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battle of arras
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THE PEOPLE IN ARRAS
DONALD GUNN MACKAY
15
TH
BATTALION ROYAL SCOTS
Born on 25
th
July 1885, Private Donald Gunn MacKay resided
at 40 Buccleuch Street, Edinburgh, with his mother,
father, five brothers and sister.
Prior to joining up at the age of 29, Donald worked
at George Harrison Textiles, now known as Harrisons of
Edinburgh. After serving in Egypt, he travelled to France
in September 1916 where he was killed during the Battle
of Arras on 28
th
April. His family were devastated and
cherished his final letter home, penned 17 days before his
death. Here are two extracts.
We did seven days in the trenches and it was
horrible weather. I had a new pair of boots, the day
before I went into the line and they gave me socks.
When I took them off, I could not get them on again.
My feet are as sore as ever, I can’t walk about and
can’t lace up my boots and yet I have a larger size
now as I could not get the old pair on.
I was glad that you sent me the shaving soap as
someone had gone into my haversack while I was having
2 hours sleep, way back behind the firing line. They
took my shaving soap, razor, mess tin and towel and
also a lot of other chaps stuff. Of course they might
have thought they belonged to wounded ch ps.