Seeking contact with 5th HLI Veterans

Hello there,

I am seeking any veterans of the 5th Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry that knew my grandfather in the Second World War.

He was Lieutenant John Lawrence Stuart Watson and he was Killed In Action at Walrechen on the 29th November 1944.

He is buried in Bergen-op-Zoom Cemetery. Prior to joining the HLI, he was with the 7th/9th Royal Scots in France.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. His photo is below.

Ed Hutchings.

 

Hello there,

I am seeking any veterans of the 5th Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry that knew my grandfather in the Second World War.

He was Lieutenant John Lawrence Stuart Watson and he was Killed In Action at Walrechen on the 29th November 1944.

He is buried in Bergen-op-Zoom Cemetery. Prior to joining the HLI, he was with the 7th/9th Royal Scots in France.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. His photo is below.

Ed Hutchings.

 

Welcome to the forum Ed. Have you applied for his military record? Here's the link if you haven't. Costs £30 to obtain from Glasgow and can take up to a year to receive it (but well worth the wait).

https://www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records

I've had a look at the Scotlandspeople website and I don't see a Will filed there.

Hopefully the link below will take others to his CWGC entry for further research/help.
http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2034473/WATSON,%20JOHN%20LAWRENCE%20STUART

Try this link as well for the HLI Association http://www.highlandlightinfantry.org.uk/

Was John born in Scotland? There could be entries at some of the newspaper archives as well.

All the best - Maria
P.S. Look at some of Stolpi's threads on here regarding the Netherlands. The book Mountain & Flood is also a great read.

 

Duplicate post
See here
http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/54463-seeking-contact-with-5th-hli-veterans/

 

I wonder if forum member Joe Brown will know him - He was an officer with the 7/9 Battalion Royal Scots during WW2.

His death should be documented in the battalions war diary - all officers are fairly well documented compared to ORs in war diaries. This is the diary ref:

WO 171/1310 5 Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) 1944 Jan-Apr, June-Dec

If you want someone to copy it for you give me a shout or click the red link below - Happy to throw in a free copy of the 7/9 Royal Scots war diary for free.

Cheers
Andy

 

Drew5233.

Alas, Lieut. John Watson was before my time. However, he was with the 7th/9th (Highlanders) The Royal Scots when they were part of the BEF and went with the Battalion to Cherbourg, deployed but quickly received the order to 'return to the UK for the final defence of the Realm'.

I was not commissioned until early 1943 and joined the 7th/9th Royal Scots later that year. The only other surviving officer of the War-time Battalion also joined the Battalion at about the same time as myself.

This brave young officer John Watson is buried at Bergen-Op-Zoom where 22 fellow Royal Scots lie in honoured graves.

Joe Brown.