Wounded on the Somme, then Intelligence 1914-18

[dante]

1915 Star Trio to Captain Leslie Booth Mackay
6th Battalion Royal Lancaster Regiment and Intelligence Corps

Wounded in the ‘V.C. action’ at Bazentin-le-Petit, 30 July 1916.

Leslie Booth Mackay was born on 20 September 1883 in Chatham.

On his military records he is noted as being employed as a Printing works Manager at Court Lodge, Maidstone Road, Chatham (W & J Mackay and Co Ltd (Printers) Chatham)

(His father is noted on the 1911 census as a Proprietor and Printer) however on the same census he is noted as a Musician and Singer!,

He was commissioned a Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion Royal Lancaster Regiment on 18 November 1914. With 38 Brigade, 13 Division, the battalion landed at Cape Helles, Gallipoli on 6 July 1915.

A few days later he was sent to 87 Field Ambulance suffering with severe exhaustion and haemorrhoids. He was invalided to England aboard H.M.S. Dongola and was treated at Netley.

Recovering he was posted to France with the 7th Battalion in February 1916 and was advanced to Captain in June 1916. He suffered a machine gun bullet wound to the arm at Bazentin-le-Petit, Somme, on 30 July 1916 - the same day Private James Miller of the 7th Battalion won the Victoria Cross (interesting the RLR museum does not know who gave James the message or who he gave it to??).

After convalescing in England, he returned to France in July 1917 on probation with the Intelligence Corps, 1st Cavalry Division, graded 2nd Class Staff Lieutenant on the General List and appointed 3rd Class Agent on 12 August 1917. He was demobilised from the Intelligence Corps, Cavalry Division on 9 April 1919.
In 1923 he founded the Chatham Rotary club and alongside his brothers was a Director of the family printers, his love of music also continued a the founder of the Leslie MacKay choir based in Chatham, England

He died in Chatham in 1970

 

Edited January 20, 2016 by dante

[peter monahan]

One tends to forget that significant numbers of the officers and men wounded in action were later returned to duties other than front line service.  My research into the CEF suggests that by 1917-18 tens of thousands of men were engaged in carrying parties, construction of trenches and roads and so on, having been judged fit for duty but not for the trenches.  Presumably any able officer so judged could take the place of a fitter men in an important but less demanding 'rear echelon' job.  In fact, I suspect that many of the 'red tabs' heartily despised by the front line troops may well have fit this description.  I wonder if McKay was one such.

[dante]

Cheers Peter, I would guess a great deal were re-cycled through HQs and Training regiments and (as I have a few) those with trench foot and "cold"  related injuries by sending them to Mespot or Africa!!