Organisations > Great War, 1914-1919

14
No. 2.
Donald was one of those six officers who fell at the
outset of that great attack on Loos. He was at the head
of his men, and had just led them out of their trench.
They had covered about a quarter of the 500 yards which
separated their trench from the enemy's, and were lying
down to take what cover they could (it seems they always
advance like this in short rushes), and he had just turned
on his arm to wave his men on, when a bullet struck him
in the head. His servant, who was just behind him, ran
up, but all was practically over, and he writes that the end
was peaceful. The Chaplain, too, has written that his
features were calm and peaceful, betokening a painless end.
He was buried with five other officers, among them
Mr. Henderson- Hamilton and Mr. Crighton, near the
place where he fell. He knew the danger of this parti-
cular advance so well, but said he felt hard and fit enough
to get over the worst wound, and that if he were killed,
and it was in doing his duty, it would be well. He did
everything he could in his letters to prepare his wife for what
might come, but he had no apprehension for himself, and
wrote as quietly and calmly as if he had been writing at
home, and this is especially the case in his last letter, written
the day before he died, and written as it was during that
terrific bombardment of French and English guns, which
had then lasted for the best part of two days and nights.
His letters show that he realized his responsibilities keenly,
for he wrote in one of them that as First Captain of
A Company he would be over the parapet first, and I
believe that he went over just behind Col. Lloyd.
He is gone, the truest, and straightest and bravest;
and God grant that the example he has set we may be able
to follow.