First World War British War Medal – Private Daniel Gardiner, 6th Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) – KIA Somme 1916
British War Medal – 3281 PTE. D. GARDINER. SCO. RIF.
Private Daniel Gardiner was born in 1897 at New Monkland, Lanarkshire, and was raised in the industrial community of Flemington, near Motherwell. He was the son of James Gardiner and Jeanie Gardiner, later of Newlands Place, Craignell Street, Wishaw. His father predeceased him. Prior to enlistment he worked as a coal miner, a common but dangerous occupation in Lanarkshire’s heavy industrial belt.
He enlisted at Hamilton in 1915, joining the 6th Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), a Territorial battalion that had already seen extensive service on the Western Front. He was allotted the regimental number 3281 and posted to “B” Company.
By the summer of 1916 the 6th Cameronians were heavily engaged on the Somme. During operations in early August, Daniel was attached to the 16th Royal Scots (McCrae’s Battalion), who were holding positions north of Bazentin-le-Petit near Intermediate Trench, close to High Wood — one of the most fiercely contested areas of the Somme battlefield.
A contemporary letter written in June 1935 by William B. Robertson (included in the research) describes the severe difficulties experienced during the opening days of August 1916. Telephone lines were repeatedly cut, the single communication trench was narrow and exposed, and the “top” was being swept by enemy machine-gun fire. On the night of 2nd/3rd August a bombing attack was successfully carried out, but the subsequent frontal attack on the 3rd was ordered to proceed without artillery preparation. The assault, carried out “with considerable dash,” ended in disaster.
Private Daniel Gardiner was killed in action on 3rd August 1916, aged 19.
His death was officially recorded as occurring during the attack on Intermediate Trench, north of Bazentin-le-Petit. His body was not recovered or identified.
A moving family notice published in the Motherwell Times of 18 August 1916 read:
“Our home is so lonely, our hearts are so sad,
His mother is calling for her soldier lad;
He fought in the battle, for his country he fell,
Defending his home he was struck by a shell.”
He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Pier and Face 4D, which bears the names of over 72,000 officers and men who died in the Somme sector and have no known grave.
He is also recorded in the Scottish Rolls of Honour and in the UK Soldiers Died in the Great War registers as:
- Private
- Service No. 3281
- 6th Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
- Killed in Action
- Theatre: France & Flanders
His photograph appeared in the Glasgow Evening Times, a copy of which accompanies the research. It shows a very young Highland soldier in service dress — a poignant reminder of the youth of so many Somme casualties.
Daniel Gardiner was one of the many Lanarkshire miners who exchanged the coal face for the trenches, and whose names now survive only on memorial stone.
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