Sir Iain's Memorial Stained Glass

at Luss Chapel.

Sir Iain at The Somme

The Imperial War Museum in London holds Sir Iain's war diary from World War I. Many stories about Sir Iain during WWI are usually situated during his time at Ypres. He was also at the Somme.

Malcolm Brown had access to Sir Iain's diary. Add to this his knowledge of the events happening around the Scots Guards' position and Mr. Brown creates a fascinating description of what our past Chief went through during wartime. Sir Iain's first impression of a tank was that it was a "Land Creeper".

















Another segment of Sir Iain's diary was used here:



I have Sir Iain's diary, or part of it, on microfilm, written in his own hand. It's very hard to read. It has some photographs inserted in the diary which I think have never been made public. Most appear to be brother soldiers and scenes Sir Iain encountered during the war. One is obviously of himself but not labeled. I'd like to see these made available one day as we approach the 100th anniversary of of the world changing events the our Chief lived through.

Sir Iain Mentioned In WWI Christmas Truce Book

It was our first internet newsletter in 2001 when we spotted this book printed the same year that had at least one error published in it.

As far as we know the highest rank Sir Iain attained was Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserve Of Officers in 1920 in the Scots Guards.

Sir Iain on the left attending a World War II funeral in Glasgow:

Unpublished Photo Of Sir Iain

This past year unpublished Life magazine photos (seen here) were released on the internet for educational purposes. A set of these includes a photo of "Sir Iain Colquhoun (L) attending the celebration of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Bicentenary for which he made the arrangements."

Sir Iain is escorting Sir Donald Cameron who made the opening speech at the celebration.

The "date taken" for these pictures on the Google website is "September 1945". Sir Iain was also photographed at the 1939 anniversary which was published in 1940 (Vol. 8 No. 23):

Copies of this issue can still be found on e bay from time to time.

Sir Iain's biography was also added to The University Of Glasgow Story last year.

Here's another picture of Sir Iain that hasn't been posted here yet. It's from the Clydebank Central Library under "Burials at Dalnottar". "Burial of unidentified victims of the Clydebank Blitz at the communal grave at Dalnottar cemetery, 1941.
On Monday 17 March 1941, the first of the unclaimed (and therefore unidentified) victims of the Clydebank Blitz were laid to rest in a large communal grave in Dalnottar Cemetery, in the presence of... Sir Iain Colquhoun, the Lord Lieutenant of Dunbartonshire..."

Sir Iain is on the left in a khaki jacket and checkered cap in front of the wreath.

Sir Iain Colquhoun in Life magazine June 3, 1940

Once again, thanks to Ida Calhoun Scott of Austin, TX for first bringing my attention to this photo. This issue of Life was a "special", I think anticipating the involvement of the US in the World War brewing at the time. Sir Iain's photo is on page 77 of Volume 8 Number 23. You can still find copies occasionally on auction sites like e bay.

Alice Calhoun: Silent Screen Star

Last September at the Charleston Scottish Festival we had the pleasure of meeting Sue Gilbert who is writing a book on her relative, Alice Calhoun. This is a brochure Sue produced to pass out at events like the Scottish Festival.





The Alice Calhoun website is here.

Alice made movies during my favorite time period in history. For some reason I became enamored with The Roaring Twenties when I was a preteen, then enjoyed learning more about the time periods before (like WWI) and after the '20's (finding out what happened to the people who lived in this era). This may explain why I initially became so interested in Sir Iain Colquhoun.
I fixed up a way to watch an Alice Calhoun movie at the clan tent. I use a portable DVD player connected to a marine battery with aligator clips and an auto cigarette lighter connection available at Radio Shack.
The deep cycle marine battery will last all weekend. I also have a DVD of the Colquhoun history sold at Friends of Loch Lomond.
I found an original photo signed by Alice on e bay.
The silent movie and the FofLL history were on VHS tapes, so I did have to copy them onto a DVD disc using a recorder. Something else I have on DVD are two silent newsreels



of Sir Iain downloaded from British Pathe and transferred to a disc. These newsreels were almost surely originally produced with a narration.
I also keep on hand some general histories of Scotland recorded off The History Channel, but these usually don't get played too much. The tent pictures were taken just this past weekend at the Savannah Scottish Games.

Sir Iain Colquhouns World War I Regiment

Sir Iain was chief of the Colquhouns from 1910 until 1948. Also in 1910 he was commissioned into the Scots Guards. He served in The Great War (WWI) in this regiment. This postcard from the Imperial War Museum shows what the uniforms looked like during WWI:
Cigarette cards for the Scots Guards: