To record the ‘Home Front’ memories of local men and women from WW2
Mackay Country
Home Front Oral History Project
Active Service
Henry Mackay, Roddie McDonald and Johndan. Young men from the Oldshoremore area serving on HMS Boscawen. ED33A114
Home on Leave
“Most of them – a lot of them were in the Navy. I always remember them coming home on leave. We’d be all down at the mail bus, meeting them. They were hardly home when they were off again.”
Father’s Away at the War
“He worked on the American ducks – what they called the ducks, that amphibious things. He was a mechanic, and he did maintenance work on them. I always remember a story that sticks in my mind. He said, you can sleep quite comfortably out in the open - he used to sleep below his duck - I think it would have been probably in France – as long as you made a hole in the ground for your hip-bone to go into.”
Willie Campbell & Donnie Munro from Durness. ED29A305
Hughie McLeod, Tom ?? and Henry Mackay in naval uniform. Men from the Oldshoremore area who served in the Navy. ED33A60
Hector Stewart from Durness in naval uniform. ED29A376
Henry Mackay and Calum Maclean in naval uniform. Kinlochbervie Area. ED33A30
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During World War II. Somewhere in the Mediterranean - John Campbell is on the right of the back row. ED31A13
Around 1940. Callum McLeod of Kinlochbervie in RAF uniform. Callum was based in Thurso and Durness.
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Murdo Macleod, Kinlochbervie, around 1940. ED33154
ED15M – Murdo Macleod in North Africa during WWII.
Photograph taken by Bert Mackay. ED33A144
Sandy Forbes at about 17 years old outside his Mother’s home – Keeper’s Cottage, Achnaduich, Invershin. Sandy was training with the Air Training Corps to be a pilot when he was called up into the army. His Mother used to do washing and ironing for the troops training at the Battle School at Altnagar, near Invershin – on Andrew Carnegie’s Estate. The troops who were training came to the house.
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Taken in 1944 at Barnard Castle Training Camp in England. This is Sandy and friends at the end of training for the Royal Armoured Division. After their training they never saw each other again. Back: Left – Sandy Forbes; Jaffy; John; Kit. Front: Left – Harry; Dave; Phil. ISTF0013F
1944 - Barnard Castle, England, where Sandy did his training. This picture was taken at the end of the training. Sandy’s tank is ‘No. 5’ tank at the front of the picture. There were very few pictures taken overseas since there was not time and very few cameras. During the last nine months of the War Sandy served in “the Tanks”, looking after German Prisoners of War. He drove a Sherman Tank. ISTF0013A
Sandy Forbes in 1990’s at The Tank Museum in Dorest beside a Sherman Tank – the type which he drove during World War II. They were driven using periscopes with the hatches closed. Each tanks weights about 33 tons. ISTF0013G
“So many lives were sacrificed – it is important to remember”
A friend of Sandy’s – Bruce Ross of the 4th battalion of Seaforth Highlanders – was captured at St Valery in 1940. He spent 4 years as a POW. In 1945 these POWs were forced to march 1,200 miles on foot ahead of the advancing Russian troops. He recalls that they arrived at a farm one night. The German soldiers wanted to put the POWs in the byre. They forced the farmer at gunpoint to put the animals outside. There was no food for the prisoners. They scraped the wheat seeds from among the cobbles. Between them they collected enough to wash in boiling water to clean the wheat. Then they ate them to keep off the hunger pangs but some men didn’t make it.
This picture commemorates that march. Sandy has written a pibroch called ‘Lament for the Long March’ which will appear in his book of some 6o pipe tunes to be published in 2006. It is called ‘The Ben Loyal Collection’.
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Hamish Mackenzie married Laura Massey from Middlesborough during the war – c. 1940 – 41. Hamish was in the Scots Guard Pipe Band and then the Seaforths. After the war he went to Australia. He met Sandy Forbes there since Sandy also went to Australia after the war. ISTF0014
A picture of Hugh Thomas Munro taken during the war. He was in the Field Ambulance 51st Highland Division for 6 years. Hugh met his wife May during the war. They moved to Braetongue when he retired after working in Customs & Excise. Sadly Hugh passed away in 2004. ISTF0016
James Allan Mackay was called up on 5th July 1945. His Army Number was 14049529. James served as a gunner in the Royal Artillery. In the picture he is in 2nd row, far left. This photo was taken in 1947 in Bangalore, India, just before the British troops left India. ISTF0017
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