Trying To Find Scottish Family WW1 Graves in France

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On the 11th of November 2018, which I remember vividly as being a bitterly cold day, I stood at the war memorial in the Scottish village my family lived in for generations as the names of the young men who gave their lives in the First World War were read out by the minister. Three of those young men listed were my family members and it was at the moment, that I decided that someday I would make the journey to France to see where they lived their last moments and where they were laid to rest.

This is part one of a series exploring the WW1 sites on the Western Front and I start my journey in Arras at the Arras war memorial. Over 100 years ago on the 9th of April, 1917 a huge army was assembled in the historic town of Arras in North East France, many of the soldiers were Scottish or Canadians with Scottish heritage. The proportion of Scottish soldiers involved was higher than in any other battle of World War 1.

Lasting approximately 5 weeks until May 16th, the Battle of Arras concluded in a stalemate, resulting in around 160,000 casualties for the British and 125,000 casualties for the Germans. An estimated 18,000 Scottish were killed during the Battle of Arras and it was during this battle of the Great War that two of my family members died. Join me as I try and find the war graves and memorials of my family members who died in France.

Thank you to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the German War Graves Commission for their assistance in the production of this film.

🍿 WATCH NEXT
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF FRANCE: https://youtu.be/6b6Ed_kCyd0
CHANNEL TUNNEL (UK TO FRANCE): https://youtu.be/MjxWaaYztD8
DRIVING ENGLAND IN ONE DAY: https://youtu.be/NhFwqB2N61U
ORKNEY: https://youtu.be/1mdqewBUnKM
SHETLAND: https://youtu.be/92eIJSKrtWA?si=UZY6Uj4YPStlVKd-

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If we haven’t met before… Hi, I’m Ruth 👋 and I recently bought a campervan to travel my home country of Scotland after living overseas for 12 years. I’ve hardly seen anything or been anywhere in my home country Scotland and now is the time to change that!

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00:00 – Battle of Arras
02:09 – Arras Memorial
09:09 – Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery
14:28 – MyHeritage
15:57 – Vimy Ridge
19:10 – Canadain Cemetery
22:16 – Notre Dame de Lorette
23:39 – Ring of Remembrance
28:13 – Neuville-St Vaast German War Cemetery
30:33 – Back at Vimy Ridge
35:14 – Point Du Jour Scottish Memorial

The reason I came to France begins in this small village here in southern Scotland This is where four of my family members left from And went to France to fight in the First World War Only one of those four men returned On the 11th of November 2018

I stood here at this war memorial during the 100-year Armistice celebration And I heard my family members’ names being read out As I stood right here on that day, I made a decision I would make the journey to France The First World War was fought from 1914 until 1918

In January 1916, conscription was imposed in Great Britain On all single men between the ages of 18 and 41 But exempted certain people and workers If you ask people to name a battle of the Great War The names that often come to mind are the Somme The Mud of Passchendaele

Or even perhaps the Battle of Loos However, one that is often not mentioned is the Battle of Arras, which happened in 1917 Over 100 years ago, on the 9th of April 1917 A huge army was assembled in the historic town of Arras, the north-east France Many of the soldiers were Scottish

Or Canadians with Scots heritage The proportion of Scottish soldiers involved was higher than any other battle of the First World War Lasting approximately five weeks until May the 16th The Battle of Arras concluded in a stalemate Resulting in around 160,000 casualties for the British And 125,000 casualties for the Germans

An estimated 18,000 Scottish were killed during the Battle of Arras It was during the Battle of Arras That two of my family members were killed So I’ve made it to the Arras Memorial

And this is to commemorate the men, over 35,000 men who lost their lives in the Battle of Arras and in the Arras area Inside this memorial, two of my family members’ names are listed They were declared missing And there’s no actual grave

The people who don’t have a grave are listed on the wall inside the memorial So I’m going to try and find their names on the wall Lots of cars are just driving past People are going to work It looks like I might be the only person here

The Arras Memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens A renowned British architect responsible for several First World War memorials Construction of the memorial began in 1929 And it was unveiled on July 31, 1932 The massive white walls are inscribed with the names of over 34,000 soldiers

Who went missing in action in the Arras sector during the spring of 1916 to August 1918 There’s absolutely no one here It’s really huge And there are just thousands and thousands of names listed So I’ve had a look around

It seems that the names are separated into the different battalions that they were in For example, behind me I can see the Wiltshire regiment And all the names are listed alphabetically under People have left pictures of their relatives which is really nice

There was one that I saw over here it’s been encased in plastic Which is really nice because it doesn’t get damaged In the back is the information about the person I can see Gordon Highlanders Seaforth Highlanders Durham Light Infantry York and Lancaster Regiment North Staffordshire Regiment

Over here I saw the Royal Irish Rifles Royal Munster, Cameron Highlanders Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Inside the memorial here, you can check out for a name So here in France, I have three relatives who lost their lives in the First World War

And two of them lost their lives in Arras and are mentioned here on the memorial However, the two that are here in Arras aren’t related to each other I’ll try and explain in a simple way about it for those of you who are interested So my great-grandfather was one of five

And he had two younger brothers who lost their lives in the First World War So the older one was William He was 22 years old and he’s mentioned here in Arras The younger brother is called George And there is a grave for him, but it’s elsewhere

And he died a bit later in the war My great-grandfather was married and his wife, who was my great-grandmother Her brother died here in Arras He was 34 years old His name was Thomas So William and Thomas are mentioned here at the Arras memorial William and Thomas would have known each other

They were from the same small village in Scotland And obviously, there was the family marriage and connection And they were part of the same battalion also William was already a part-time soldier And he had been trained up and was working in the family business He wasn’t married and had no children

Thomas had inherited a business from a family member and was married, but didn’t have any children I’m going to walk around now And see if I can find the battalion listed and try and find their names So my two relatives were part of the regiment called King’s Own Scottish Borderers

And I’ve just spotted it behind here So I’m going to check if their names are there I can see both the names listed there It’s broken down into their position or their rank So there’s different ranks like private, lieutenant, sergeant, lance sergeant You have first the battalion, and then you have the rank

And then the names are listed under It just mentions the last name, and then the first or middle name initials There’s just so many names So, so many names All of these people had families… So many tears must have been shed for all these people…

Beside the Arras Memorial is the Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery Which contains the graves of Commonwealth soldiers laid to rest during the war So I think it starts in chronological order And as I’m going down, then it’s this line is the 23rd and 24th of April Here we have the 4th of May

9th of May, 11th of May 16th of May So you can see how many people were killed every single day Sat down here Just above are my relatives’ names And I wondered why so many people were missing

And I spoke to one of my older relatives who’s done a lot of research about the war And he’s also been here to France And he said to me that basically there wasn’t much left of the bodies So that’s why they’re listed as missing And it wasn’t possible to make a grave

Here at the Arras Memorial, there’s actually someone working and they’re maintaining the graves I’ve seen them going around and cleaning, and also trimming weeds and things like that It’s amazing the care that’s being taken here at this site I’m back at the van now

I’m really glad that I went to the Arras Memorial And came here to France to see it I’ve wanted to come for such a long time It feels different when you go to a place like that and you have relatives there I’ve visited many graveyards and cemeteries around the world

But when it’s your own family, it’s, yeah Really more impactful Next, I’m going to drive slightly north of Arras And try and find the grave site of my other relative, George I’ve driven around 50 minutes north of Arras to the cemetery that I was looking for

And in the cemetery, another of my relatives is buried He passed away a year after the Battle of Arras in 1918 As I drove into the cemetery, I noticed the entrance it says 1918 A lot of the people in the cemetery were probably killed in 1918

This cemetery is a much smaller size of cemetery compared to the one in Arras Okay, let’s go in So, it is bitterly, bitterly cold Yesterday it was around -4°C during the day It didn’t even go above minus four And then overnight, it was -7°C

I can’t imagine what it must have been like back in the First World War When people had to live in trenches in this weather Without proper clothing All the clothing they had back then would have been so damp Oh… It would have been brutal

As I’ve come in, I’ve noticed that the graves nearest the entrance Are dated June So he’s probably over this side I came across the grave here It’s quite interesting Because this grave has a little bit of space on each side

In other parts of the cemetery, the stones are very close together There’s not much gap at all So I wonder why there is that bigger gap for some of the stones George was in the Black Watch Battalion The older family member of mine who’s done a lot of research about the war

He thinks the reason why George was in the Black Watch was because Early on in the war, usually, the soldiers would be grouped together into battalions based on the area they were from That would increase morale And also there were people that they knew inside the same battalion

However, if that battalion suffered heavy losses It could mean that all the men who’d gone to war from that village or that parish would be wiped out And there’d be really heavy losses So later on in the war, they tried to split it up a bit more and mix it up

So that’s why we think George was in the Black Watch instead of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers George was only 18 when he died And he was working in a bank in a local town

And then he was called up and he’d been very upset apparently about the death of his older brother William a year prior He left Scotland Saying, “I’m going to get revenge on those who killed my brother” George arrived in France in April 1918 And a few days after arriving, very badly wounded

And then he passed away from his injuries and his wounds and was buried here The gravestone also mentions about William, George’s brother William and George’s oldest brother Robert was not married and also fought in the war However, he survived And was the only one of my four family members to return home

At each of the cemeteries, there’s a plaque which tells you what happened And tells you a brief history It contains 1,081 burials of soldiers who fell during the 1918 German offensive 1,031 were British 27 Canadian, three Australian, five South African 11 Indian, one West Indian, and three French

And here there are also 18 graves of British servicemen of the Second World War Inside the cemetery register is a list of all the people who are here And you can look up your last name You can find more information So I’m going to search

It says he died of wounds, which we already knew It says his age and also his parents’ names, and where he was from And the grave reference There’s so many Scottish people here Many, many from Glasgow, Stirlingshire And there’s also a visitors book And people have left messages saying who they’re visiting

Many people are visiting their great-uncles Somebody visiting their great-grandfather Over the course of the First World War, over 880,000 British forces died In March 1915 To avoid the unsanitary transportation of war casualties The British government issued a ban on the exhumation and repatriation of soldiers

This cemetery is one of 2,945 locations in France which is taken care of by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission This video and this trip to France has been possible to film thanks to MyHeritage In recent years, I’ve become very interested in my family history and family tree

MyHeritage is a website where you can build your own family tree And search over 19 billion historical documents for family records I quickly found old census records from 1901 That revealed some quite interesting information about my family that I didn’t know

I also discovered a birth record of my great-great-grandmother who was born in 1850 And I found out she was born in the same village I live in now Which is so nice to think that I have a family connection to my village There’s also a feature called Instant Discoveries

This helps identify matching family members in other people’s trees through photos and information My favorite part of MyHeritage though is the photo feature I uploaded the photos of my relatives who died in France to MyHeritage And I was able to colorize them, enhance them Because they’re quite grainy old photos

And I was even able to animate them and give them voices If you’d like to try out MyHeritage And make your own family tree, research family records, and bring your old photos to life You can check out the link below MyHeritage are offering a 14-day free trial

Now let’s head to the next location I wanted to find out more about the Battle of Arras So I headed back to Arras to visit Vimy Ridge I’ve made it here to Vimy Ridge Which is a very important place and was part of the Battle of Arras

Behind me here is a huge memorial for Canadian soldiers So this area was where a lot of Canadian soldiers were fighting And also over 3,500 Canadian soldiers lost their lives here I just noticed behind me here, there’s trenches So they’re just right here beside the car park Obviously, it’s over 100 years ago

So the trenches have been filled in a little bit over time But you can still see the outlines of where the trenches were Which is really incredible As I’m walking along the path toward the Canadian Memorial I’ve seen a lot of groups of French children on school trips here

On the left side of the path are more trenches And there’s signs on the fence just before the trenches saying danger So on the front of the memorial, it says “To the valour of their countrymen in the great war And in memory of their sixty thousand dead

This monument is raised by the people of Canada” The Battle of Vimy Ridge started on April 9th, 1917 It was a part of the larger Arras Offensive Where four Canadian divisions, fighting together for the first time Sought to take control of the strategically important Vimy Ridge from the German army

The ridge was heavily fortified, and previous attempts by the French and British had failed to capture it The Canadians achieved a victory by capturing the ridge Marking a turning point in the war In recognition of the sacrifices made And the significance of the victory

