Colin Campbell McKechnie was my maternal grandfather. He was the son of Lachlan (a shepherd) and Mary (nee Campbell). His parents hailed respectively from Mull and Skye. Colin lived in Aberfeldy where he married my gandmother Martha (nee Birkin from Burton-on-Trent) in 1914. They had met in 1912 while she was working as a lady's maid to a family attending a shooting party on his employer's estate. He had worked as a ploughman, a postman and a chauffeur before joining the army. Because of his experience as a chauffeur, he was almost immediately sent to France on joining up and served in France from December 1914 as a driver in the RASC. He was one of five brothers who all served in the war. His brother Lachlan was killed in Gallipoli in 1915. Colin attained the rank of Sergeant. He died on November 1st 1918 from influenza which he contracted while vsiting his severely wounded brother, John, at a field hospital. His brother survived his wounds and lived on for over fifty years. Colin and Lachlan are commemorated on the war memorials in both Aberfeldy and Pitlochry.

David Rose