First World War Victory Medal – Lance Corporal Donald McLennan, Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders
Victory Medal – 7177 PTE. D. MC LENNAN. CAM'N HIGHRS.
Donald McLennan was born in 1883 at Lochalsh, Ross-shire, and was resident in the same district prior to the outbreak of the Great War. He was the son of Christopher and Mary McLennan of Letterfearn, Kyle, Ross-shire, a family long established in the west Highlands. His name is commemorated locally on the Eilean Donan Castle – Parish of Glenshiel WW1 Roll of Honour.
He enlisted at Inverness on 2nd May 1905, aged 21, and is recorded as having had prior service with the Lovat Scouts, a notable yeomanry unit raised in the Highlands and Islands. By 1914 he was serving as a Lance Corporal in the 1st Battalion, Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders.
With the outbreak of war, the 1st Camerons were among the first British infantry battalions to mobilise. Donald McLennan went to France on 14th August 1914, landing with the original British Expeditionary Force during the opening phase of the conflict. The battalion took part in the early fighting of the retreat from Mons and subsequent actions during the hard-fought mobile battles of August and September 1914.
By 11th November 1914, Lance Corporal McLennan was serving with B Company, 1st Battalion Cameron Highlanders, when he was killed in action. Contemporary records initially listed him as missing, with War Office casualty lists and The Times reporting him as such into early 1915. Enquiries were made on behalf of his family, including correspondence via the British Red Cross Society, Paris, reflecting the uncertainty faced by relatives during the early months of the war when identification and reporting were often delayed.
Subsequent confirmation established that he had been killed during fighting in France, with Imperial War Museum and CWGC records later specifying the Aisne sector as the place of death. As his body was not recovered or identified, Donald McLennan has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Panel 38, among the thousands of officers and men who fell in 1914 and whose resting places remain unknown.
At the time of his death, he was 31 years of age. His loss was formally recognised in national and regimental records, which confirm his status as Killed in Action, bringing closure to the period in which he had been listed as missing. His service reflects that of the early professional soldiers of the British Army who bore the brunt of the fighting in the opening months of the war.
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