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial was constructed on the ridge And was unveiled on July 26, 1936 The memorial stands as a tribute to the 11,285 Canadian soldiers Who lost their lives in France during World War I and have no known grave The site of this memorial is really, really huge

There’s a lot of places you can walk So I’m going to walk a little bit further away and see the memorial from a distance I’ve reached the point where you can see the memorial in the distance And then I believe this is Vimy Ridge in front And then we have this woodland area

And in front of the woodland area, there’s an electric fence, which you can see here And then there’s this red sign which says, Danger No entry Undetonated explosives Even a hundred years later, they’re still undetonated explosives That is crazy This area is called the Oaks of Remembrance

So one of the combats, he took some acorns from this area And then grew oak trees in Canada And then they were replanted here in memory of all the Canadian soldiers I next decided to visit the nearby Canadian cemetery Like a lot of the Commonwealth war graves

Probably all of them, it has a cemetery register Here’s some information It mentions that there’s nearly 3000 casualties here that died between 1914 and 1918 So inside the books, there’s usually a map here of the cemetery And then… All the names are listed in alphabetical order

And it gives you the reference for the grave so you can easily find it As I come into this cemetery one of the first things I’m noticing Is the gravestones that are unidentified people So it says on the gravestone, a soldier of the great war Their regiment is mentioned if known

And then underneath it says known unto God And I haven’t seen any of these unidentified graves before But there’s quite a lot here when you first walk in I found two graves here Soldiers of the Great War from the King’s Own Scottish Borderers So my two family members who went missing in Arras

This could potentially be their grave It’s quite nice to think, imagine if they’re actually both of them buried together It’s highly, highly unlikely, but it’s nice just to think that anyway Like in all the cemeteries, there’s a plaque with information And even though this one’s called the Canadian Cemetery number two

It actually has 2,241 British 693 Canadian Two Newfoundland, 19 Australian Seven New Zealand, and two South African So there are many British here It could be that my family members are buried here Before I’m leaving, I quickly checked the dates of death

And also the war diaries, which I have from my older relative To check what date that my relatives died The ones that were in the King’s Scottish Borderers And it’s really weird because One of them, he died on the — 1917 And actually, in this line, there’s other dates mentioned

Imagine if this is his grave… Oh my goodness There’s probably thousands and thousands of people from the King’s Own Scottish Borderers who died But it’s really odd that it’s the same, exactly the same date in this line of graves It’s always very emotional and tough going to those war cemeteries

It feels so much more harder than a regular cemetery Because when you go to a regular cemetery, a lot of people died there from old age They’d lived long lives already But in these war cemeteries, you struggle to even see a grave of someone who’s over the age of 40

So many of the ages are in the twenties and thirties And all these people who just lost their lives Now I’ve made it to a place, Which I think will be very difficult to see This behind me, is the largest French war cemetery in the world

The reason I came here is because there’s something opposite, which I only found out about a few days ago And it sounds really interesting And there might be some connection to my family’s names on here too So that’s why I’ve come here I’m going to go in and have a look

Notre Dame de Lorette is the world’s largest French military cemetery Where over 40,000 bodies have been laid to rest Almost all the graves here are from the First World War The graves are slightly different to the Commonwealth graves that I’ve seen in other cemeteries So these stones are crosses

And it mentions the name, The date of death Maybe that’s their regiment And then “Died for France” That’s very symbolic There’s the very occasional grave that is a different shape As you can see, the other graves are crosses and then this one’s not Inside this memorial, it’s said that every soldier

No matter the nationality That died in this area of France is listed here So if this is the case, my three relatives should be listed here So I’m going to try and look for their names My goodness, it’s huge Here’s a summary So this memorial pays tribute to the memory of the soldiers

Who fell in the Nord and in the Pas-de-Calais between 1914 and 1918 580,000 names are listed in alphabetical order Without any distinction made between rank or nationality Former enemies and friends side by side Includes 294,000 soldiers from the British Empire Including English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Canadians Australian, New Zealander, South African and Indians

And then also German soldiers, but not including missing, 174,000 And then French soldiers 106,000 And then 2,300 Belgian And then Portuguese and Russian and Romanian As you come in on this side We have A And then it works its way around alphabetically They split properly

