First World War 1914 Star Medal – Lance-Corporal Alexander MacLeod, 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders
1914 “Mons” Star – 7914 L.CPL A. McLEOD. 2/SEA:HIGHRS
Alexander McLeod was born in 1885 and was a native of Inverness. Prior to the Great War he resided at 6 Simpson Street, Nairn, and later at Boath Terrace, Auldearn.
He enlisted into the Seaforth Highlanders on 7 March 1903, joining the regular battalion and serving in the 2nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders. By the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 he was a serving regular soldier.
The 2nd Seaforths formed part of the British Expeditionary Force and landed in France at the very beginning of the war. McLeod arrived in France on 23 August 1914, qualifying for the 1914 Star as one of the original “Old Contemptibles.”
He was present during the early fighting around Mons and was wounded in action during those opening battles. His experience was reported in the press in September 1914 under the headline:
WITH THE SEAFORTHS
Inverness Man Wounded at Mons Battle
GLAD TO BE ALIVE.
An Inverness native, Lance-Corporal Alexander MacLeod, 2d Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, was in the severe fighting at Mons. MacLeod, who is a son of Mr James MacLeod, cabman, was wounded, and now lies in hospital at Birmingham. In a letter to his father he states:—
At It for Three Days.
“As I have now, after a time, got inside some place where I will get my wound properly attended to, I feel a little better, but the pain is not away, although it is over a week since I got shot south of Mons, in Belgium. Well, I am very glad I am alive, and I can tell you I had a hard time of it, as there were hails of shells bursting over my head and around me. We were at them all day Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (after that I couldn’t say what happened), marching through the whole night and eating what grub you had in your haversack during the night or when you were under fire. I can tell you we didn’t get much time for eggs and bacon.
Well, I got shot just at the end of the day right through the leg behind the shin bone. The shell burst on the road near me, a piece of it going right through my left leg, making two big ugly gashes two inches round, leaving my muscles sticking out. I got away in a troop train after being in an old house, then an artillery doctor took me into a convent, where the nuns dressed my wounds. I was near dead then with loss of blood, but I afterwards wonderfully recovered. I then had a day and a half in a cattle truck down to the base, where I became worse, with my temperature 105. I was about off with it, but I came on again; so there you are, and here I am. I never lost consciousness the whole time, but I better not brag, as the doctors shook their heads at my wound when they saw it. I live in good hopes that my bone is not broken, although all my nerves are shattered.”
In a subsequent letter Lance-Corporal MacLeod says:—
“‘Cluny’ Macpherson (a comrade) was safe the night I got hit, but after I was wounded I could not say what happened. Now, don’t be put about for me. I know how you feel, but I want to see you well and hearty when I come through this and get home to see you before I go back to the front. That may be some time, as I have lost an awful lot of blood, and I’ll take a lot of strengthening.”
Although he survived his severe wound at Mons and continued in service, McLeod’s health deteriorated during the war. He was eventually discharged on 29 May 1918 under the category “Sickness – Insane.”
He died in 1921, his later years marked by the lasting effects of his wartime experiences.
This is a strong early-war Seaforth story: original BEF, Mons casualty, graphic contemporary letter home, and later discharge due to mental illness — a very human and historically powerful account.
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