Remembering Donald and the brave men of St Valéry

At 10am on Friday June 12, pipers up and down Scotland will take to their doorsteps to play the tune 'Heroes of St Valéry'.

 

They will be commemorating the 80th anniversary of a Second World War battle which led to 10,000 mainly Scottish soldiers being captured. The incredible bravery of the 51st Highland Division, which remained on the continent after the Dunkirk evacuations and were eventually overrun at St Valéry-en-Caux, has largely been forgotten.

 

Heavily involved in the St Valéry rearguard action was the 8th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, with young men from all over Argyll in its ranks.

 

Surrounded by the enemy, many were killed and yet more captured, to spend the rest of the war in brutal prisoner of war camps in Germany and Poland.

 

"attachment_322514" "" "300"] The Dunkirk cemetery where Donald McLellan lies with many fallen comrades

 

One young Argyll soldier was Donald McLellan from Lochgilphead. His neice Cathie McLellan contacted the Advertiser to tell her uncle's story.

 

'I was too young to remember him, but I know he worked as a male nurse at the Argyll and Bute Hospital before the war.

 

'Like most of the young men in the area he and his pals had joined the territorial army and enjoyed going away to training camps and things.'

 

When the war began Donald, not long engaged to be married, and his friends were called up with the 8th Argylls. After basic training in Aldershot, they were sent with the 51st Highland Division to northern France with the British Expeditionary Force to help defend the Maginot Line.

 

The force was no match for Hitler's blitzkreig and the British and French were forced to retreat to the channel ports, but a number of troops, including the 51st Highland Division, fought a continuous rearguard action against superior forces.

 

Lance Corporal Donald McLellan was killed in action on June 5 1940 at the age of 24. With him was another Lochgilphead lad, Duncan Campbell, who was taken prisoner. Duncan survived the war and lived to old age, and his son Duncan and daughter Jane still live in the Lochgilphead area.

 

Cathie continued: 'My grandmother and the family didn't find out until after the war what had happened to Donald, but we now know he is buried in a lovely graveyard in Dunkirk.'

 

She added: 'On the 80th anniversary, Donald is remembered with pride and love by his neices and nephews and all the family.'

 

Across Scotland, the charityPoppyscotland, Legion Scotland and RCET: 'Scotland’s Armed Forces Children’s Charity have arranged a programme of commemorative events to mark the 80th anniversary of St Valéry.

 

Gordon Michie of Poppyscotland said: 'St Valéry represents a hugely significant moment in our nation’s history and it is vitally important the bravery and sacrifice of the 'Forgotten 51st' is forgotten no more.'