A Minute's Peace tells wartime story
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A NEW book now available on Amazon tells the story of a Staxigoe man during World War I.
Richard C Patrick, who lives in Bridge of Earn, followed the footsteps of his grandfather, John Gray Donn, through his enlistment, training, service in France during the conflict and eventual capture by the Germans.
Mr Patrick said: "My grandfather said virtually nothing to anyone about his WWI service other than that he was wounded, taken prisoner and worked in a salt mine.
"He was not able to stand the sight of salt to the day he died. It was always hidden right at the back of the cupboard and if you wanted any you had to make sure to put it back."
The author had problems researching the book, though, as his grandfather's army records were lost in a fire during the World War II bombing of the records office at Kew Gardens.
"However, I found his Red Cross record giving name, regiment and service number.
"From this I was then able to find the service records of 22 men that he had served alongside."
Despite arriving in France so late in the war – on January 6, 1918 – 10 of the 22 men were killed.
"I was able to follow my grandfather’s footsteps through his enlistment at Blackridge; training in Kinghorn; coastal defence service in Norwich; journey to France via Folkstone; and on to Etaples and Heudicourt."
The journey then continued after Donn was captured and follows him through two POW camps at Altengrabow and Quedlinburg.
"He then returned home through the Danish Scheme via Copenhagen where he was given a steak dinner by the women of the Danish Red Cross on Christmas Eve before shipping home to Leith on the Plassy a few days later."
Mr Patrick went to France and was able to walk through the doorway of a farm that he knew his grandfather had stayed in and across the very field in which he was wounded.
As part of his research the author phoned the Groat and Courier office last year and spoke to intern Georgia Clyne.
He was searching for an article in the John O’Groat Journal published on August 7, 1914.
"It was written by the 'XYZ Correspondent’ and he, or she, described in it the tearful departure of 300 naval reservists by train the day before war broke out. This event was also captured in a photograph which shows a huge crowd on the platform.
"The XYZ Correspondent was apparently a bearer of bad news who had predicted the herring industry would collapse when the prospect of war was no more than a ‘tiny cloud’ on the horizon.
"The prediction was to come true within a week of the start of the war when the Germans bombed the Russian port importing the herring – the other main market was Germany."
The article was not available in the British Newspaper Archive so Mr Patrick called the Groat office for help.
"I spoke to Georgia who had just started the day before. She did not know the answer but said she would find out.
"Eleven minutes later I received an email from her with a copy of the article in a series of pictures taken on her mobile phone."
John Gray Donn was born in Glasgow to parents who had married in Govan after both travelling from Wick to work in the shipyards and in domestic service.
His father then took him to live in Staxigoe, along with his two sisters, after his mother, Christina Ann Donn (née MacDonald), died when he was just three years old.
A Minute’s Peace is available to purchase on Amazon at this link www.amazon.co.uk/Minutes-Peace-Finding-WWI-Grandfather/dp/B0851LZM6L
