ON Sunday, September 27, 2015 there will be a commemorative service in Inverness to mark the centenary of the Battle of Loos in which five battalions of The Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders took part, and in which nearly 900 Cameron Highlanders were killed.

In August 1914 Lord Kitchener asked my father, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Cameron of Lochiel, to raise a battalion of Cameron Highlanders to take part in the battles on the Western Front. My father decided to concentrate on Glasgow, where there were so many Highlanders living, and posters were erected saying “Join Lochiel’s Camerons”. The response was so great that not only were the 5th Camerons raised, which my father subsequently commanded, but also three other battalions, the 6th, 7th and 8th Camerons. The first battle in which three of these War Service battalions took part was the Battle of Loos beginning on September 25, 1915. The carnage was terrible, only seven officers survived and the losses among all ranks were similar.

There must be many descendants of those who took part in this battle in these battalions of the Cameron Highlanders, and so it is hoped that some of them will come to the Old High Church at Inverness at 11.15 on September 27 to remember their forebears.

There is no need to have a ticket of admission, but it would be appreciated if those intending to come could inform the Secretary of the Queen’s Own Highlanders Regimental Association, Cameron Barracks, Inverness, IV2 3XE, giving also the name of their forebear and his battalion.

Lt Col Charles Cameron,

20 Grampian Avenue,

Auchterarder.