Remembering the Fallen: on this day in 1916, Private Harry Fawcett, 4th Battalion (Ross Highland), the Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-Shire Buffs, Duke of Albany's), was listed as missing in action during the fighting on the Somme.
The Seaforth Highlanders regiment was created officially as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881, with the amalgamation of the 72nd and 78th Highlanders (the 78th having first been raised in 1778 by Kenneth Mackenzie in gratitude for the restoration of the family title “Earl of Seaforth” after it had been removed during the Jacobite Rebellion. Their motto is “Cuidich an Righ”, meaning “Aid the King.” When the Great War broke out they were part of the Seaforth and Cameron Brigade of the Highland Division, but left the brigade when they were sent to France for service on the Western Front in November of 1914, landing at Le Havre as part of the 152nd Brigade in the 51st (Highland) Division. Over the course of the war, sixty officers and 1,110 other ranks were killed.
Private Fawcett fell during the Attacks on High Wood near Bazentin le Petit on the Somme, and his body was not recovered. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, near the village of Thiepval, Picardy, in France.
Harry, from Liversedge in Yorkshire, was 19 years old.