Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Captain T. D. S. MacLaren, Royal Highlanders, a Battalion Bombing Officer who was wounded and taken P.O.W. in the German Spring Offensive in March 1918

1914-15 Star (2 Lieut. T. D. S. MacLaren, R. Highrs.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. T. D. S. MacLaren), mounted as worn, good very fine (3) £250-300

Thomas David Shaw MacLaren was born in Edinburgh in November 1883 and originally enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force at Victoria, B.C., in December 1914, where he had been employed as a rancher.

Subsequently commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion, Royal Highlanders, he went out to France in early October 1915 and quickly saw action in the closing stages of the battle of Loos. And by January 1916, he had taken over as the Battalion’s Bombing Officer:

‘Special attention was paid to the use of hand grenades, all ranks going though a course of bombing and passing a test organised by Divisional Headquarters at the end of the course. There was considerable rivalry among the battalions for the honour of having the most expert bombers, and the 8th obtained second place in the Division - the credit being greatly due to the bombing officer, Lieutenant T. D. S. McLaren’ (The History of the Black Watch in the Great War, by Major-General A. G. Wauchope, C.B., refers).

The Battalion was heavily engaged on the Somme, being reduced to six officers and 165 other ranks following an attack on Longueval on 15 July, and Delville Wood on the 18th, as a result of which Maclaren was given command of ‘A’ Company, even though still a Lieutenant.

Having then been moved to the Flers Line in support of 9th Division’s offensive on the Butte de Warlencourt on 13 October, the Battalion suffered another 200 casualties repelling a German flame-thrower attack.

Back in action in the first and second battles of the Scarpe in the Arras offensive in April-May 1917, the unit suffered further heavy casualties, and, once again, during the German Spring Offensive in March 1918, when MacLaren, still commanding ‘A’ Company, and his comrades, had to fend off strong enemy opposition from behind their own lines - he was taken P.O.W. on the 22nd:

‘During the fighting on the Green Line, and the subsequent withdrawal to the new position behind the canal, Captains Austin, Inglis and Wallace, and Lieutenant McLaren handled their companies with judgment and determination, inflicted considerable loss on the enemy, and thereby materially helped the withdrawal. Lieutenant McLaren, who was reported wounded and missing, was later found to have been made a prisoner during this fighting’ (Wauchope’s history refers).

Following his repatriation, MacLaren served in Ireland; sold with brief research.