John Burns MacBrayne

1914 Commissioned Lieutenant on 10th September. Appointed to ’A’
Company on the formation of the 17th HLI (Glasgow Chamber of
commerce Battalion) in September. ‘A’ Company was, in the main,
recruited from students at the Technical College (now the University of
Strathclyde) although there is no evidence that MacBrayne was a
student there.
The 17th HLI trained for a year before crossing to France in November
1915. During this period they spent time at Gailes and Troon,
Ayrshire, Prees Heath, Shropshire, Wensleydale, North Yorkshire,
Totley Rifle Ranges, Derbyshire and finally Codford St Mary on
Salisbury Plain.
Finally on 22nd November 1915 the battalion, part of 32nd Division,
sailed from Southampton for Le Havre and proceeded to the Amiens
area. At some point MacBrayne was appointed Reserve Machine Gun
Officer. The Battalion War Diary records that on 11th February 1916
when the Battalion was relieving the 11th Borders Regiment in the
trenches he was slightly wounded on the head by shrapnel. Much of
the following months were spent gaining experience of trench warfare
and from May 1916 the Battalion was engaged in preparations for the
Battle of the Somme which started on 1st July.