wanting to find info on my grtgrandads (ohn laidlaw) time in thr=e army in the o

[MaxD]

The Roman Eagle is a reference to the French regimental bronze eagle captured by the Royal Scots Greys at Waterloo.   The Roman Eagle Lodge was (is?) a Masonic Lodge no doubt full of ex Scots Greys and other cavalrymen.  This may be where the Scots Greys come in to Marcie's family stories, he would have been a member of that lodge.

maxD

[MaxD]

Marcie

I said earlier that GtGrandather served only in UK in the Great War.  Now that I have had a chance to look more carefully, I see that in fact he did serve in France, (with the 18th Hussars) until mid 1916 when his medical category was assessed as fit for home service only and he returned to UK.  His record is badly damaged and many parts are impossible to read - my excuse!.  More details in the service history I am sending you direct.

maxD

[marcie dean]

thsnk youmaxd this is so kind and much appreciated!

[MaxD]

In case anyone else is interested, from his two sets of service records, medal records (Boer War and Great War) and other snippets, I have been able to pass Marcie a summary of John Laidlaw's fine record of service.  His first period comprised active service from 1891 to 1902 (marred only by a short spell on the run) with the 11th Hussars at home, in India and in the Boer War (where he served with the 8th Hussars and the Imperial Light Horse) and then on the reserve until 1911.  He joined again right at the beginning of the Great War and by September 1914 was in France, eventually with the 18th Hussars.  From mid 1916, as a result of a C2 medical assessment, he served at home, briefly in the Labour Corps and from mid 1917 in the Army Service Corps, being discharged in March 1919. Pretty impressive service for his country.

maxD

[marcie dean]

thanx maxd:I owe you a tipple this is so good, havent had mich luck finding out much about how he came ito this world beforewilliam and margaret anne laing.

[MaxD]

You are welcome Marcie but I'll stick to the purely military side of things which I'm better at than family trees!  Good luck

maxD

[marcie dean]

I think john, having been adopted by this couple william and margaret probably thought that it would be a nice thing to do, naming his son after willliam's son, but the boy actually died on the first anniversary day of their wedding, how awful is that so happy to be together, only for that to happen, marjory was already pregnant when they married, she was 19 and ran the families greengrocer shop in 32 giles street edinburgh, no longer there of course, he was 32 which is why quite quickly after that she fell pregnant again  as you are aware they had 5 daughters and three other sons including my grandad robert clermiston brown laidlaw born 1908 4th aug. died aged 74

[marcie dean]

looks like the information on johns birth that I was given by my family was a little mis-information I was told that my grandads name was given to him to remind us all of where we cs=ame from, backed up by the story of the servant who worked in the dukes householdand became pregnant lost her job because of it, lost her life in childbirth, lost her baby to another couple and her

[marcie dean]

addendum  I looked up william and margarets son, he was dead, marjory and john had their son called him the same name only for him to die in the anniversary of their wedding day williams own father was charles laidlaw wife I believe was johannes foster.so now I am becoming confused and there is no-oneleft aluive that I can ask. so I suppose just plod on and prove whar i ca to be right, and right the info ths=at I find isn't.good road ahead, what d'you think?( again this was when I was 15/18yrs old. so f=dont know dont have that info never printed it off did not think I needed to because i committed it all to memory which those days was v good.