Places > Loyal Lewis roll of honour, 1914 and after

BURGH OF STORNOWAY.
Palestine sharing in the toilsome scramble over the craggy
uplands and across the wadies of Canaan. These helped to
inflict the iinal defeat which at length set the Holy Land free
from the Turk's paralysing ride.
On other fronts, in the same way, the old schoolboys bore
their share. The accompanying photograph of a group of
nine Nicolsonians who, in the first half of 1915, went out to
France in the 4th Gordons, gives a glimpse of the nature of
the work there, and of the cost of it to the School. Of the
nine soldiers here shown two were killed in action, six were
wounded, some of them several times over, and the remaining
one was on medical grounds returned to home service.
Other regiments had their share of our recruits : a good
many of our old boys saw the war through in the Seaforths,
some in the Camerons, some in the Black Watch, and a
number among the Canadians. No front has been without its
quota — Flanders, Artois. Picardy, Champagne. Baku,
Archangel, Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, North-West
India- On all the seas of the world also they have been
afloat — as deckhands in minesweepers, as AB's on scouts and
patrol boats, as naval schoolmasters, as surgeons, as com-
misioned officers. In the mercantile marine, too, those on the
"bridge or in the engine room have their own stories to tell of
perilous escapes from mine and submarine.
Nor have the girls failed to take a share. In Women's
Army Auxiliary Corps and Women's Royal Naval Service, as
nurses, as munition workers, they have shown the same spirit
of steady purpose and cheerful endurance, and have contri-
buted in their own way to the final defeat of the enemy -
A goodly number of the boys have received recognition for
the meritorious nature of their services : one has been awarded
the Distinguished Service Cross, one the Distinguished Flying
Cross, one the Cross of the Legion of Honour, five the
Distinguished Conduct Medal, fifteen the Military Cross, three
the Croix de Guerre, eleven the Military Medal, one the
Meritorious Service Medal, one the Serbian Gold Medal, one
the Greek Military Cross, one the Belgian Medaille Militaire,
one the Order of St Stanislav, and several others have been
mentioned in despatches.
The School mourns her many dead. Of those who have
been killed in action, have died of wounds, or whose deaths
have been a result of the hardships of war, we have counted
a hundred and one. Our sympathy goes out to the relatives
who have lost their dear ones. The grief felt by the School
for those -who have gone is leavened with pride when we
remember their devotion to duty, their appreciation of the
great issues, their spirit of self-forgetfulness and of steady
courage. Their example will remain to inspire their successors
in the school with something of their spirit of brave endeavour
and their recognition of the high purpose for which life is
given.
W. J. GIBSON.
The Nicolson Institute, Stornoway.