Places > Loyal Lewis roll of honour, 1914 and after

FIDIGARRY SCHOOL DISTRICT.
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(Raerinish and Crossbost.)
Population last Census, 780 (Males, 379; Females, 401)
THIS district includes the townships of Raerinish and
Crossbost. The total number of men who saw service
during the war was 232 or nearly 30 per cent, of the
population as at last census. The fatalities
amounted in Raerinish to 28 and
in Crossbost to 10, or 18.8, and 12
per cent, respectively of the men engaged.
There were five cases of families having
five sons each on service at the same time.
These were the sons of the late Duncan
Macleod, 7 Raerinish, the late Angus Mac-
leod, 1 Raerinish ; the late John M<acleod,
18 Raerinish ; the late Torquil Macleod, 42
Raerinish, whose two sons-in-law were en-
gaged, and Murdo Mackinnon, 8 Raerinish.
One of the most distressing deaths was
that of John Macieod, 33 Raerinish, of the
Royal Navy, and, at the outbreak of the
war a. Coastguardsman at Stornoway, who
was bayonetted by a sentinel at North
Berwick through some mischance in the
earlv months of the War. John Macleod
was one who impressed all with whom he
came in contact as a sailor who typified in
an extraordinary degree the dauntless
spirit of the British Navy. Other losses
quickly followed. A Raerinish man,
Kenneth Macleod, 7 Raerinish, fell in the
duel between the "Carmania" and the
"Cap Trafalgar," and a Crossbost man,
Alex. Mackenzie, 4 Crossbost, was the first
man of the Lewis Mountain Battery to
fall. . ,
As the war went on men who had been born m the district
Mr A. G. BURNS, Fidig^ry Schoolhouse.
joined up from North America, South America, and Aus-
tralia. It was touching to read letters from some of these to
their parents communicating their intention, and explaining
that they considered it their duty to "do
their bit." Long may our country breed
such sons ! As remarkable a case as any
of these was that of Roderick Thomson, 29
Raerinish, who left Fidigary School in
September at the age of fourteen, entered
the Nicolson Institute, obtained the Inter-
mediate Certificate in April, joined the
Army three months later, and in three
months more was in the trenches in France
at the age of fifteen.
Several men belonging to the district
were interned in Holland at the time of
the capture of Antwerp by the Germans,
four more at least were prisoners in Ger-
many, two of whom were forced to work in
the trenches on the German front against
the Russians. Another of the four made
his escape from Germany to Holland, at
the third attempt, and just prior to the
Armistice. Tins was Murdo Macmillan,
17 Crossbost, and he was accompanied by
an Australian and a Londoner. They tra-
velled by night and hid by day, and after
suffering many hardship succeeded in
getting across the frontier. The fourth,
who was a wounded prisoner, lay for a
considerable time in an hospital in Ger-
many, and on his recovery was transferred to Saxony, and
there employed under a farmer in agricultural work. His