So for example, you can see the start of the name Here’s ARN And then it lists Arnold Lots of Arnolds, people with Arnold as the last name The Ring of Remembrance was erected in 2014 40% of Great War soldiers have no known grave

This monument provides a place for their names to be remembered, commemorated, and honored The first name inscribed belongs to a Nepalese sailor And the last belongs to a German soldier A distinct font named the Lorette was specifically designed for this unique memorial I’m going to look for my family members’ names now

I just found one of my family members He’s listed here It’s nice that he’s remembered both at the Arras Memorial and also here It seems like he’s the only one with this last name One of my best friends is from Germany I was walking past his last name

And there’s hundreds of people who died in the war with his same last name It’s unbelievable that our relatives were killing each other And then four generations later we are best friends So I arrived at the M section And there are many, many MacDonald’s Many of them are probably from Scotland

So I found my family members listed here However, there’s also another family member that I don’t know about And I’m going to try and check if he’s part of the same family tree Because he potentially could be, my great-grandfather’s father Was one of 11, I believe

And many of his brothers and sisters moved to different countries Some of them went to Canada I think quite a few of them went to Canada, America And then there were some that also went to Australia and New Zealand

So perhaps this person was a descendant of those siblings who moved to different countries As I arrived here at the family name, another person came So this place is completely empty, there’s no one here And it was a young French guy on a bicycle And he pulled up right beside my family name

And like out of the whole place, his family name was right beside mine And we were showing each other which names they are And it was his great-grandfather, he was pointing out the name How crazy is that? Like right beside each other

So he was saying his grandmother, he’s from near here, and he said his grandmother is quite involved in organizing events here at this place This place is really worth coming to Especially if you have any family members that were lost in the war Because all the names are listed there

The French cemetery is vast It just goes on and on and on And there’s another school trip here, some French students It’s really interesting that French students are coming here on school trips I really need to emphasize how cold it is Like the soldiers would have lived in the trenches in this weather

In this bitterly, bitterly cold January weather It is so horrible I’ve so far visited the Commonwealth graves and also the French graves And the final place I’m going to visit is the largest German war cemetery here in France Neuville-St Vaast German War Cemetery This place is something else It’s huge

I just can’t even contemplate the number of people here And this isn’t even all of them Because there are mass graves here as well The Neuville-St Vaast German War Cemetery is the largest German war cemetery in France With 44,833 burials Including 8,040 unidentified soldiers Established by the French government in 1919

It serves as a collective resting place for German Empire war dead The cemetery is now managed by the German War Graves Commission And was reorganized between 1975 and 1983 Wooden crosses were replaced with metal ones, engraved with soldiers’ details The site includes 129 stone grave markers

Displaying the Star of David for Jewish German soldiers Relics from World War One, including small fortifications, are also preserved within the cemetery What I find crazy about this place is how big it is 45,000 people are buried here And I’m the only living person here There’s no one else here The whole place

Just me So many of these would have just been young boys forced into war through conscription Alfred Galle And then this was his position Musketier I’ve seen this name, this word a lot And then this person’s position was. .. Kriegsfreiwilliger? A few days later…

I was doing some research after visiting the big war memorial with 500,000 names I saw another name from my family on that war memorial And I’m really convinced that that person is a relative of mine I checked online and this person with the same last name was a Canadian soldier

And this person’s name is mentioned on the Canadian War Memorial, which I was at the other day Which is unbelievable So I want to go back to this Canadian War Memorial and see if I can find this name before I leave France I’m back here at the Canadian Memorial

And today the weather is so much nicer It really stands out against the blue sky behind Wow, it’s so cold I’m going to go and check now and see if I can find the name So here’s all the names on the Canadian Memorial They’re split by the last name For example, there’s O

And then all the names there I’m searching But… It’s quite difficult to find the names Because they’re split via their rank I don’t know the rank, I forgot So I’m going to check through every rank And then try and find the name I found it!

