an under-forester.
By the 1901 census, when John was nine, the family had increased to five with the arrival of two more boys and a baby sister. In addition to his immediate family, it is recorded that a niece, 15-year old Agnes O’Donnell, lived with them. She was the illegitimate daughter of Mrs Dillon’s sister and worked as a domestic servant. It must have been rather crowded as eight of them lived in a two-roomed house.
In the 1911 Census, John has so far eluded our searches but Patrick, his elder brother, is recorded as being in Paisley, working as a “nurse attendant” for the Renfrew Lunacy Board. He would appear to be living in staff quarters at the local asylum and was unmarried.
By 1914 John was living and presumably working in Tarbert, Loch Fyne, because that is where he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps. It is not known why he made this rather unusual choice, though some RAMC recruits were conscientious objectors who did not want to fight but were keen to “do their bit”.
He joined the 27th Field Ambulance which was part of Kitchener’s 1st New Army (as opposed to the regular army) and which was composed entirely of volunteers. They were attached to the 9th (Scottish) Division. The unit initially trained in Scotland then moved to Aldershot and from there to Bordon, Hampshire, in September, 1914. It must have been very exciting for a young country boy. On May 7, 1915, 27th Field Ambulance was transported to Southampton and shipped to Le Havre, some on the Mount Temple and others on SS Queen Alexandria. Surely even more exciting! If only he had known what lay ahead.
His job was as a stretcher bearer. Their duty was to get the wounded off the battlefield and to the regimental aid post just behind the front lines. Here one or two medical officers would administer what aid they could before the wounded were transported further back to comparative safety and definitive treatment. It was a very hazardous occupation as bearers were constantly exposed to enemy fire in the course of their duties and this was reflected in their casualty rates. How well they performed is also reflected in the number of decorations they received.
John’s commanding officer was Colonel Otto Elsner who must have been quite a man as he was mentioned in dispatches on five occasions and awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). In spite of his rather German-sounding name, he was an Irishman from Galway, who had trained at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. Fortunately for us, he kept a war diary. In July 1916 the unit was engaged in the Battle of the Somme as part of the 9th Division on the very southern section of the Allied line. The battle started on July 1 but the Division was not fully engaged until two days later. On July 4 Col Elsner starts recording the casualties amongst his men: two stretcher bearers killed that day and four others wounded, two in addition having what he calls ‘shock shell’.
On July 5 he describes the conditions that John must have been enduring: “Bearer division now established on German 1st line valley trench (A.3.C.8.0) in some German dugouts very deep and safe. Evacuation is easy along the railway line in Train Alley on trolleys. The bearers are in good spirits despite the casualties and working well but had a rough time in Bernafay Wood which was being thoroughly and systematically shelled as are all the positions round about.”
It should be remembered that they were in German trenches which, for them, faced the wrong way. In other words, the entrances to the dugouts now faced the direction from which fire was coming.
Further casualties are reported in his diary each day. They almost invariably involve gunshot wounds, suggesting that the bearers were very exposed on the battlefield in the course of their duties and often became casualties themselves.
Here we come back to John. Col Elsner’s entry for July 12, 1916 reads: “Visited bearers at rest in Maricourt Dugouts, but shelling daily and after visit.”
Then follows his daily list of casualties amongst his men. Inter alia it states: “Pte J. Dillon- GSW [gunshot wounds] Head, Arm, Chest- Killed.”
That was the end of John’s journey from Strathblane. By July 13 Elsner had lost one third of his men, killed or wounded. The postie must have been a dreadful sight when he arrived at the front door of John’s family home, bearing the blunt letter informing them of where and when their son had been killed.
John is buried in Peronne Road Cemetery, in Maricourt, Northern France. He qualified for the 1914/15 Star in addition to the Victory Medal and the European War Medal. As well as in Strathblane, John is remembered on the striking grey granite obelisk that overlooks the pretty harbour of Tarbert Loch Fyne and provides a bearing for yachtsmen and fishermen trying to get home. Something John Dillon never managed to do.