Joseph Michie
1/7th (Deeside Highland) Battalion, Gordon Highlanders
Died 1 June 1917 age 25
Private J. Michie – Gordon Hrs
Joseph Michie was a Private in the 1/7th Bn Gordon Highlanders (No. 290425). He was born on 29 January 1892 at Maryculter, the son of Arthur Michie (a native of Kincardine O’Neil) and Mrs Mary Michie (born in Fyvie). The couple had married at Kincardine O’Neil in 1884, at which time Arthur was a farm servant at Mains of Findrack. In 1901 the Michies were in Laurencekirk. At that point there were at least seven children of the family, of whom Joseph was the middle child. Later, Arthur was employed as a cattleman at West Maldron, Torphins, and Mary (at least from about 1917) came to reside at Powdagie, Craigmyle, Torphins. By 1911, Joseph Michie was working as a farm horseman at Lumphanan.
The 1/7th (Deeside Highland) Bn of the Gordon Highlanders were a unit of the Territorial Force having their headquarters at Banchory. After a time at Bedford following the outbreak of war, they were sent to Boulogne in May 1915 and served on the Western Front as part of the 153rd Brigade of the 51st Highland Division (a Division of the British Army famously known to the Germans as “the ladies from hell”). The 51st Division was involved in the Battle of Arras in April and May 1917 which resulted, at huge cost in human lives, in a significant advance ending in prolonged stalemate. The involvement of the 51st Division in this action officially came to an end in about the middle of May.
It is not clear in what circumstances precisely Private Michie lost his life on 1 June 1917. The war diary noted a quiet day, except for a period of heavy shelling in the early afternoon, in which two men were killed, just by the battalion headquarters. His death at the age of 25 must have come as a particularly heavy blow to Mrs Michie, as her husband Arthur had died of peritonitis on 9 February that year, after being kicked by a horse in the course of his employment. It also made an inevitable impact on the local community, as this report in the Aberdeen Evening Express of 23 June 1917, in an account of recent doings at Lumphanan parish church, records:
“At the close of the service in the Parish Church on Sunday last the Dead March in “Saul” was played in memory of Private Joseph Michie who, though not a native, left this district when the Territorials were mobilised, and has recently fallen in the great struggle. Private Michie was a member of the Church, a farm servant at Cairnbeathie, and was a respected young man”.
He is buried or commemorated at Mindel Trench British Cemetery, St.Laurent-Blagny.
Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great War
Registers of births and marriages
Censuses 1901 and 1911
National Archives – War Diary of the 1/7th Gordon Highlanders WO95/2882/1
The Scotsman 4 March 1918
Online sources re 1/7th Gordons
