THE MILITARY CROSS AND 1914-15 STAR TRIO AWARDED TO CAPTAIN D.B. McINTOSH, LIVERPOOL REGIM

THE MILITARY CROSS AND 1914-15 STAR TRIO AWARDED TO CAPTAIN D.B. McINTOSH, LIVERPOOL REGIMENT AND HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY, AMERICAN CITIZEN AND MEMBER OF AN ITINERANT SCOTTISH FAMILY, WHOSE GRANDMOTHER WAS BORN IN NEW ZEALAND IN 1849, AND WHOSE GRANDPARENTS SUBSEQUENTLY LIVED IN INDIA PRIOR TO RETURNING TO SCOTLAND IN 1881. THEIR SON, PETER HOLMES McINTOSH, CAPTAIN McINTOSH’S FATHER, SUBSEQUENTLY EMIGRATED TO THE USA IN 1891, WHERE HE BECAME A PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, EVENTUALLY RETURNING TO SCOTLAND WITH HIS FAMILY ON THE EVE OF THE OUTBREAK OF WW1, IN 1913. CAPTAIN McINTOSH WAS RECALLED TO ACTIVE SERVICE IN 1921, AS PART OF THE “NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE” DURING THE MINERS’ STRIKE OF THAT YEAR. Four: Military Cross, George V (unnamed, as issued) 1914-15 Star (an unnamed specimen, presumably a replacement for the lost original medal) British War and Victory Medals, mentioned in dispatches oakleaf on Victory Medal (Captain D.B. McIntosh). Military Cross and BWM attractively toned, generally Extremely Fine and virtually as struck.

Note: The 1914-15 Star in this group is an unnamed specimen, not a name-erased example.

Group accompanied by 12 pages of copied documents from Captain McIntosh’s Officer’s Service Papers File, copied Medal Index card, copied extracts from the Regimental History and from the war diary of the 1/5th Battalion King’s Liverpool Regiment for the period 21st – 30th September 1916, along with various copied research re. the McIntosh family.

The son of the Reverend Peter Holmes McIntosh (1869-1940), Douglas Bentley McIntosh was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA, and educated at Worcester High School, Worcester, Massachusets. The McIntosh family, father, mother, Douglas Bentley and his two brothers and two sisters,emigrated to Scotland from Boston in 1913, being recorded as arriving at Glasgow aboard the Allan Line’s SS Parisien on 8/6/1913. McIntosh enlisted into the 7th Battalion King’s Liverpool Regiment at Southport just over 4 weeks after the declaration of war on 6/9/1914. At the time of enlistment he was 19 years of age and gave his trade as electrical engineer. On enlistment McIntosh was posted for service with the 7th Battalion Liverpool Regiment, with the rank of Private and regimental number 2510. McIntosh was discharged from the 7th Liverpools on 21/2/1915 “in consequence of having been appointed to a commission in 1/5 Bn The King’s (Liverpool) Regiment.” At the time of his being commissioned, McIntosh gave his then home address as 19 Barrett Road, Birkdale, Lancashire. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 6/3/1915 and promoted Temporary Lieutenant, 1/5/1916, Lieutenant, 1/6/1916 and Acting Captain, 20/7/1917.

McIntosh saw active service exclusively during WW1 in France and Flanders, entering that theater of operations on 17/6/1915 (the 1/5th Liverpools were already in France by this date, having landed at Havre as a unit on 22/2/1915). The Regimental History records the then 2nd Lieutenant McIntosh as having been “for a while put out out of action by shell shock” on the night of 25th – 26th September 1916 during the Battle of Morval (capture of Combles, Les Boeufs and Gueudecourt), the battalion war diary additionally noting that, although McIntosh was sent to the dressing station suffering from shell shock on 26/9/1916, he was “sufficiently recovered to return almost immediately to duty”. Captain McIntosh resigned his commission, being granted the honourary rank of Captain, on 19/10/1920.