I really wonder if anyone’s ever been to see this Because I don’t know if this person had any children I don’t know if they had any family Perhaps people have come from Canada to visit this And I don’t know who they are I’m going to have to do some research

I really want to find out about this Canadian side of the family that had this relative who died in the First World War I was doing some further research also about the graves that I found in the Canadian cemetery The grave of someone from the King’s Own Scottish Borders, an unknown soldier

Who died on the same date as my relative So I checked on the Commonwealth Graves website Which is absolutely excellent, by the way And on there, I tried to find out how many men from the King’s Own Scottish Borders died and were declared missing on that same day

So there were 150 men who are mentioned at the Arras Memorial who died on that same date That means there’s a one in 75 chance that one of those graves belongs to my relative potentially And I keep thinking, why did I come here to this Canadian Memorial?

I don’t know why I came here It’s really strange that I came here because I don’t have any Canadian relatives I know of It’s really odd I think I came here because I thought, oh, maybe Vimy Ridge is an important place that was part of the Battle of Arras

But I’ve got this connection now to this other relative who was Canadian And when I went into the Canadian cemetery, like, I don’t know why I went there Why did I go to the Canadian cemetery? It’s such an odd place for me to go

And why did I walk down this line of graves? And it was the exact date of someone from the same battalion It feels very coincidental And I just have a really weird feeling about this place And it’s almost like I was drawn to that grave for some strange reason

And deep down, I believe that it could be my relative Which probably sounds completely crazy, Really, really crazy But yeah Weird I actually just came back to the Canadian Cemetery one last time I walked around every single grave in there to have another look and see if there were any more dates

But I found only one other soldier in that cemetery which was the King’s Own Scottish Borderers And it was mixed in with a random group of dates A lot of, quite a few graves in there from 1915 And then also 1918 So yeah… Still, I find that really odd

They’re not even all from the Battle of Arras in that cemetery So before I leave the Arras area There’s one final place that I want to visit I found out about this place when I did the tour of the tunnels in Arras City The tour guide mentioned about it

I feel it’s important to visit this place before I leave Let’s get going I’ve pulled up at the last place I want to come It’s beside a really busy highway This place is called Point du Jour The reason I wanted to come here is Because of this The Scottish Cairn

I believe this memorial is for all the Scottish people who were lost between the years of 1914 and 1918 The 9th Scottish Division Memorial was unveiled on April 9th, 1922 It was moved to this location in 2006 Due to safety concerns from heavy traffic

And commemorates the 9th Scottish Division soldiers who served in the Great War The 30 feet high cairn is constructed from granite blocks And nearby are 26 granite boulders Bearing the names of units that served in the division from 1915 to 1918 I’ll go over and see if I can find the Black Watch

And also the King’s Own Scottish Borderers The two battalions my family members were part of And I’ll also check what other ones are there too So there’s lots of names here So I found here the 8th Battalion, the Black Watch Here’s another one 7th and 9th Battalions, the Seaforth Highlanders

8th Battalion, the Gordon Highlanders 5th Battalion, the Cameron Highlanders 11th and 12th Battalions, the Royal Scots There’s the battalion that two of my family members were part of The King’s Own Scottish Borderers And they also have the symbol here for the battalion printed on the stone The Royal Newfoundland Regiment

I also saw the Scottish South African The South African Scottish Regiment is also there Opposite the cairn is the cemetery Point du Jour, 1916-1918 I wonder if everyone buried in here is Scottish Or, if there’s a variety of nationalities So inside the cemetery, I came across a grave for a French citizen here

That’s the gravestone that they use in the French cemetery And then, like every military cemetery, there is this big memorial That says their name liveth for evermore In the cemetery, there’s quite a few soldiers from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Here’s many unknown graves, just says known unto God

Even though this cemetery has the Scottish Cairn outside And the memorial for Scottish soldiers Inside the cemetery itself, there doesn’t seem to be that many Scottish soldiers There are some, but I’ve come across a lot of South African graves And also just a mixture of different battalions from all over the UK

The death toll of Scottish soldiers in the First World War has been a topic of controversy And some say that Scotland suffered disproportionately compared to other UK countries Around 135,000 brave men and women from Scotland are reported to have died during the Great War

Around 20% of Scottish soldiers who joined the conflict died When I look at my own family, the death toll was 75% In Scotland today, almost every village and town has its own memorial To commemorate those who lost their lives in the Great War

I’ve wanted to come to France for such a long time And this trip so far has been so emotional and moving for me Next time, join me as I visit the Somme The location of the deadliest day for British troops during the First World War

And I discover the grave of another family member who died there