McIntosh was mentioned in dispatches in Sir Douglan Haig’s dispatch of 9/4/1917 (London Gazette 22/5/1917, page 5027) for “distinguished and gallant services and devotion to duty”, and his Military Cross was announced in the London Gazette of 1/1/1919 (New Year’s Honours List), page 30, “For valuable services rendered in connection with the war”.

McIntosh was recalled to active service on 13/4/1921 during the National Emergency occasioned by the miners’ strike of 1921, and appointed Lieutenant, 5th Battalion Highland Light Infantry. The coal mines had been nationalised during WW1. The wartime government increased the wages of miners during the war in order to promote good labour relations and encourage increased productivity. In the immediate post-war years there was a crisis in the coal industry, coal prices dropping dramatically when the British market was flooded with cheap imported coal from Germany, Poland and the USA, the latter three countries dramatically increasing their production in the post-war years. The government of the day continued to maintain high rates of pay despite the domestic industry becoming increasingly financially untenable, effectively passing the buck to the mine owners when the mines were returned to the owners on 31/3/1921. When the owners attempted to impose wage cuts to save their industry from bankruptcy, the miners refused to accept them and were, as a result, locked out of employment. In order to protect the mines and the large stockpiles of coal at the pit heads, the government mobilised the Army Reserve (Territorial Army) and recalled former officers back to active service as part of a “National Defence Force” for the collieries. The miner’s strike eventually collapsed when the miners failed to obtain the backing of other unions, and McIntosh was eventually stood down on 2/7/1921.

Ironically, many of the reservists called up to guard the mines were actually miners who had been locked out of employment, who were thus guarding the mines against their fellow workers (and effectively against themselves).

At the time of enlistment McIntosh gave his next of kin as Peter Holmes McIntosh, 19 Barratt Road, Southport. Captain McIntosh’s father was born 11/11/1869 in Nelson, New Zealand. Reverend McIntosh died 14/11/1940 and is commemorated on the McIntosh family memorial in the Glasgow Necropolis.

Captain McIntosh was the son of the Reverend Peter Holmes McIntosh (1869-1940). Born in Nelson, New Zealand, Peter Holmes McIntosh was the son of John McIntosh (1838-1888) and Euphemia Watt Bentley (1849-1936). Both John McIntosh, a leather merchant, and his wife Euphenia were among the earliest European settlers in New Zealand, Euphenia being born in New Zealand in 1849, just nine years after the signing of the 1840 treaty of Waitangi, which opened New Zealand up to settlement. Their first son, Peter Holmes McIntosh, was born nine months later, on 11/11/1869. The couple subsequently left New Zealand and set up business in Calcutta, India, where their sons Alexander and James were born in 1872 and 1875 respectively, and their daughter Effie in 1877. By 1881 John McIntosh, his wife and their family were back in Scotland, living at 1 Viewfield Terrace, Ann Street, Govan, Glasgow, with their two servants. Peter Holmes McIntosh emigrated to America in 1891. There he was employed as an insurance agent, became a Presbyterian minister, and eventually settled in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he married Mary Cameron McIntyre in 1892, and where their eldest son Douglas Bentley (Captain McIntosh) was born in 1895. The McIntosh family returned to Scotland in June 1913.

In the post-war years Douglas Bentley McIntosh was employed as a manufacturer’s representative and salesman. He is recorded as being a transatlantic passenger on a number of occasions, traveling from Glasgow to New York aboard the Anchor Line’s SS Transylvania (arriving New York 9/10/1927), again traveling from Glasgow to New York aboard the Anchor Line’s SS Transylvania (arriving New York 20/1/1929), traveling from Southampton to New York aboard the SS Aquitania (arriving New York 26/2/1929), traveling from Southampton to New York aboard the Holland America Line’s SS New Amsterdam (arriving New York 9/7/1954), and traveling from Southampton to New York (departing Southampton 28/8/1954) aboard the Holland America Line’s SS Nieuw Amsterdam. Captain McIntosh’s address at the time of his two final transatlantic voyages is given as 12 Lancaster Road, Wimbledon, London SW19.